To hate this smashcake craze?

[skerrywind]

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?

A child covered in food isn't remotely 'cute'.

I agree with this. I feel sorry for the child because being covered in sticky, crumbly food is just uncomfortable and not fun.

I can't stand them

Just a bit chavvy isn't it...!

I don't understand the attraction. It's naff. If a friend of mine did it i'd think they had lost the plot.

Great, let's let 1 year olds eat loads of sugar and then be horrified at the number of 4 year olds getting their rotted baby teeth pulled out by the NHS.

I don't like them and I'm not really sure why.

I guess some reasons are that its massively wasteful, I have an unnatural hatred of the massive craze for those cutesy cute baby photo shoots, and im pretty ocd/ controlling about how much 'bad food' my children have so the idea of a baby with a whole cake gives me the jitters.

And as for posting the pics on FB, well just don't get me started on children's photos on FB...

Just awful, whichever you cut it (pardon the pun)

What is a smash cake is it as obvious as it sounds?

I couldn't really give a stuff what people with th more money than sense spend, but my god, where can I find someone who would spend £800 on a cake? I'll do it for half that!

I make celebration cakes as a small business and I'm dreading someone asking me for a cake for this! I find it hard enough to cut up a cake which has taken me all day to decorate if I'm at the recipient's party. This would make me want to cry!
Seriously though, I really hate wasting food and the whole idea of a staged cake smash photo session makes me cringe.

I have a sweet tooth, however if I was made to shovel FISTFULLS of icing into my mouth I'ld feel sick! I can't imagine it feels any less sickly for a little 1 year old!

The kids always look like they're being forced to play with the cake and the kids expressions are always like "WTF, why can't I just crawl over there instead? do I HAVE to mum" so the pictures look shit

Food waste for fun?? nah

Just a bit chavvy isn't it...!

Short, easy and bloody right!!

Very nasty fashion. It is a mockery of the baby and shame on the parents for wasting food in this stupid way. Probably the rubbish and sugar is very bad for a baby and will make it sick.

Didn't know it was a thing - horrific!
Nor did I know that by not having my kids photo taken (yes I could donate the cash to charity) that I was ending famine in africa! Food waste in the UK / developed world is disgusting!

Other than a big waste if money and food when less fortunate are starving it's also a ridiculously chavvy thing to do! Avoid

It's such a crap thing to do, what are you teaching your child exactly? To be wasteful, disrespect those that don't have enough to feed themselves - disgusting behaviour I'm amazed people do this - horrific

Paying 800 quid for a cake which you will smear all over your child and then take pictures is, well, idiotic.

If you want to get pictures of your child getting messy, you can do it equally well with a piece of cake or even a tarted up cupcake.

Horrific?

YANBU.

But this is even more gross.

The ingredients of an ASDA Smash Cake......

Chocolate Sponge (45%) [Sugar, Fortified Wheat Flour [Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin (B3), Thiamin (B1)], Pasteurised Whole Egg, Rapeseed Oil, Water, Humectant (Glycerol), Fat Reduced Cocoa Powder, Glucose Syrup, Maize Starch, Raising Agents (Diphosphates, Sodium Carbonates), Emulsifier (Sodium Stearoyl-2-Lactylate), Dried Glucose Syrup, Dried Egg White, Preservative (Sorbic Acid), Acidity Regulator (Citric Acid)] , Chocolate Flavour Frosting (31%) [Sugar, Glucose Syrup, Water, Butter (from Milk), Fat Reduced Cocoa Powder, Palm Oil, Palm Kernel Oil, Rapeseed Oil, Maize Starch, Palm Stearin, Dried Glucose Syrup, Dried Egg White, Emulsifier (Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids), Preservative (Sorbic Acid)] , Milk Chocolate Dome (10%) [Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Dried Whole Milk, Cocoa Mass, Emulsifier (Soya Lecithins), Flavouring] , Dark, Milk and White Chocolate Covered Wheat Crunchies (5.7%) [Fortified Wheat Flour [Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin (B3), Thiamin (B1)], Dark Chocolate [Sugar, Coca Butter, Cocoa Mass, Emulsifier (Soya Lecithins)], Milk Chocolate [Sugar, Cocoa, Butter, Cocoa Mass, Dried Skimmed Milk, Lactose (from Milk), Whey Powder (from Milk), Anhydrous Milk Fat, Emulsifier (Soya Lecithins)], White Chocolate [Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Dried Whole Milk, Dried Skimmed Milk, Flavouring, Emulsifier (Soya Lecithins)], Rice Flour, Shea Oil, Palm Oil, Sugar, Whey Powder (from Milk), Salt, Emulsifiers (Soya Lecithins, Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids, Lecithins], Rapeseed Oil, Water, Glazing Agents (Shellac, Acacia Gum), Raising Agent (Sodium Carbonates), Honey, Coconut Oil] , Chocolate Malt Balls (2.9%) [Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Fortified Wheat Flour [Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin (B3), Thiamin (B1)], Cocoa Mass, Dried Skimmed Milk, Maize Flour, Whey Powder (from Milk), Lactose (from Milk), Anhydrous Milk Fat, Barley Malt Extract, Emulsifiers (Soya Lecithins, Triphosphates, Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids), Water, Salt, Glazing Agent (Acacia Gum), Spray Dried Palm Fat, Honey] , Dolly Mixtures (2.9%) [Sugar, Glucose Syrup, Beef Gelatine, Coconut Oil, Modified Maize Starch, Palm Oil, Acidity Regulator (Citric Acid), Fat Reduced Cocoa Powder, Flavouring, Colours (Anthocyanins, Paprika Extract, Beetroot Red, Curcumin), Apple Extract, Hibiscus Extract, Nettle Extract, Spinach Extract, Gelling Agent (Pectins)] , Multi Coloured Chocolate Nibs (2.9%) [Sugar, Cocoa Mass, Colours (Titanium Dioxide, Curcumin, Carmine), Glazing Agents (Acacia Gum, Beeswax, Carnauba Wax, Shellac), Cocoa Butter, Maize Starch, Spirulina, Concentrate, Flavouring, Safflower Concentrate, Emulsifier (Soya Lecithins)] , Yellow Icing Piping [Sugar, Glucose Syrup, Water, Maize Starch, Free Range Dried Egg White, Preservative (Potassium Sorbate), Humectant (Glycerol), Colour (Carotenes)] .

Yum Yum...NOT!

All the people saying it's chavvy... is middle class waste okay then?

I can't get wound up about cake smash any more than I can about people flying to go on holiday. Some people choose to spend £800 on a cake smash when they could donate money to a food bank, some people choose to spend £800 on flights when they could donate it to an environmental charity.

what are you teaching your child exactly?

Nothing. They're only 1!. It means absolutely NOTHING to them they're only small which is why its so bloody stupid, it's not "capturing a moment" it's so forced and stupid!

how are we suppose to travel if we don't fly? By donkey?

I think like lots of things the cake smash thing came from the USA. Glad to see that the vast majority of people think it's ridiculous and tacky. I got into a right thing with someone on here recently who wanted to do a cake smash for her 1 year old. Someone asked what it was, so I told her, then the OP told me I was mocking her - ah well takes all sorts. My daughter has a friend who takes photographs on a freelance basis and she's very happy about this craze! She says that a 1 year old can't really smash the cake so the parent has to start it off and then let the baby dig in and they like photos of the kid with all the chocolate and cream etc all over them.................crazy.