Cake smash...

[SleepingStandingUp]

I know I am. But if people can convince me I'm not I'll be much happier 😁😁

When DS was 1 I was opposed to cake smash photoshoots because it was a waste of cake. And he was tube fed all wouldn't have touched it and was actually in the middle of a 4 month awful hospitalisation for his birthday and when he came out he ate even less than when he went in and he had/has sensory issues that just would have made it not viable.

Now I have twins who would devour a cake shop between them, who don't seem to have any issues touching messy stuff or eating ANYTHING and I really want one.

But I know they're terrible.

Would I be unreasonable to bury my principles for some cute photos of fat babies covering in icing and cream?

I am simply making the point that is it wrong to say that cake has no nutritional value. It has nutritional value, both as the sum of its ingredients and when those ingredients are considered separately.

And I'm making the point that the nutritional value contained in cake is entirely superfluous to virtually all UK diets.

@ShebaShimmyShake Jonathan Ross plays it most series end with celebrities

I didn’t know it was a thing. A quick google image search shows that there’s big crossover with putting those bow headbands on girls so you can tell they’re a girl

And I'm making the point that the nutritional value contained in cake is entirely superfluous to virtually all UK diets.

That's lovely but it's got nothing to do with my point and also applies to a VAST number of commonly consumed foods, which, when you consider the size of the snack and treat food industry, must contribute something to the nutritional status of many, many Brits.

I would also refer you to HMRC and the famous case of the Jaffa Cake.

@Pelleas

ShebaShimmyShake I don't want to risk breaking Mumsnet!

Oooh tempting.

Aibu to think that only SAHMs like cake smashes because they have nothing better to do?

And yeah, I am one 😂

Bit I swear o have never posted #blessed by a photo

@AuntyPasta

I didn’t know it was a thing. A quick google image search shows that there’s big crossover with putting those bow headbands on girls so you can tell they’re a girl

Mine are boys but I intend to put a nappy on them so you won't be able to tell other than the fact that one of my identical twins kinda looks "boy" whilst the other is more ambiguous. I might even go for green not blue icing 😂😂

Am I the only one who doesn't find the idea of babies covered in food cute?

Just give them a small slice of cake each or a small cupcake each and eat the rest yourself

That's lovely but it's got nothing to do with my point

Well it's got a lot to do with my point, which is that we consume it entirely for pleasure, so why does it make a difference if we eat it or smash it?

also applies to a VAST number of commonly consumed foods

Certainly a good amount yes.

must contribute something to the nutritional status of many, many Brits

Well there's very little nutritional benefit in these foods, so if it does, that's a poor reflection of the food we eat rather than anything else.

But if you think anyone would suffer nutritionally if cake was taken out of their diet in the UK, then knock yourself out. I think that's nonsense.

There's going to be shortage of flour this year because the wheat harvest was poor. What are cakes made of? If flour is diverted into cakes that nobody intends on eating, just using as toys, isn't that a waste? Bread prices are set to increase.

Oh come on, I won this with the Jaffa Cake reference.

Ok, here goes:

Q) Why did McVities fight HMRC in court to define Jaffa Cakes as cakes not as biscuits?

A) Because VAT is paid on biscuits but not on cake.

Q) Why is that?

A) Because biscuits are defined as a luxury, whereas cake - cake is an essential.

cake is an essential.

It may be. But not for nutrition.

I’m glad you clarified that though, I hadn’t a notion why that was relevant.

Am I the only one who doesn't find the idea of babies covered in food cute?

No you're not. Small- children-eating-messily photographs make me feel rather sick.

I don't understand how it's a waste of cake, just cos it's smashed up doesn't mean you can't still eat it afterwards. Or am I missing something?

@CatRamsey

I don't understand how it's a waste of cake, just cos it's smashed up doesn't mean you can't still eat it afterwards. Or am I missing something?

Who on earth would you serve it to?

I don't understand how it's a waste of cake, just cos it's smashed up doesn't mean you can't still eat it afterwards. Or am I missing something?
Do you go around eating half chewed, mushed up food that has someone else's saliva all over it?
I don't.

