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
IT’S FOR CHAVS
I hate seeing smashcakes it’s just so ridiculous… children year after year have less good manners and you even encourage them to be worse for fun yey
@MCK take a chill pill! Calm down and take a deep breathe. It will all be fine. Ommmmm
They’re called smash cakes because that’s what a baby does….smash something to try and get it in his or her mouth. For each of my children’s first birthdays, I baked something small and simple with easy whipped topping. I did something a little more elegant for guests. What is ridiculous is suggesting a recipe with considerably more complicated elements as though either a one year old should be skilled with a fork or shouldn’t be allowed to enjoy the cake at all. Are you even a parent? It’s a first birthday with a cake that many people turn down and much ends up in the trash anyway. Get a grip.
What a great way to start early in teaching a child some manners when it comes to eating and proper behavior at the table. “Oh look, little Suzie Q has a nostril full of cake and is having difficulty breathing! This will be a great photo for FB. Not many can compare with this!” Adults with that attitude are anything but adult.
I think it’s a dumb “tradition”. What’s wrong with a square or slice of cake for baby to eat/play with? Over-indulgent. Also,the staged nature is annoying. Just my opinion! But, as another poster, said, “To each his own”. Despite the dopey nature of a smash cake (not to mention waste), it’s not really hurting anyone. Same as Gender Reveal cakes.
When my 21 year old son turned one I baked him his own personal cake. It made great pics. So imagine my surprise when I heard they had come out with “smash cakes”! These people just didn’t know me because I have 11 years on the supposed 10 year history of its popularity! IJS
So when did this become a smash cake. We used to always have a little cake just for baby to eat & get messy with so they didn’t destroy the other cake for the adults & other kids. We just called it their cake. And if u can keep a 1 yr old from destroying any food put in front of them , including a slice of cake, well….
I see in the pics that the kids are often messily eating the cake, not just smashing them. The cakes are made for that purpose, and are small and of uncomplicated in design. I don’t see the problem with doing it honestly, as cake making is a form of temporary art. All cakes, no matter what they are for will be destroyed at the end of whatever their purpose was – many ending up in the toilet.
The only thing that disturbs me about fads like this is the contrived element. I like more candid, ‘organic’ photos.
But to each their own.
FINALLY someone who understands that cake should be consumed and not obliterated!
Loved your post. Love your delectable selection, too!