First Birthdays · Cake Trends · Strong Feelings
Cake Smashing: Cute Milestone Or Cake Crime?
In today’s edition of “Things That Make No Sense”, people are buying cakes specifically to obliterate them for the gram. Because nothing says “happy first birthday” quite like wasting a perfectly good cake while a baby looks mildly confused under a cloud of buttercream.
For real, it is a thing. It is called a cake smash. And if you are anything like me, the thought of a celebration cake being smashed, smooshed, squished and generally sacrificed for content is pretty horrifying.
Nobody wants to own up to inventing this mess, probably because they know deep down it is ridiculous. But somehow, over the last decade, cake smashing for baby birthdays has become a first birthday photoshoot trend in the US, and it is gaining ground here in the UK too.
A smash cake is a small cake made for a baby, usually on their first birthday, to prod, grab, smear and destroy during a photoshoot. It can make cute pictures, yes. It can also be wasteful, sticky, stressful and a tiny bit absurd.
What Is A Smash Cake?
A smash cake is a cake made and bought specifically so a one-year-old can wreak havoc on it. The idea is simple: put the cake in front of the baby, wait for them to plunge their tiny hands into the frosting, then photograph the glorious chaos.
The result is meant to be delightfully cute: baby with frosting on cheeks, sponge in fists, parents squealing nearby, everyone pretending this is completely normal human behaviour.
And look, I do understand the logic. Babies are adorable. Cake is adorable. Messy babies with cake are, allegedly, Instagram gold. But there is something deeply unhinged about baking a cake with the sole intention of destroying it.
Professional photographers now offer cake smash packages to capture a baby’s first big encounter with refined sugar. Forget first steps. Forget first words. Apparently, the real milestone is watching your child go feral on a sponge.
Cake Is For Eating, Not Pulverising
Cake is for eating. Not for pulverising. Not for content. Not for creating a buttercream crime scene that needs its own clean-up package.
Baby not into cake? Just bring cake to baby. Pic via themommyproject.com
There is no denying that cute babies and cute cakes can make a very sweet photo. I am not immune. I have eyes. I have a heart. I also have a fairly intense emotional attachment to cake being eaten rather than obliterated.
The oddest part is that lots of babies are not even that into it. Some stare suspiciously. Some cry. Some pat the frosting once and immediately regret every life choice that led them there. And then the adults start encouraging the smash because the photo needs to happen.
I am not entirely sure when engineering Pinterest-worthy scenes of a child destroying dessert became a normal part of turning one, but here we are.
Maybe, just maybe, a cupcake could do the job. Mash one cupcake. Take the picture. Keep the other eleven intact for actual humans to eat. Radical, I know.
The Better First Birthday Cake Idea
Instead of buying a cake purely for destruction, choose a cake that both baby and guests can enjoy. You can still give your little one a slice, let them get messy, take the adorable photos and then, crucially, serve the rest of the cake to people who want to eat it.
Number birthday cake by Anges de Sucre
For a first birthday, our number one birthday cake makes much more sense. It still feels playful, colourful and properly celebratory, but it is not designed to be a disposable prop.
Our vanilla sponge is sandwiched and frosted with smooth, silky vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream, glazed with Belgian chocolate drip and decorated with a pastel buttercream piped mosaic. Swirly, whirly, florally and far too nice to be launched into the carpet.
Put a slice of this in front of your baby and I am fairly confident you will get the same cute messy cake pictures, without sacrificing an entire cake to the social media gods.
Give the baby a slice, not the whole cake. You still get the frosting face, the sticky fingers and the adorable photos, while everyone else gets to enjoy the birthday cake like civilisation intended.
So, Is Cake Smashing The Dumbest Cake Trend Ever?
I will be generous and say this: the pictures can be cute. First birthdays are emotional. Parents want a memory. Babies covered in icing are objectively funny.
But as a cake person, I cannot fully get behind a trend built around destroying something beautifully baked and frosted. Ingredients, time, skill and deliciousness all went into that cake. Watching it get flattened for content feels, frankly, like a tiny tragedy in buttercream form.
