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
Stupid trend for low IQ parents.
People here is so boring!! They say that teaches babies to be a mess, and don’t teach good manners. They are one year, they don’t have the development to have manners. They are learning to eat and the best way is to be a mess. It is about the experience, the feeling. And the pictures are awesome.
I’m a baby photographer with Photography for Little People and I really don’t like cake smashes. I always encourage parents to opt for something timeless and less messy. Photos with the cake are fine, photos of baby eating a slice of cake maybe, but there’s no need in my opinion to smash up a perfectly good cake.
What’s more worrying is the trend for a cake smash & splash; mains powered studio lights, water going everywhere, and small children seems like a recipe for disaster to me.
Smash cakes have been around for AT LEAST 20 years – I have some old cake decorating books from 1999 that had “smash cake” ideas. So no, it’s NOT another “social media” trend. At a year old, babies have no concept of “manners” – they’re only just getting a grip on gravity! And a baby with cake and frosting all over their face is…the least disgusting thing about babies. They do WAY more gross stuff than that, lol.
The ridiculous of smash cakes aside, having a party for an infant is silly.
I think cake smashes are idiotic. Almost as bad as the ridiculous gender reveals. Everything is for social media. When did the world get so trashy?
This is pretty hilarious. Making my kid a “smash cake” (didn’t know there was a term or trend when this was decided, just something my family does) because the frosting will be Greek yogurt with a tiny bit of maple syrup and some vanilla added for flavoring then some spirulina and carrot or sweet potato powder for green & orange coloring (just enough to tint without much impact on flavor). Only sugar for the cake itself will be bananas and applesauce, no artificial sweeteners either.
My assumption is that the adult guests would like a cake tailored to their tastes and my baby would not like being left out so he’ll have a small version to himself that looks like what we’re eating but won’t upset his stomach. If his cousin attends I’ll make it just a little bigger than planned and slice off half for her so she gets the same benefits.
Guess what, babies are messy eaters and it can definitely get gross but it’s how they learn. Guess what else, IT’S MY ONLY CHILD’S 1ST BIRTHDAY AND I’M GOING TO TAKE AS MANY PICTURES OF HIM HAVING FUN AS I WANT, EVEN IF HE LOOKS ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING! Quick rinse off, change of clothes and diaper and he’s back to his party in 5 min tops. I personally don’t use a lot of social media, but I’m sure with family attending a few will land online. If you don’t like it don’t look. If you want your 1 yr old to chow down on refined sugars just so you don’t waste time and money on a 2nd tiny cake go for it. If you make a healthy cake for everyone, not just baby, you’re a better person than me & if you want to skip cake entirely go for it.
Also, my oldest sibling is 35 and youngest is 24, we all had this growing up, very similar recipes. Seems a bit older that 10 yr tradition, though i guess that may be when it started getting popular.
Cakes are made for eating, not to deliberately destroy. What a waste and what are we teaching our little ones. As someone who makes and ices cakes of all descriptions I think it is a crazy idea and wouldn’t be interested in making a cake for anyone who wanted to do this to it or encouraged children to do it.
I personally feel we should appreciate and be thankful we have food and teach our little ones it is for eating not plastering everywhere, let them go play in the mud if you want them to get dirty!
I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels punished by these smash cakes! Ew!!! What is wrong with people?
A baby demolishing its food is NOT cute. It’s gross. Everybody is smiling because they don’t want to be rude, but we’re all barfing inside at your disgusting child.
We’re all taught to eat with our mouths closed and not to play with our food for a reason: people find it disgusting. To all you smash-prone parents out there: Try to have a little decency. Consider others. (Consideration for others—is that even a thing anymore? Or is it just ‘me me me me me’ and ‘I want what I want’?)
The things people do for attention sometimes ….. Blech!!!
I agree it is the stupidest thing they have come up with… 1 Year-olds will smoosh their food (including a cake) and play while they eat. It’s just a fact of being a child. As a parent you encourage your child to learn through all senses, and at that age things are very tactile. Having a special cake labeled “smash cake” is just a bizarre unnecessary trend. Seriously, why a “smash cake” — why can’t the child just smash whatever piece you cut off the main cake for him/her? What’s all the big whoopla over a specially named cake? It’s just another commercialized way to get more money out of parents for something that didn’t and doesn’t need to exist. Or it’s parents with way too much money (not enough time spent with their child, guilt) here let me “shower you with love in the form of how much I spend??” For those complaining about the post, then move on and don’t read it. Just because it’s on the net doesn’t mean you have to read it, no need to be mean about it. She’s just stating her opinion, since when does that mean you have to be mean spirited?