In keeping with the theme of Katie’s monthly updates, I wanted her to have a fun cake smash photo shoot for her first birthday. When I did a quick search for photographers here in Wellington that have this service, the photos looked great, but I just found the prices too high.
My practical side decided that I can make it happen for a fraction of the cost, here at home, with a LOT of help from her daddy. Read on and see how we did it!
Make a Cake and Set It Up
The first thing to prepare is find a cake for the baby to smash. You can do a Google search for “baby cake smash” and you’ll get LOTS of ideas for cakes and themes. We just wanted something simple and girly for our session.
I only needed three things from the grocery: a basic chiffon cake, ready-made frosting, sprinkles. That’s it!
It was so much fun to do this, particularly because my cake decorating skills are non-existent. I spent the night before putting in my best effort to make a pretty photogenic cake. No pressure at all here, because I know this cake’s future the next day.
I chose the living room for the shoot, since it had a lot of natural light. The white cardboard background and paper (to protect the carpet), plus the candle and buntings were bought from the craft shop. These will cost you less than $20.
Bring in the Baby
Then we brought out Miss Katie! She just woke up from her morning nap, and was in a good mood. We dressed her up in a regular onesie, it doesn’t have to be new (because it will get messy!). That tutu cost me only $3, by the way.
She was a bit curious what this setup was all about. First, we took some pictures without the cake.
Then, we brought it out. At first she was just looking at it, not knowing what to do.
We prodded her a little bit, and we also played her favorite music video on the TV.
Once she touched the cake and didn’t hear any objections from us, she just went at it!
My camera was setup on Sports mode, because I wanted to take photos quickly and not get blurry shots. Babies move quite fast so it’s important to take a LOT of photos so you get to choose later.
Remember that it will get messy, but definitely fun for you and your baby. Don’t worry about the mess–if you make the setup simple, cleanup will be easy. We had a bath ready for her afterwards to wash off the cake from her.
There you have it, a simple but fun Cake Smash shoot for baby. I think this is a nice way of celebrating a birthday, right?
We set the standard pretty high this year, I wonder what we’ll do for her second –and next birthdays. But for now, I’m pretty happy how this turned out. We have a lot of nice pictures to remember her first birthday.
What about you, what special thing did you do on your baby’s first birthday? Please share, I’d love to know (and get ideas too!)
