Star-Studded First Birthday Smash Cake

Do you know a special little girl celebrating her first birthday? Let her have fun eating (and smashing) some cake with this Star-Studded First Birthday Smash Cake. Decorated with a candy cake topper and gold candy stars, this cake is small enough for one mighty birthday girl. Don't forget to have the camera ready for this one!

Skill LevelIntermediate

Ingredients & Tools
Instructions

Instructions

Script One and Stars Pattern

Click to mark complete

One day in advance, make cake topper. Print ONE pattern and star pattern. Set star pattern aside for later step. Place ONE pattern on cake board, then cover with waxed paper (use tape to secure pattern and waxed paper in place).
Melt White Candy Melts candy according to package directions. Prepare decorating bag with melted candy. Cut small hole in tip of bag.
Following pattern, pipe candy on waxed paper, piping O first, then topping with gold pearlized sugar. Repeat with two remaining letters, making sure letters connect to form one piece. Chill until set, about 5 to 10 minutes. Reserve remaining melted candy.
Remove topper from waxed paper; carefully flip over. Using reserved melted candy, reinforce topper as needed, particularly where letters meet. If desired, use craft knife to trim topper as needed.
Using melted candy, attach two lollipop sticks on each downstroke of “n” letter. Chill until set, about 5 minutes. Reserve all remaining candy for later step.
Also one day in advance, make candy stars. Place star pattern on cake board, then cover with waxed paper (use tape to secure pattern and waxed paper in place).
Melt White Candy Melts candy according to package directions. Prepare decorating bag with melted candy. Cut small hole in tip of bag.
Pipe stars, 30 small, 6 medium and 6 large (if desired, pipe a few extras of each size in case stars break). Chill until set, about 5 to 10 minutes.
Spray stars with gold Color Mist. Let dry, about 10 minutes. Flip stars over; spray backside. Let dry, about 10 minutes. Repeat, for a total of two coats.
Bake cake. Prepare cake batter following recipe instructions. Bake and cool two cake layers.
Tint icing. Tint ¼ cup icing each light, medium, medium-dark and dark burgundy using color combination provided. Combine Burgundy and Black icing colors to get light, medium, medium-dark and dark burgundy icing colors shown. Reserve remaining icing white.
Ice cake. Level, fill and stack cake layers using white icing. Also using white icing, ice cake smooth. Using spatula, add four shades of burgundy icing randomly around cake. Using icing smoother, smooth icing.
Reserve remaining white icing for later step.
Pipe bottom border. Prepare decorating bag with frozen whipped topping. Cut large hole in tip, about 1½ in. from tip of bag. Pipe clouds along base of cake, increasing and decreasing pressure to form clouds of various sizes.
Pipe top border. Prepare decorating bag with tip 18 and reserved white icing. Pipe small swirls around top edge of cake.
Decorate cake. Place small candy stars in swirls on top of cake. Arrange medium, large and any remaining small stars on clouds around base of cake.