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.

Wow. People were awful to OP.

I have no in investment in this thread, never done a cake smash. As someone who's simply read the thread, I am upset on OP's behalf.

And no, she absolutely did NOT give as good as she got. She finally snapped after being bullied, mocked and accused of being 12.

Look at yourselves.

It's a red button issue though. I'm pretty sure it was done as a bit of a goad and the OP is absolutely fine.

I've been on here bloody ages and my spidey senses are usually pretty good. It can get a bit rough here (both sides have been flinging) so it's best to back off and hide threads on that case.

You're trying really hard to justify it Fekko. You really can't.

I just don't take it on face value that's all.

I've seen much worse and genuinely nasty stuff on here but this thread feels (mostly) ok. There have been some shite but that has gone now (with a lot of other stuff too).

There is absolutely no justification for barbs, slag offs and insults - and I am peering over my glasses at everyone on here. I'm usually quite school marm-ish but I'm not feeling the vibes on here.

I don't see any reason to think OP is fake. I also don't understand why, if you think someone's not genuine, you'd engage with them as if they were genuine by arguing with them and telling them why they are wrong. Makes no sense.

EvansOvalPies has been particularly awful, sneering about ''such dreadful people" and their "tacky" habits.

All the stuff about waste is a total red herring. So transparent. No one was able to explain why messy play involving custard, jelly etc is not similarly morally reprehensible.

It's all simply about vile, supercilious posters wanting to signal how sophisticated they are by shitting all over someone else's idea of a fun thing to spend their money on. Those posters are the polar opposite of sophisticated. And they are loathsome.

I didn't say fake - more... naughty? Playing with people. You don't have to be around here long to know how certain threads will go.

They say dreadful and tacky, you say supercilious and loathsome. Same old same old.

Not the same.

I'm describing their behaviour to other people as supercilious (because they are looking down on others) and loathsome (because it is spiteful to sneer like that).

'Tacky' and 'dreadful' were used to describe people and their tastes on no other grounds than that these posters had different preferences. It's just so unpleasant and loaded with snobbery.

MerchantofVenice hear hear. You put it much better than me. Those people probably have children. Great role models.

Role models? Do you believe that people actually post on here as they behave or speak/type as they do in the real world, or that toddlers are reading the threads? Not really.

How many times have you nodded and smiled benignly at another persons life choices, partner, thoughts or clothes while thinking to yourself 'what the hell???'. We all do.

However the keyboard is a very empowering instrument for some and brings out the gobby, silly and downright rude in a lot of people.

I assume that most people who post on boards know this, and are adult enough to move on from crap thrown - I was threatened with a 'battering' many moons ago by a wet blanket who thought she was 'well hard' but heartened by
Mumsnetters who defended me and pm-ed me to make sure I was ok. She (or he?) was just a wet wuss hiding behind her keyboard.

And it could be argued that encouraging a small child to dive head first into a cake could be a bad idea as it may be applauded and rewarded in this instance but definitely not so at great aunt Mary's 80th birthday party.

I don't like nastiness on here (or real life) but genuinely don't feel that this thread was particularly overloaded with it. The OP came back with a few classist and ageist comments herself which isn't the sign of someone wounded by some arsey comments. It definitely ran well past its natural life because people over invested.

I am absolutely not defending the 'tacky' comments nor the ageist barbs. But it is a free and open forum and we have all walks of life on here - some genuine posters and some agitators.

Have a smash. Don't have a smash. Enjoy what you do - some people will love it and some won't. In real life I hope they people you care about don't trash your plans and ideas - but know that your wedding plans, kids names/party ideas/school choices and even what you feed them is your choice and not to everyone's taste or choice, nor should it be.

Well, I think we'll have to agree to disagree. I think OP's ill-judged insults were precisely the sign of someone lashing out after being deeply upset.

I think if you look back through the thread, it's clear that loads of nasty judgemental comments were levelled at OP before she snapped.

You might be right, of course - it might have all been a massive wind-up. But how would we know (your spidey senses aside)? Is it worth attacking someone on the off-chance that they're in on the whole hilarious thing?

And I think it's highly unlikely that one isolated cake smash event is going to mould the child's approach to all cake or all food. Another red herring I feel.

If you look at the title, it's all about cake smashing and nothing on baking advice.
It suggests the OP knew exactly what she wanted out of the thread, and it wasn't baking advice.

Have you never said one bad word in front of a child and found to your horror that this is the only word repeated loudly and frequently?

As I said - too much time invested in a thread of not much importance in the great scheme of things. It's cake, nobody died.

You could be right Lweji Or she could have written that title because that's what the cake was for and she was sort of explaining why she needed a giant cupcake.

We can't know. But it costs me nothing not to sneer at someone and pour scorn on their ideas. So I don't get why people did precisely that on a hunch

Maybe I'm getting too cynical in my old age. :)

I find it hilarious that people genuinely believe that a one year old will suddenly turn into a dessert destroying deliquent after one experience of being photographed while eating an overly large cupcake. What ridiculous hyperbole. Makes me want to arrange a cake smash event for my next birthday; ooh what villainy!

How do children learn? By positive reaction to what they do or say. Kid burps loudly and people laugh, kid thinks burping loudly is a good thing.

Child is encouraged to dive hear first into cake that is placed in front of them. Child does a half hearted dabble with hands on icing. Not sure what to do - parents egg them on, then most likely pull off chunks of cake, smear icing over child. Everyone claps, cheers, takes a million photos, oohs, ahhhhs and tells them how good they've been - hell if that was me I'd be doing it at every opportunity. Next time child sees a cake.... rediculous?

Mmmm cake smash ... I dream of doing a cake smash myself ... with a giant sticky chocolate cake as big as a horse ... scrunching it through my fingers ... rolling around in all that gooey stickiness ... totally naked ...

Oh shit, didn't mean to post that. Meant to say 'weird thread'.

Um, at one year old?? I have six children. A one year old is not going to remember the cake incident 12 months later for his/her second birthday. Yes, you are being ridiculous.

Thank you for the lovely comments and the advice. It turned out how I wanted!

Wow that looks great!

Awesome. When is your cake smash? Hope you get some great pictures. Ours came out great and I was really pleased with them