So yes, I understand the cake smash. I simply do not support full cake annihilation when a slice would do the job perfectly well.
If your little one’s first birthday must involve cake, as it should, choose something worth eating. Smashing is for piñatas, not dessert.
Browse our number cakes and birthday cakes for first birthday celebrations that still give you the gorgeous photos, without wasting the cake.
Love,
Reshmi xoxo
I really thought the whole world did smash cakes for 1st birthdays since the beginning of time. It makes perfect sense in my head because nobody wants to eat from a cake that a baby has touched with their hands, mouths, etc. Giving them a piece of a store bought cake is wasting money as far as I’m concerned. I would never allow a 1 year old to waste money. There are free smash cake places where it is included with the purchase of a larger cake so essentially they are wasting it but it is not costing a dime for them to waste it.
I really thought the whole world did smash cakes for 1st birthdays since the beginning of time. It makes perfect sense in my head because nobody wants to eat from a cake that a baby has touched with their hands, mouths, etc. Giving them a piece of a store bought cake is wasting money as far as I’m concerned. I would never allow a 1 year old to waste money. There are free smash cake places where it is included with the purchase of a larger cake so essentially they are wasting it but it is not costing a dime for them to waste it.
Yes it’s stupid. When you can just cut a big piece of their cake and let them mess in it. Why pay someone the prices they’re charging for this little trend. STUPID.
The biggest thing is “method”. I can understand giving a baby a cake on their birthday and “watch what happens” and “OMG I caught a candid photo how adorable” but it’s now gotten to a point where parents are booking studio photo sessions for the purpose of having their baby get messy with a cake. That to me screams “do it for the gram” and I’m not on board with staging a cake smash.
I’m looking at all of these comments and oh my gods in heaven the amount of negativity is shocking it’s a one year olds birthday and everybody’s talking about how much of a waste of a “good cake” it’s one cake, just one frigging cake, not a ten tier wedding cake and the babies are having the time of there life enjoying the new taste feeling the different textures from the butter cream and the sponginess on his or her fingers. Young Children learn by touching exploring food like this. They learn to feed themselves like this. And yes it can be very messy. But it baby’s first birthday and that’s how their family have decided to do his or her cake. But it’s far from disgusting. Nothing that a few wet wipes can not cure. If you are wicked enough to feel this way about an infant a one year old then you should be sterilised and stay away from children because that is an awful thing to say about somebody’s child you should be damn right ashamed of you’re selves!!! Yes people throw parties for their one year old it’s a celebration you damn right it is. And they have asked there nearest and dearest to come and celebrate there child’s first birthday it’s a milestone and also too celebrate the parents first anniversary of being parents and doing a great job as far as I’m concerned. I seriously can’t believe the amount of people who say cake smash is disgusting honestly if parents wish to do this because it’s somthing they have done for there children then let them do this without all the BS negativity. Mind your business
Does the baby ever actually eat this entire little cake? No, it’s more likely that the majority of the smash cake ends up in the trash. Which is why this trend is wasteful, overindulgent (of the parents, not the sweet baby) and just plain gross. What’s wrong with giving the baby a piece of the main cake to smash up and enjoy? That’s what we did and it was enough. Sheesh!
You definitely sound like a joy to be around. Boo hoo people’s kids are smashing cake. Who cares. Uptight as can be. I would never buy a cake from someone so ignorant.
I agree! My family NEVER did this. On top of it being wasteful to a perfectly good cake, since when is it okay to teach our kids we play with our food and smear it all over our bodies??? Lol that’s so gross!!! AND on top of THAT, if it’s the baby’s 1st birthday, they are likely surrounded by tons of family and friends and dressed in their birthday outfit – why are we going to destroy the outfit and then have to leave our guests to now go hose this baby down. I never understood the trend of letting kids be messy and play with their food!!!
nice post
For me it feeds into the whole culture of turning one’s children into cute commodities. I wonder how much these things are for the children… or the parents need to show off their cute lifestyle. I’d take natural pictures in the park over this any day.