Your guide on how to have the best smash cake photoshoot!

The first year is a huge, and potentially the biggest milestone for a baby and their parents. Celebrating with a cake smash photoshoot is so much fun and really cute. We all see those perfect sessions where the baby bites right into the cake and devours it! Messy hands, cake on their nose, they love it. When I first started capturing cake smashes for first birthdays, I noticed the babies just were NOT interested in the cakes! They would maybe touch it for a new texture and possibly taste but then the parents would end up on the floor eating the cake instead of their one year old! Not exactly what the parents or me as the photographer was hoping for. That’s why I created this cake smash guide! If you don’t want this to be your cake smash experience, here is what I recommend to have that messy adorable photoshoot everyone is hoping for as a family photographer!

1. Make sure the session is not too close to nap or bedtime to avoid being tired. A sleepy baby doesn’t care about food or anything else for that matter

2. Make sure they have had a snack but not a full meal before the session. Nobody likes to be hangry and tasting something they’ve never had before might not satisfy a hungry baby. Giving them a snack they know and love will allow them to be happy and curious to try something new.

3. Pick a cake that has a lot of berries and whip cream on top! Whipped cream is messy and babies LOVE berries. It’s something sweet and familiar that will excite them to dig in!

4. Start with family portraits then do the cake smash in the last 5-10 minutes of your photoshoot. This will allow the baby to warm up and feel comfortable before being sat down alone with the camera pointed at them.

5. Sit the cake down FIRST closer to the camera, then have a parent place baby far enough back that they will need to crawl or walk to the cake while the parent runs out of the frame.