Giant cupcake cake smash

[PandaEyes2]

Hi all,

I have my sons cake smash this Sunday (8th). I have practiced his cake once and it wasn't too bad. I've got the right recipe and cooked well last time.

However I've just done another practice run just to be sure and it seems worse than last time (exact same recipe). I am putting the oven on 160c and on my oven I have a setting that's apparently good for cakes (the picture for it looks like just 2 lines 1 above the other, whereas the normal fan oven has a fan in the middle). I'm wondering if I should just cook it using the ordinary fan oven setting as I've found this time that the sides are cooking long before the middle.

Doesn't anyone have any words of wisdom. I know it will be smashed up but I can't take a cake this is raw in the middle. I feel I have a good recipe so I'm prepared to stick with it.

I'm cooking the bottom first and covering with foil around 20 minutes in so the top doesn't burn and takes around an hour and pretty much the same for the top.

Thank you @magicstar1 I will have a look.

Also...if you want to make a giant cake and throw it off the roof, you can...don't worry about what anyone else says.

He can eat undercooked cake mix. No one died from licking the spoon!

I'm not concerned about him eating it if it's a little undercooked, I'm more worried about if it'll stand up and not cave in.

So with a cake smash, is it actually a photo shoot of a cake smash.

Asking for a friend .......

@UrsulaPandress... yes, some photographers will provide outfits, cakes, bunting, balloons etc. Some will have different packages. I didn't like the cake the photographer provides as I wanted a traditional looking cake with blue icing for my boy, again it's just personal preference! You can google some images and it will bring up loads.

What’s wrong with the traditional photo of the child eating a slice and smearing it all over their face? Why must they be handed the whole cake to waste?

160c sounds too low if you're not using the fan. I usually bake at 160c with fan which is the same as 180c without fan.

Thank you @TickledOnion that's worth baring in mind!

Or just cook for much longer. Giant cupcakes are pretty deep so need a long time to cook. Put some foil on top of it looks like it's burning.

This reminds me of when my mother told me to “think of all the starving children in Africa!” if I wasted food!

What a waste. How about you give him a slice to play with and take a pic. Not book a whole smash.

Would you really bake 3 cakes that don't get eaten just for this. I bet you use wipes in your house instead of cloths.

Who are you to pass judgment on how I clean my home! I'll have you know I'm very particular about how my house is cleaned and I'm quite offered you would say something like that! How about instead of commenting on something you don't approve of you just butt out!

I will try to solve world hunger on my next mission!

:( this kind of thing makes me sad

But if you do want to do it, the issue will be the same as you get with bigger mixes. Double line the tin, and drop the temperature/ bake for longer.

Undercooked cake batter is pretty low on the risk factor imo.

Or... just cut the cake and you can all eat it? He'll still look cute.

What a waste, I despair I really do.

Go cooler for longer. However for whose benefit is it really? Teen Dc now hate the early pics of them with smeared faces, however cute it seemed at the time (and not staged). Is it really for his benefit or for you to share on SM?

Wow there's so many judgmental assholes on here today!

Let me guess a bunch of wanna be middle
Class women pretending they have class hahaha do me a favour!!!

Mums net is tacky af to be fair but your still all on it 😂

People can be such judgemental arseholes sometimes.

She asked for baking advice not her moral compass reset to ‘judgemental dickhead’

I don’t like them either, but I’m not going to start a picket line outside the photographers.

OP do what you want. It’s a bloody cake FGS, there’s far more food wasted by supermarkets and restaurants that I bet everyone here frequents.

Oh for goodness sakes, it's a cake smash, she's not causing 3rd world hunger.
For what it's worth when I had cake smash photos we bought a 50p small Victoria sponge which was Tesco value and I covered it in Betty Croker icing.
I don't get what the hatred is about? Is it ok because I used a 50p cake?
What about nurseries that do messy play with jelly, custard, shaving foam, cornflour and water, is that wasteful too?
Or the messy play sessions my local children's centre runs every week. Should children not learn from the sensory experience of playing with different textures including food? Madness.

I really don't see what the issue is... I'm not asking for anyone to shoot the queen or try to talk some sense into Donald trump. I just want advice on a cake!

Unfortunately starving children in Africa will always be an unfortunate issue. And as much as it saddens me, there's nothing I can do about it (expect donate the odd bit of money here to different charity's). However I'm not flying my son to Africa and letting him eat it in front of them! We are in 2017 for goodness sake, there are a lot of people out there who have had this for their children it's not just something that I've suddenly thought up. I'm not looking for backlash!

Naff and tacky nonsense.
Nobody wants a picture of a baby smeared in cake

They'll be boycotting nurseries next Panda because they let children do water play, when some children in Africa don't have clean water to drink let alone play with.

Thank you to those of you who are actually talking sense and sticking up for me! I'm sure it is more for our benefit but why should that stop us. I know he won't remember it but I know I'll cherish the photos forever. First birthday to me is special, so why not make a big deal of it?

@2014newme I do