Recently I’ve been thinking birthdays for those who live in small households who will be having very small celebrations. Normally, come birthdays I’ll suggest a giant sheet cake or an impressive layer cake but I think a 3 or less person household would prefer to just make one small, impressive and very enjoyable cake that marks the moment without being too much work or overly wasteful. Sometimes I make this cake in a square pan but then I recently saw this cake on FNK and this one by mollyyeh and thought shape-wise we could get fancy with it.

A Small Birthday Cake for 2-4 People

This is a miniature version of the vanilla cake you’ve seen before on this blog. It’s my favorite vanilla cake, and I am a chocolate lover so that’s saying something. It’s tender and fluffy (see top pic!) and exactly what birthday cakes should taste like. I bake it in a square pan and serve or if I want to layer it I use a biscuit cutter to punch out four small circles. You’ll have the most adorable little cake circles which you can stack atop each other. Each slice will be towering and you get a lovely layer cake that fittingly marks the moment.

Why you’ll love this recipe

Flavor: This is birthday flavored; ie, with sprinkles, imitation vanilla and cake flour. I like to add mini chocolate chips too! You could use pure vanilla, skip the sprinkles and have a simple but lovely vanilla cake. Or add lemon or orange zest for a little flavor to the cake instead (add the zest with the butter and sugar, if using).

Feelin’ Fancy: instead of the vanilla buttercream I have here, I think this white chocolate buttercream would be absolutely divine. Just use plain white instead of caramelized.

Don’t skip: organic powdered sugar for the buttercream, made with tapioca not cornstarch. Tapioca melts at a lower temperature (on your tongue!) and the resulting buttercream is less sweet & more enjoyable to eat.

Shape: I baked this in an 8×8″ square pan, I think this size is the most common pan people own, but if you don’t have it, you could bake it in an 8″ round. In that case I would suggest cutting the cake into four quarters and stacking them to make one huge slice.

Recipe Ingredients

Butter: unsalted and softened to room temperature.

Oil: anything flavorless like canola, avocado or grape seed.

Vanillas: we’ll use a mix of pure vanilla extract and imitation vanilla; the later bringing in the signature ‘birthday cake’ flavor.

Salt: fine sea salt. If using table salt, halve the amount.

Cake flour: has a finer mill and yields a softer, more tender texture to the cake. In a pinch, it can be replaced with all purpose, just remove a tablespoon of it and replace with cornstarch.

Egg whites: from two whole eggs. Keeping the yolks in will sacrifice that ‘white’ background we want for the sprinkles to be bright.

Buttermilk: or kefir or thinned out yogurt. Any fat percentage.

Powdered sugar: for buttercreams I prefer a powdered sugar made with tapioca starch which does not need to be heated to melt, and leaves no chalky taste.

How to make a small birthday cake

Start by preheating the oven and greasing and flouring an 8×8 inch square metal pan.

Set the butter, sugar, vanillas, salt, baking soda and powder, and oil in a bowl and beat for 3-5 minutes, until light and airy:

Add the egg whites, one at a time, beating between each addition. This beats air and emulsifies the egg into the butter and sugar mixture:

Add half the flour, then start beating and slowly pour in the buttermilk, then the remaining flour:

Fold in the sprinkles

Pour into prepared pan and level the batter; I like to make it a little more shallow in the center so I get less of a dome that I’ll need to shave off for even layers later:

Bake until a cake tester comes out clean. Level the cake with a cake slicer

Then use a ring mold to punch out four small circles (a 3.5 inch ring works best):

Alternating cake and buttercream, stack the cake layers. Use a dowel inserted into the middle to hold in in place (my layers were not very even as you can see by the leaning tower ;p)

Frost the cake, and serve!

Notes on making a birthday cake for just one

• Special equipment: a large biscuit/cookie cutter. This 3.5″ cutter will give you exactly 4 small circles from an 8×8 pan. Alternatively use the diy way: cut a 3.5″ circle from cardboard, place it over the cake and use it to guide the knife around and slice circles.
• You can make the buttercream a day ahead, store the buttercream at room temperature in an airtight container.
• Cake can also be made ahead of time; store the cake in an airtight container in the freezer.
• You’ll have two leftover egg yolks: one to make 6 chocolate chunk cookies and one to make 8 birthday cake cookies!

Recipe for Small Birthday Cake

Small Birthday Cake

Easy, one bowl small birthday cake made with sprinkles and birthday flavors.

Prep Time: 30 minutes mins

Cook Time: 30 minutes mins

Yields: 4 tall, thin slices

5 from 6 votes

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Ingredients

Buttercream

• 113g or ½ cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 2 teaspoons imitation vanilla or pure vanilla extract or a combination
• 200g or 1 ½ cups organic powdered sugar
• 1-2 tablespoons buttermilk milk, heavy cream, or sour cream

Cake

• 55g or ¼ cup unsalted butter
• 1 ½ tablespoons flavorless oil like canola or refined coconut
• 100g or ½ cup granulated sugar
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons imitation vanilla
• ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 2 large egg whites
• 130g or 1 cup cake flour
• 120g or ½ cup buttermilk
• 4 tablespoons sprinkles
• 3 tablespoons mini chocolate chips optional

Method

• Make the buttercream: in a small bowl, use a hand mixer to beat the butter with the salt and vanilla until light and fluffy, at least 3 minutes. Add the powdered sugar and beat to combine. Add 1 TB of the milk and if it doesn’t smooth out, add another TB. Set the buttercream in an airtight container until cake is ready to be assembled.
• Preheat oven to 325 and butter and flour an 8×8″ square pan.
• In a bowl, beat the butter, oil, salt and vanilla with the sugar until very light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes.
• Add the egg whites one by one, allowing the first to fully incorporate before the second. Beat until very fluffy.
• Add the cake flour, baking soda and powder and buttermilk all at once and beat to combine.
• Fold in the sprinkles and chocolate chips, if using.
• Pour into cake pan and bake for 30-35 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean from the center.
• When the cake is completely cool, use a ring to punch out four circles (this is easier to do if the cake has been frozen for a bit). You now have four tiny cake layers. Level them with a cake leveler or knife so they are the same height.
• Stack the cake layers with buttercream. Between each layer you’ll want 1-2 tablespoons buttercream. Frost the sides and top.

Notes

If you don't have or don't want to use coconut oil and don't mind a yellowish tint to the cake, skip the coconut oil and use full eggs (including the yolks) for this recipe. 

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