A cake smash session is a fun, messy, and memorable way to celebrate your little one’s first birthday.
But choosing the right cake is just as important as picking the perfect outfit or backdrop! The wrong cake can be too tough to smash, too slippery to handle, or even stain little hands and faces. To make sure you get the absolute most from your cake smash photo shoot, here’s everything you need to know when selecting the perfect cake. If you’re still deciding whether a cake smash is right for you, you may also find my Cake Smash Session Guide helpful
Why the Right Cake Matters for a Cake Smash
Your baby’s first reaction to the cake will set the tone for the whole session. If it’s too hard, too sticky, or just not baby-friendly, they might be unsure about diving in. They’re already in a new environment, so we don’t want extra barriers getting in the way of them relaxing and having fun.
The perfect cake is:
Soft and smashable – easy for little hands to grab and squish
Baby-friendly in size and design – it doesn’t need to be massive – 6-8″ is fine! Generally, I sit babies behind it for the action and so if it’s really wide, they can struggle to get close to it.
Best Cake Types for a Cake Smash
The texture of the cake makes all the difference. You want something soft, fluffy, and easy to break apart. In my experience, soft sponge with buttercream icing consistently produces the happiest babies and the best photos (but steer away from chocolate as it can look like, shall we something more unpleasant, in the finished pictures).
Buttercream icing works better than fondant icing as it is soft, squishy and creamy for the maximum messy experience. It’s worth staying away from fruitcake or super dense cake as it’s too tough for little hands to play with and multi tiered cakes can end up dwarfing your baby in the pictures and pull focus from the true star of the show.
Buttercream vs. Fondant – Which is Best?
Buttercream is the clear winner! It’s perfect because it’s easy to grab, it smears beautifully for supremely messy photos and it doesn’t require a lot of effort to break through. Fondant can provide a challenge to get through for little hands and it lacks the mess factor which is part of the fun after all! Fondant can also peel off in large pieces, which many babies find frustrating rather than fun.
You don’t Need to have it Professionally Made
When cake smashes started, a lot of it was about how elaborate the cake was and, given that time is limited when you’re raising a nearly one year old, there’s not always a lot of time for baking. So many people felt they needed to get one professionally made. Now, I’m definitely not against this but I’d hate you to think that this is your only option. Although the cake is going to be centre stage for at least some of your photo shoot, it really doesn’t need to be super fancy to look great in your finished images. Home made is also fabulous and also there are an increasing range of supermarket cakes that do the job just wonderfully. There are also a large range of premade cake decorations online that you can use to tie a basic iced cake into your theme.
Fancy a look at my top ten recommendations for a supermarket cake – check out this article!
Cake Size & Shape Tips
Size matters more than you might think. A 6-8 inch round cake is ideal – big enough to smash but not too large to be overwhelming. Single tiers offer your baby the easiest access and round or slightly domed cakes work well – if you’re looking for something a bit different to a standard round cake, the giant cupcake can work really well. I do have cake stands that you can borrow for your photo shoot in a variety of styles but I’d definitely only recommend using them if you want maximum destruction as it’s almost guaranteed that your cake will end up on the floor at some point!
Candles & Toppers
Candles and toppers can be a fun addition to your cake smash but they’re not essential. They generally come with quite baby-unfriendly spiky bits too so they don’t tend to stay in for the whole shoot so if you don’t have anything you want to use, then don’t feel obliged to get anything specially.
Best Cake Colours for a Cake Smash
The cake is the going to be in a lot of your photos, so its colour is important! You’ll already have selected a backdrop colour when you come to visit so it is worth choosing something that complements your choice with soft pastels and neutrals really going with anything and photographing beautifully.
Honestly, soft pastels and light neutrals tend to reflect light beautifully and keep the focus on your baby rather than the mess. If you like a classic, then you can’t go wrong with white or cream on either a fully iced or semi naked cake.
Really strong colours can stain a bit but if you like it bright and bold, then I find sanitiser will get any leftover colour off of skin but probably steer clear of red icing as the finished result can look like a horror movie.
Decorations & Fillings – What to Avoid
Your cake should be safe, simple, and baby-friendly. Simple buttercream swirls always look great and if your baby is a big fan of fruit, including their favourite as a topping can really encourage them to dig in! You can’t go wrong with those tiny sprinkle dots (though I warn you now, you will be finding them everywhere for days!) but try to avoid anything that could be a choking hazard such as nuts or those larger decorative pearls. Lots of cakes have a large centrepiece such as a rainbow or a mermaid tail and, while these can look amazing if they chime with your theme, they are probably going to be your baby’s focus as they are enticingly easy to grab and can distract them from really getting stuck into the cake. Usually I say to start with them in so we get themed photos and then take them off so they don’t provide a distraction through all of your session.
Allergy-Friendly Options
Because I don’t provide the cake, you have full control over ingredients and can choose what you know your baby tolerates best. The Cake Box chain offer egg-free cakes and they have branches everywhere, plus their icing is super squish-able (and tasty). Banana based cakes can be a natural low sugar alternative and I’m reliably informed that a standard hack for creating vegan cakes is a a cake mix and lemonade.
The most important thing to remember is that there is no “perfect” way to do a cake smash. Some babies dive straight in, others take their time, and some are simply more interested in exploring than destroying. All of these reactions create beautiful, authentic photographs.
The best cake smash sessions happen when everyone relaxes and lets your baby lead the experience. Whether they enthusiastically demolish the cake or just poke it with one curious finger, you’ll come away with memories of this fleeting stage that you’ll treasure for years.
