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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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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7
PurpleDaisies · 09/04/2017 11:05

I hate this as well. It's such of waste of cake.

LordRothermereBlackshirtCunt · 09/04/2017 11:05

Given amount of nasty crap that's listed in the ingredients for that Asda cake, you wouldn't want to eat it anyway.

SleepFreeZone · 09/04/2017 11:05

I don't like food being wasted full stop so I'm never going to like this idea of babies throwing a whole cake about for fun. I think a certain type of person probably goes in for this shizz and I would assume the baby also wears a bow headband, has its ears pierced and wears designer clobber.

muhajaba · 09/04/2017 11:06

It's like everything that is wrong with society all rolled into one
This^ I find it absolutely revolting.

Glossolalia · 09/04/2017 11:06

I have no idea what this is Blush

Is it literally a cake you buy to smash? Confused

PinkHeart59156816 · 09/04/2017 11:06

Honestly I think if that is how someone wants to spend there money meh I don't really care.

Yes it's wasteful but with dc you get a lot of waste, food you cook and dc won't eat & nappies, baby wipes are hardly good for the environment are they

Worse things happen!

FishInAWetSuitAndFlippers · 09/04/2017 11:06

I wouldn't pay the money out for one, but I think they are quite cute. The photos last a lifetime, when you balance that against the waste from one cake it's not that bad.

EverythingEverywhere1234 · 09/04/2017 11:08

Oh it's bloody tragic and it makes me cringe every time I see photos. To each their tacky own

CaoNiMartacus · 09/04/2017 11:08

Frazzled, could you instead buy a children's birthday cake and donate it to your local food bank or women's hostel? That would be so much of a better use for it.

Your child can still enjoy their birthday, but this way another child can also have something nice that they may have been deprived of otherwise.

ChardonnayKnickertonSmythe · 09/04/2017 11:09

I find it ostentatious and embarrassing.

FinallyHere · 09/04/2017 11:10

I've not actually ever seen any 'cake smash' pictures, but would imagine that a vanilla/white/yellow cake might make for better photos than a chocolate cake.

Salmotrutta · 09/04/2017 11:11

SleepFreeZone - oh my, I hope you've got a fireproof suit...

OP - I thinks it's just plain silly to be honest. Don't see the appeal at all.

SparkleTwinkleShinyGlitter · 09/04/2017 11:11

If someone wants to pay for photos and to smash a cake, that is up to them it's got nothing to do with me.

Vast majority of people waste food each day, most people with dc will have wasted meals that dc refuse to eat.

We have all probably done things other people would poke fun at and moan it's tacky.

FeliciaJollygoodfellow · 09/04/2017 11:11

Frazzled - why can't you just give your baby one slice of a cake to smear everywhere? Why is it better when a whole cake is involved?

Nojellyintrifle · 09/04/2017 11:12

I hate it too but I was called a prefect on here the other day.

PaulDacresFeministConscience · 09/04/2017 11:13

Don't like it, because any produce that has needed an animal to produce it should be treated with respect and used to its fullest extent to acknowledge that. Animals are bred and slaughtered to enable dairy farming to produce milk and butter and sadly lots of places still use caged hen eggs. I come from a farming background so I am well aware of the realities of farming, even when proper animal husbandry and welfare is in place - so I find the concept of wasting produce like this to be utterly immoral.

I also don't agree with the argument that other things are disposable so why should it matter. They all should, but we all draw our own moral and ethical lines somewhere.

Only1scoop · 09/04/2017 11:13

Crass, vile and nasty.

Maybe it's what the tacky crowd plan at their grim and grab baby showers.

namechange20050 · 09/04/2017 11:13

It's an awful trend. I find it tacky and naff in the extreme.

originalbiglymavis · 09/04/2017 11:14

I do that see the fun/amusement/cuteness of a small child covered in food. What a mess, what a waste of food.

Having to hose a child down after attacking cake? Will the child now think 'ooh cake, fun!' and launch at it first first when they see one? What I'd the child doesn't want to smash it up - do the parents throw it at them? What if the end result isn't messy or 'spontaneous' enough looking for them?

It's not unique, not quirks and is just a trend. Why not try to do something a bit different that is relevant to you and your life (hugging your dog, sitting with Grandpa, jumping in cow poo, eating a lump of cheese) - whatever your kid does that is in their character. Ok so some might have jelly in their hair and up their nose but if that's how you will remember early feeding time, then that's great. I have a photo of DS wild haired with his manky green teddy toy, grinning ear to ear - that's how I remember him as a small child. Not covered in cake.

Nojellyintrifle · 09/04/2017 11:14

Only1scoop Grin

Jaxhog · 09/04/2017 11:14

What an utter waste of money (and good cake)! Are we really teaching kids that it's fun to smash something up for fun? I know they're babies, but the photos will last for ever.

What next, 'smashcars' , 'smashpensioners' or 'smashrestaurants' parties?

FeliciaJollygoodfellow · 09/04/2017 11:14

Loads of things are 'up to them' Sparkle but people still have opinions.

My kids sometimes waste food - they absolutely did at 1. However, I didn't make them something intended for 10+ people and then throw all of it away. I make them a meal, and sometimes they don't eat all of it. It's not the same.

It's like - conspicuous consumption. Remember when rock stars used to trash their guitars just because they could? To me it's like saying, I might as well break this guitar because other people do it. Totally ridiculous.

SleepFreeZone · 09/04/2017 11:15

Salmo I couldn't care less if my posts gets some hate. I see them all on my local Facebook groups doing the same shit and they are all of a certain type. With some poor baby called Lily-Grace-Rose but spelt Lilli-Grayce-Rows. It's nauseating.

Orangebird69 · 09/04/2017 11:15

Not fussed about the waste tbh. They're just soooooo wanky and common though.

Thecontentedcat · 09/04/2017 11:15

Well as Coco Chanel said, luxury is not the opposite of poverty as many think, luxury is the opposite of vulgarity.
Smashcakes = vulgar.