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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
TiredCluelessMummy · 09/04/2017 14:42

Wedding cake: cake which is eaten by guests at a celebrate of marriage (in my experience, it gets eaten not wasted. Never been to a wedding where that's not the case).

Smash cake: cake which is largely destined for the bin and intended only for the purpose of watching a baby destroy it.

Like I said, let's just agree to disagree. People can have different opinions and that's OK.

TinfoilHattie · 09/04/2017 14:43

I believe lots of the smash cake is eaten

Yup, because everyone is pushing each other out of the way to get to mushed up, soggy cake that a toddler has been pawing through. Don't be ridiculous.

NavyandWhite · 09/04/2017 14:45

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TiredCluelessMummy · 09/04/2017 14:48

Tinfoil exactly. Nobody buys a smash cake and plans to serve it to guests or the family. You may be able to salvage something but you can't bank on that so you obviously buy it in the full knowledge that the whole thing could end up in the bin. I wish people would at least own their decisions instead of these disingenuous arguments.

BakerBear · 09/04/2017 14:48

Who cleans it up if it's done by a photographer?

blackteasplease · 09/04/2017 14:49

I hadn't heard about it before now. I don't know if it's so awful. My Ds (3) would love it.

LaurieMarlow · 09/04/2017 14:50

We can argue about how much of wedding vs smash cake is eaten til the cows come home, but my view is that it's all a physical waste as we don't need those calories.

Tired, you're right we don't have to agree on this. I believe it's the performative nature of a cake smash that gets people's goat, but I challenge that it represents fundamentally different behaviour than we indulge in all the time.

limitedperiodonly · 09/04/2017 14:56

Most of us provide food that costs a lot in terms of production whether we eat every scrap or not.

Like meat, for example. We don't need to eat meat but I'd guess that many, if not most of the people on this thread objecting to cake smashing do, and without more than a cursory handwringing towards the environmental consequences of devoting a large amount of global resources to meat production.

And please don't say: 'I only eat organic' because that's wasteful of resources too but just salves your conscience, while many people around the world are starving or suffer pollution because of our consumer choices.

It would be far more honest to echo those PP who've talked about chavs, children in headbands with names such as Ellie-Mae or those ignorant fools swayed by commercialism.

That's what it's really about, isn't it? Snobbery.

DorkMaiden · 09/04/2017 14:56

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

limitedperiodonly · 09/04/2017 15:01

A bit like killing animals for fun rather than food.

skerrywind I don't hunt but I enjoy eating the flesh of animals that other people have killed for me. That could be described as fun but I usually call it dinner. It's certainly not necessary though.

Lweji · 09/04/2017 15:02

Personally, if people want to make cake to be smashed, fine. Not my cup of tea but whatever they like.
If people want to take photos, fine too. Again, not something I'd stage or particularly appreciate, but whatever they like.

It's paying obscene amounts for this, and saving for it even, that shocks me. Just why?

DrCoconut · 09/04/2017 15:04

I can't bear them. I have lived on the breadline and gone without food. I don't anymore but I hate to see food wasted. I do think it's immoral when children, in fact anyone, face hunger and agree with the poster who suggested donating to a refuge if you have spare cake ingredients. I'm not saying we're perfect and sometimes food gets binned but it's a last resort rather than for fun.

Dozer · 09/04/2017 15:04

Never seen one of these!

Most birthday cakes (large or cupcake) at kids' parties get wasted IME, DC take bits home and they go hard and get chucked out, and always loads leftover that's chucked too.

Fruitcocktail6 · 09/04/2017 15:14

I'd never heard of this until now but it sounds vile. So tacky and gross. I think the same about staged photo shoots too.

limitedperiodonly · 09/04/2017 15:15

It's paying obscene amounts for this, and saving for it even, that shocks me. Just why?

What's an obscene amount? I bought a L'Oreal foundation for £8.99 and I like it, but I'm not going to condemn the person on Style and Beauty who bought a Chantecaille one for £60.

I'm drinking wine that cost me £15. I don't need to, it has no nutritional value and will make me just as fat and will potentially cause the same liver damage as a bottle that cost £3.99. I just want to do it and I'm paying for it.

Is that wrong?

I'll put the bottle in the recycling btw.

GogoGobo · 09/04/2017 15:19

Slightly off topic but how long is the list of ingredients on the smash cake in the Asda link?!!! Seriously not fit for human consumption anyway!
On topic - yuk, find th idea of them grim!

Fluffypinkpyjamas · 09/04/2017 15:23

It is awful and tacky and there are certain parents that do it and think it's great. They are the parents that think rude or tacky slogan baby clothes are cute and put or glue bows to their babies or should I say Lil Man or Lil princesses head.

£800 on a cake smash is really not something to boast about. What is that saying, all brass and no class.

Lweji · 09/04/2017 15:23

I'd still be shocked if someone saved for a year to pay for £800 foundation or wine. Grin

Dozer · 09/04/2017 15:25

Depends how much wine: one could have a good party with £800 of cheap wine!

ClemDanfango · 09/04/2017 15:26

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

limitedperiodonly · 09/04/2017 15:31

Lweji I might be shocked at the things you decide to spend your money on. But if as long as you weren't asking me to subsidise you it would be none of my business.

Comments like those made by Fluffypinkpyjamas are awful: 'rude', 'tacky', 'Lil', 'brass but no class' - why does what other people do bother people that much? But then I wouldn't be seen dead in fluffy pink pyjamas.

limitedperiodonly · 09/04/2017 15:33

You could wind up in A&E wasting precious NHS resources on £800 of wine. But that's another MN thread

LaurieMarlow · 09/04/2017 15:35

If you're rich and into wine, you could easily spend £800 on a bottle or two.

Photograph · 09/04/2017 15:36

I am not exactly poor, so the money is not exactly the issue, but I do find it odd to actively encourage your kids to waste food, or clothes or destroy anything just for fun. Ok, you might waste tins and various bits when you play with a toy gun, but the point is to practice your aim. clearly not referring to toddlers here Telling your kids to please smash something.. is distasteful.

Lweji · 09/04/2017 15:40

It's not the spending that shocks me, it's the saving for.

It makes you happy, but I'm still shocked.