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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to find cake smashes a bit weird

145 replies

chompybot · 18/07/2015 11:16

Ok so there seems to be this thing recently where you can have a 'cake smash' photography session, I've seen quite a few mums posting on Facebook about it, and baby photographers offer it as a photo shoot. Basically the baby is sat with a big cake and encouraged to grab it with their hands and smear it over their face whilst being photographed. Anyone else think this is a weird photo to have on your wall?

Maybe I am over-thinking it or it had caught me at a bad time, with all these children in developing countries who are malnourished, and then there are these cake smash photos and it seemed to me it is celebrating the fact we have so much food in this country that we can waste it for a photo shoot.

I probably just need to lighten up!

OP posts:
tethersend · 18/07/2015 11:21

Is that a thing?

One of my friends did this and plastered it over Facebook... It's fucking ridiculous. Why a cake? Why not a fry up or a lasagna? Bollocks.

00100001 · 18/07/2015 11:24

Yeah you neeed to ligyen up a bit with the whole " starving children in Africa " bit

But, it is odd to artificially manufacture a cake photo...! Surely there would be pkebty if real opportunities to get cake smeared face photos? Not entirely sure why you'd want a "professional" shot!

ToGrapefruit · 18/07/2015 11:24

I think it's a weird trend too chompy Agree with all you say.

I have a couple of friends who are photographers of babies/children, and they are always posting pictures of this on Facebook. I can't really see the attraction. If my DD was small, I can sort of imagine being sucked in!

MarkRuffaloCrumble · 18/07/2015 11:25

It is a bit wasteful, but we waste so much food in this country that I don't think an extra cake is going to make a jot of difference.

FWIW my mum's favourite photo of me was a blurry polaroid taken on my first birthday where I stuck my hand right in the middle of my strawberry and cream gateau. Sums me up really!

I also took loads of photos of my kids' faces covered in bolognese/yoghurt etc as toddlers' messy eating is funny. Having a professional photo of your child covered in cake sounds quite funny!

OddBoots · 18/07/2015 11:26

Nowt so queer as folk and there are many other ways food is also wasted - it's not something I would want to do with my children but each to their own.

SpongeBobJudgeyPants · 18/07/2015 11:27

I'm with you. I hate pointless waste. There was a trend in the 80's for piano-smashing. I know they weren't as popular, but something very distasteful about it.

Weareboatsremember · 18/07/2015 11:28

I really don't like seeing children with food all over themselves - not a fan of messy face photos at the dinner table - sorry markruffalo!
Cake smashes aren't for me, but at any professional photos of DD I've not dressed her up in a pretty dress etc, but kept her in her normal clothes as I like her to look like herself in pictures. A tutu and cake smeared face isn't really her at all

ThumbWitchesAbroad · 18/07/2015 11:28

It's a "thing" here in Australia. I couldn't do it - the waste would annoy me too much. I think it's also an American "thing" but not sure about that - but I do know a few people who've done it for their child's first birthday.

ThumbWitchesAbroad · 18/07/2015 11:47

Also, the cakes they use for it are generally far too big - far more cake than I'd let my 1yo eat in one sitting!

Bellebella · 18/07/2015 11:52

It does seem a bit excessive. It's different if you give a 1 year old a slice of their birthday cake or a little cupcake to eat and they smash it and you take a picture at home.

But to actually have a cake specially made for the purpose of a photoshoot is over the top.

I never did it, my son loves cake far too much to waste it in his hair. It's the only food he never misses his mouth Hmm

LaurieMarlow · 18/07/2015 11:53

I wouldn't do it myself, but I agree that the waste is infinitesimal in the over all scheme of things.

I find something very life affirming and joyful in a little child really enjoying food - so I get the appeal. And like markruffalo I have tonnes of photos of DS with yoghurt/banana/all manner of mess all over his face - and think they're totally adorable.

Stealthpolarbear · 18/07/2015 11:55

Yes I don't get this whole trend for artificially staging 'natural' photos. They're either natural or they're not. I don't want to look back and remember how the photographer told me to pretend to , what's the point of that memory.
I yearn for the days of Victorian formal family line ups. Woe betide anyone who smiles.

paxtecum · 18/07/2015 11:56

It's the same mindset as Trash the Dress after the wedding.
Really quite wierd.

MrsBertMacklin · 18/07/2015 12:01

Opened this thinking it would be about a fetish request made on a second date or something (like sloshing).

Anyway, they're okay IMO - probably evolved from (and slightly less weird than) dressing babies up as flowers.

purplemurple1 · 18/07/2015 12:09

I've always wondered why on reality shows from the states they spend loads on a cake and then no one actually serves it they all just grab fistfulls and play with it.
It seems a crazy waste of food and money.

CrockedPot · 18/07/2015 12:10

Ridiculous and wasteful - but yes, about as stupid as the flower dressing up, plonking babies in flower pots etc.

Dieu · 18/07/2015 12:12

Natural foodie faces are okay in a photo. Cake smashes are incredibly tacky.

Methe · 18/07/2015 12:14

A fb friend of mind had one of these for her youngest and I was Hmm and thought the photos were crap and it was contrived rubbish but it's her money and her child so who am I to care?

She is an utter baby bore though. I can't imagine anyone who had a life outside of having babies repeatedly would do it.

ThumbWitchesAbroad · 18/07/2015 12:17

I've never understood the trash the wedding dress thing either. Some poor woman drowned doing that - her dress filled up with water in the river and was too heavy, she got swept away. Stupidly sad waste of life :(

PHANTOMnamechanger · 18/07/2015 12:24

YANBU OP, from being a kid I've always thought that wasting food for entertainment was a ridiculous thing. All that sitting in a bath full of beans or having cold custard poured over your head for charity. Ridiculous mixed message to be sending to kids - we even had a 'chuck eggs at the teacher' stall at a school fair about 6 years ago! thankfully they don't do that anymore for allergy/safety reasons, but when so many families are relying on food banks the use of food as entertainment (and this includes all the eating 'challenges' of how much/how fast you can eat) seem to leave a very bad taste in the mouth.

contractor6 · 18/07/2015 13:30

I think it is yuck, hate seeing kids with messy faces, make me want to grab wet wipes and clean up!

countryandchickens · 18/07/2015 13:32

I don't get it; or the underwater shoots.

Namechangenell · 18/07/2015 13:36

It's very much a thing in the US. Often on a baby's first birthday. Teenagers also have smash car parties and so on. Such a waste and very much a sign of a wealthy and misguided society.

yallahabibi · 18/07/2015 13:43

Horrible.
I also abhor the expensive tastless and grossly over iced cakes that appear at children's birthdays. Nothing wrong with a homemade aponge covered in smarties .

RachelRagged · 18/07/2015 13:45

Never come across this , anywhere.

Sounds odd but horses for courses .