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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:
LittleBearPad · 20/07/2015 09:07

I'm doing BLW. It doesn't waste food particularly. This may however be because I pick up the stuff he drops and give it back. But regardless he wouldn't get anywhere as much food for dinner as a whole cake.

LaurieMarlow · 20/07/2015 09:10

I'm talking about over time - not one meal. I've chucked loads over time, loads. And my DS is a very enthusiastic eater Wink

LittleBearPad · 20/07/2015 09:58

Fair point but the cake won't be the only food they waste will it. There'll be the normal weaning waste too.

You're right that it's an interesting difference between cake smash and BLW.

yallahabibi · 20/07/2015 11:50

I can't imagine Prince George had a cake smash on his first birthday .

PageNotFound404 · 20/07/2015 11:52

I see the difference between "normal" food waste and cake smash waste as there being an intention to eat the former. Presumably you don't buy it intending to throw it in the bin! I feel guilty if something goes off before I get a chance to eat it, I hate wasting food - I don't celebrate it.

daisychain01 · 20/07/2015 11:56

Isn't it just another Look at me me me thing like that Ice Bucket Bollox? And what about milking

If so it's all just a fad and if you can hold on a few weeks it will die a death

JohnFarleysRuskin · 20/07/2015 13:55

Like others, I find the whole professional photograph thing bizarre when most amateur photography is SOO much nicer.

However, I expect stuff like the cake-smash is a way professional photographers can survive: if more and more elaborate set-ups became the fashion then people are kidded into thinking that they can't do that at home.

slithytove · 20/07/2015 18:27

Funny how we didn't waste the cake and that is getting ignored.

Neither did we share the pics (other than this one here) so it isn't look at me me me. It's a photo we have in our home on our computer. Might print it one day.

So

No waste, cake was baked for eating.
Not staged (fully at any rate)
Not professional
Not shared

Yet it is still roundly condemned by people it doesn't even affect.

Original poster
chompybot · 20/07/2015 18:41

Having done both types of weaning, I have to say baby led weaning is not that wasteful - you avoid blending (amazing how much gets stuck on blender blades) and often babies are eating the same food as the rest of the family so you aren't cooking separate meals with all the energy and ingredients that uses. We would just keep the floor around the high chair clean or use a mat, and pick the food off the floor and hand it back. (Unless we were in a pub!!!)

I can't see how baby led weaning - which is about eating being a social, healthy activity you do with family and friends, trying new flavours, and eating just as much as you need until you are full enough - can be compared to cake smash, which is about a baby sat on its own in front of a camera with more cake than it can possibly eat and encouraged to smear it everywhere. The only similarity is that both are done with hands.

Sorry but nothing I have read so far has convinced me cake smashes are not weird!!

OP posts:
Original poster
chompybot · 20/07/2015 18:46

I did notice you said you didn't waste the cake, which was great, but I think you are an admirable exception as in most of the photos I have seen posted (in one of the the mums groups I belong to) the cake was definitely not saved and seemed to be in crumbs on the floor.

OP posts:
Original poster
chompybot · 20/07/2015 18:50

You are quite right though, it doesn't really affect me, it just annoys me! Grin

OP posts:
slithytove · 20/07/2015 19:45

Ooh I like being admirable, I feel better now Grin

JohnFarleysRuskin · 20/07/2015 20:10

Slithy - that was no "cake smash", surely that was just taking a photo of a kid eating a Cake !?!!

Original poster
chompybot · 20/07/2015 20:42

Yes slithy yours was far more tame than others I have seen.

I didn't realise it was an adult thing too, you do learn a lot at mumsnet SmileI would have hated doing that at my wedding, a waste of a very nice chocolate cake for a start, and secondly would have ruined DHs suit - (which he still wears for work! Blush )

OP posts:
LaurieMarlow · 20/07/2015 20:43

I can't see how baby led weaning - which is about eating being a social, healthy activity you do with family and friends, trying new flavours, and eating just as much as you need until you are full enough - can be compared to cake smash, which is about a baby sat on its own in front of a camera with more cake than it can possibly eat and encouraged to smear it

Both are about experiencing food in its entirety, both stimulate all of the senses, both are about the joy of discovery, both encourage the baby's sense of agency & self-direction in the world

slithytove · 20/07/2015 21:14

He smashed it as much as he wanted to.

Original poster
chompybot · 20/07/2015 22:57

Laurie I guess you have a point there, if you are seeing it as akin to finger painting / messy play. I don't mind my kids getting muddy or painty after all.

OP posts:
Fancyachangeinname · 21/07/2015 06:44

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

floatyflo · 21/07/2015 09:45

Good lord. Is this thread still going?

It just makes me want cake.

LaurieMarlow · 21/07/2015 09:56

Yes, Chompybot, I guess that's exactly how I see it. Love your user name btw.

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