Given it's perfectly good to have a birthday cake and give a child a slice to eat (which inevitably goes everywhere anyway under a certain age), I don't really see what the appeal is in getting a second cake purely to pose for photos and then mush up, when anyone taking photos of a baby eating a slice of cake will see it gets everywhere anyway. If, as people claim, it's all about the enjoyment of a child eating cake and being a bit messy then the only reason to get a special smash cake is vanity to get the right shots.

To me it's just another part of a trend where everything has to be instagramable and any event, however small, needs to come with a in professional photoshoot. Each to their own, but it's not a mindset that I can relate to.

To me it's just another part of a trend where everything has to be instagramable and any event, however small, needs to come with a in professional photoshoot. Each to their own, but it's not a mindset that I can relate to.
Exactly what I was thinking, but you expressed it better than I could!

PS. I'd eat the cake, smashed or not

I may be being dense here... but I still don't understand why it's totally fine to waste all food that is defined by pp as 'not nutritionally essential'.

Especially so given that a large proportion of the UK population relies upon 'junk food' calories to meet their nutritional needs (people in food poverty eat more cheap, easily available, calorie-dense foods than other people do, they do not subsist on vegetables and quinoa). So 'non-essential' to a rich person is the epitome of essential to a poor one.

All the more so when these non-essential foods are made from nutritionally valuable ingredients, like eggs and flour.

So we may happily trash cake but not eggs? Crisps and chips but not potatoes? There's a paradox in there.

Also some peculiar attitudes about food and food waste on the thread, IMO.

This is all very beside the point though. Do what you like though OP - and have fun

@Thisismytimetoshine

To me it's just another part of a trend where everything has to be instagramable and any event, however small, needs to come with a in professional photoshoot. Each to their own, but it's not a mindset that I can relate to. Exactly what I was thinking, but you expressed it better than I could!

Why is everyone obsessed with Instagram?? Yeah I'm secretly some Uber cool influencer trying to make everyone buy cake!

I think the point being made was that cake is inherently wasteful, in that it is totally unnecessary for sustenance and very unhealthy, and is consumed purely because it is fun to eat. Even though it's better for you not to eat it. That being the case - that it's wasteful, unnecessary and used solely for pleasure whatever you do with it - it really doesn't make a moral difference if you get your fun by eating it or giving it to a baby to use as a toy.

I get that poor people have less choice but if we are going to look at it from a perspective of "the least and cheapest you can eat without starving", then cake is never the most efficient option.

Besides, plenty of people on here have an objection to it because they deem it to be chavvy and common and so on. I think I saw a dig about it correlating with hairbands, which are presumably a class signifier. I don't think people are seeing this as something that rich people do, or at least not the right kind of rich people.

@lottiegarbanzo pp cuts potatoes up, dips them in paint and makes print art that goes on the dirsge for a week then into the bin "special box". And the same with pasta and macaroni.

So don't make cake, make omlette, flatbreads and donate the sugar to the foodbank?

Oh, I used to do "hand sandpits" too. Mix dry lentils, rice, seeds, nuts, couscous etc together in a container for some sensory play. I did keep them in a tub and reuse them, but after however many times of being rubbed around by baby and toddler hands, they definitely didn't get eaten.

Again, do what you like and have fun OP, I'm not arguing with you. I'm just messing around, picking up on some rather odd and inconsistent attitudes to food, displayed on the thread.

Besides, plenty of people on here have an objection to it because they deem it to be chavvy and common and so on. I think I saw a dig about it correlating with hairbands, which are presumably a class signifier. I don't think people are seeing this as something that rich people do, or at least not the right kind of rich people. Actually this. I've been repeatedly told it's chavvu, tacky, classless, etc. so by MNs assumptions, I'm a poor chavvy skank full of Instagram pictures of my kids in headbands before they have hair, saying I feel #blessed by my ickle babbas, and showing my lack of breeding. certainly not someone who is flaunting their wealth by buying up all the flour and eggs and milk to turn into cake to ruin to deprive the poor of sustenance