Looking for a small birthday cake recipe? This is a simple 3 layer cake that is perfect for a small family. Each bite has moist vanilla cake, covered with sweet vanilla buttercream frosting and rainbow sprinkles. This is my go to birthday cake for our family of 5. Serves 8 people.
Small Birthday Cake Recipe
Sometimes you just want a small birthday cake and that’s what this recipe is – a lovely birthday cake with enough servings for 6-8 people. Made with moist vanilla cake, sweet buttercream frosting and lots of sprinkles, it’s everything a birthday cake should be – but in mini size!
We are a family of 5 and we always have a low key birthday celebration at home. Sure, the kids sometimes have their playground or play place birthday parties with their friends, but no matter what, we always have a family only birthday party at home too. Part of that celebration is always me making them a special birthday cake!
Update: We’re still using this recipe and this year I used it to make a dinosaur birthday cake!
Love sprinkle recipes? Me too. Also try my Sprinkle Birthday Cake Muffins, Sprinkle Sugar Cookie Bites, Homemade Granola Bars with Cake Batter, Confetti Cake Batter Brownies and Milk Bar Birthday Cake.
6 Inch Birthday Cake Supplies
Besides basic cake ingredients, there’s 2 important things you need for this cake, pans and sprinkles!
6 Inch Cake Pans: You’ll need (3) 6 inch pans to make a small birthday cake. I got this 5 pan set on Amazon for $10, but you’ll only need 3 of the pans for this recipe. Trust me, this set is worth it and you will come back to it often!
Sprinkles: Sprinkles are optional, but come on, it’s a birthday cake. I recently started using Supernatural Rainbow Sprinkles which is now my favorite sprinkles to use! They’re very bright in color, don’t melt in batter and colors are made naturally from veggies and spices. Plus they’re really really cute!
Bonus: Food Coloring: Even though the cake is vanilla, I am always looking for ways to make things more colorful so I like adding a couple drops of food dye to the cake batter to color it. For this cake, I added a couple drops of purple food coloring to it. This is completely optional but wanted to call it out.
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
The vanilla buttercream frosting recipe is incredibly decadent, fluffy, and everything that a birthday cake deserves. It’s my favorite vanilla frosting recipe and I use it for many of my cake and cupcake recipes.
I recommend making this frosting right before you’re ready to frost the cakes and not letting it sit or it’ll stiffen up.
Storing Leftover Birthday Cake
You can store leftover birthday cake on the counter at room temperature if you are going to eat it within 2-3 days. Make sure to cover it with plastic wrap or just put a large bowl on top of it.
For longer term storage, you can freeze cake for 2-3 months. Wrap slices in plastic wrap, place in freezer bag and freeze.
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Small Birthday Cake (Family of 5)
PrintIngredients
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup butter softened
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 egg white
- purple food coloring optional
Frosting:
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 4 cups powdered confectioners sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons milk
- Sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray (3) 6 inch pans with nonstick spray and set them aside.
- In a large mixing bowl add flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix with a spoon to combine.
- In a small bowl mix milk and vanilla together.
- In a medium bowl mix softened (not melted) butter, vegetable oil, sugar, egg and egg white with hand mixer until mixture is fluffy and combined.
- Add small and medium bowls into large mixing bowl with the flour, mixing until smooth and no longer clumpy.
- Optional: If you want the cake to be colored inside, add a couple drops of food coloring into the batter and mix to combine until smooth.
- Pour batter into the 3 pans. With a spatula, gently smooth out the top.
- Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before removing from pans and frosting.
- Once cakes are removed from pans, take a look at the top of each one. If they are not level, carefully trim rounded tops off cakes to level. This will make layering the cakes easier and look more clean. I do this with a sharp bread knife.
- Spread frosting on the top of each cake, completely covering it. Stack the cakes on top of each other. Spread frosting on the sides of the cake. Add rainbow sprinkles all over the top and sides of the cake. Serve and enjoy!
For the frosting:
- In a large bowl mix butter with hand mixer until fluffy. Add in confectioners sugar, continuing to mix until it’s combined and creamy. Add vanilla and mix.
- Add in milk and continue to beat for 2 minutes until fluffy. If frosting seems stiff, add additional tablespoon of milk until it’s a consistency you can spread.
Ashley says
Hi can you use this recipe to make cupcakes?