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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To hate this smashcake craze?

588 replies

skerrywind · 09/04/2017 10:35

A close member of our family has just spent £100 on a smashcake for her 1st baby's birthday.
I find it quite disgusting to waste food like this. It surprises me that I have quite a gutteral reaction to this. I also find it disgusting to see people in baths of beans etc.

Anyone else feel like this or am I just a killjoy?

OP posts:

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originalbiglymavis · 09/04/2017 21:35

My niece invented it when she was about 3 and thought there was a glass cover over a desert trolley in a very fancy high tea cafe. Up to her elbows she was.

She's in her mid 30s now (and we still remind her).

FrenchLavender · 10/04/2017 13:28

I think they are the height of vulgarity.

habibihabibi · 10/04/2017 15:46

Do you think Charlotte and George had cake smash photo shoots ? Perhaps in the album with the naice lingerie shoot Kate perhaps, did for William and the trash the dress shoot she possibly did in the Buck Palace fountains.

histinyhandsarefrozen · 10/04/2017 16:16

Mm the fact they probably didn't would be one good reason to do so!

We're not all royal wannabes

TinfoilHattie · 10/04/2017 17:28

Our wedding cake didn't go uneaten grin because we didn't bother with fruit cake.

We didn't either. We had chocolate cake and vanilla sponge and it was lovely. We didn't keep ANY of it for a christening - we have three children and not one of them is christened.

Esker · 10/04/2017 17:33

Only heard of this recently but it's just so tacky and lame. I find it embarrassing how mindlessly and unimaginatively people pile in to the latest trend. It's as if people hear that this is what you do when a baby turns one, and then they're like 'better do that then.'

Deidre21 · 10/04/2017 17:33

Ridiculous idea. Waste of food.

pollymere · 10/04/2017 17:39

I remember watching those American programmes where a kid has a party costing tens of thousands. The cake would be ludicrously expensive and must have taken hours, only to be smashed up and not eaten. If you want to smash something, get a pinata! I'd be devastated if all my hard work ended up smashed up and uneaten. When my dd was small and I thought the cake would go home uneaten in party bags, I'd use cheap shopbought cake and decorate that. It's a serious waste so you're nbu at all.

ILikeBeansWithKetchup · 10/04/2017 17:43

Surely what's weird, more than anything else, is enforced spontaneity??

Babies mess with their food all the time, and some people take pics (my MIL loves food mess pics..). To spend money and MAKE them do something they might or might not do anyway, is a little bit... well... odd...

It reminds me of the 'spontaneous demonstrations' they have in Animal Farm.. or is it North Korea??

MCamp10 · 10/04/2017 17:44

I had to google it as I couldn't understand what people were talking about. Now I can't understand why anyone would consider it fun. To me it's totally vulgar, immoral and unethical. How on earth can we expect our children to grow into responsible, caring people if we teach them it's ok to trash and waste food like this? What is the mentality of anyone who thinks this is "fun"? It absolutely disgusts me.

KitKat1985 · 10/04/2017 17:45

I wouldn't go as far as to use the word 'hate', but I do think they're a complete waste of money and good food.

Youdosomething · 10/04/2017 17:46

Like the over celebration of Halloween, is the Cake Smash an American 'invention'? Just wondering how it came about?

originalbiglymavis · 10/04/2017 17:47

I've seen weddings (on telly) where the bride sqooshes cake into the groom's face. Is this also a 'thing'?

VestalVirgin · 10/04/2017 17:47

Oo What is this about? People deliberately cover their children in cake?

When a baby in my family left an imprint of his hand on his birthday cake, this was considered an accident.

Yes, it can be adorable and makes a nice story, but ... intentionally covering your child in cake so you can do photos? Life doesn't work like that.
It is not a nice and interesting family story if it is a silly trend.

This reminds me of staged marriage proposals.

What is next? Couples meticulously planning their "first meeting"?

And I suppose once some celebrity accidentally spills red wine on her wedding dress, doing this will become part of the wedding ritual along with bridesmaids and flower girls?

CoolCarrie · 10/04/2017 17:48

I don't like it because it's an American export, made up by some idiot, like the Christmas elf on the shelf nonsense, secretary's day etc..
And it is a waste of food

sniggy01 · 10/04/2017 17:49

never heard of it before but just looked it up - think its a bit weird - as others have said babies do that with all their food. Don't think it looks cute - but each to their own i suppose

sniggy01 · 10/04/2017 17:51

also I spend time trying to stop dc "messing " with their food - why would you encourage it?

originalbiglymavis · 10/04/2017 17:53

I have a photo of DS covered head to toe in mud.

I collected him from nursery school and the teacher had taken a photo of him and his best pal after they had been rolling in the dirt in the garden.

It is very funny because both kids were in uniform and had very similar build, hair and face. You can only tell them apart by their eye colour. Not staged but very typical of DS when he was little and that's what makes it special (ie he was a mudlark). He's never rubbed cake in his hair.

Housemum · 10/04/2017 17:54

Child given cake and gets it everywhere trying to eat - fine
Encouraging child to smash cake and everyone laughs - why???? Aside from the waste (and it is a waste as the intention wasn't for the child to eat the whole cake), isn't the point of weaning etc to encourage children to eat food and also to teach them manners?
Saying that (and it's probably been mentioned but I have only read first and last pages) supposed grown-ups do it at weddings sometimes. Because it's hilarious to look lovely and have spent time and/or money on your clothes/hair/make-up to then smear yourself with food. (Unless you are into splashing. But that's behind closed doors. I hope.)

TanteJeanne · 10/04/2017 17:54

Just had to google this. It makes most of the babies just look greedy. I would hate it if someone had done this to me as a baby and then taken photographs.

Housemum · 10/04/2017 17:54

*sploshing

onlyMeeeee · 10/04/2017 17:56

All these people saying it's ok because "[insert issue here] happens every day" like that makes it ok?!?! Like that's a good excuse! Food wastage is amongst the many many things that happen every day which are decidedly NOT ok!!! Just because someone else does something does not make that thing ok. If people actually used their brains and their consciences more then maybe the world we live in wouldn't be so totally f**d! There are people in your very own town who can't afford to feed their kids and people are buying Cakes for the purposes of smashing, for crying out loud! And don't get me started on those foil helium balloons! I don't care if it makes your PLO smile for 5 minutes, it will be a blight on this planets surface for the next 500 years!

... head explodes

MooPointCowsOpinion · 10/04/2017 17:58

Your family member needs to go back to 2011 when these were a thing

I'm pretty sure Bruce always been a bit daft, but even dafter 6 years after the craze is over. They'll be baking those giant cupcakes next and going mad for skinny jeans.

CalonGoch · 10/04/2017 17:59

Aside from the horrible waste of food/effort, it's such a crass thing to encourage a child to do for the benefit of cooing adults. Like the parents who encourage their little darlings to 'join in' with the vows at weddings, or stamp at pigeons in parks to scare them.

Eveninties · 10/04/2017 17:59

Never heard of a smashcake. I assume that you smash it, but then do you not eat it? Sounds messy but don't get how it's wasteful though?

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