First Birthdays · Cake Trends · 2019 Archive
Cake Smashing: Cute Milestone Or Cake Crime?
Archive note: This opinion piece was written in 2019, when cake-smash photoshoots were gaining visibility in our feed. The trend comments below describe that period. The linked Pastel Swirl Number Cake is still an active current product, but the argument is preserved as a 2019 rant rather than a statement about today's market.
People were 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.
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. It can also be wasteful, sticky and a tiny bit absurd.
Cake Is For Eating
I understand why parents like the pictures. Babies are adorable. Cake is adorable. Messy babies with cake are undeniably funny. I simply object to sacrificing an entire cake when a slice can achieve exactly the same buttercream-on-cheeks result.
My 2019 compromise was: give the baby a slice, take the photographs, then let everybody else eat the birthday cake like civilisation intended.
A Better First-Birthday Cake
Our current Pastel Swirl Number Cake makes the age part of the design and is intended to be eaten, which already puts it ahead in my very biased ranking system. You can also browse our current number cakes and birthday cakes.
So, Was Cake Smashing The Dumbest Cake Trend Ever?
My answer in 2019 was: possibly. The photographs can be cute, but a beautifully made cake contains ingredients, time and skill. Watching the whole thing get flattened for content still feels like a tiny buttercream tragedy.
Love,
Reshmi xoxo
Earlier in the archive: Fault Line Cake Recipe and Tutorial
Later in the archive: Birthday Cake Trends 2020
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?