One year old baby girl at her Cake Smash in Milton Keynes. She's holding a wooden spoon in the air, looking at it. In front of her is a half smashed cake. She is wearing a pink tutu and behind her is bunting, the letters O N E and daisy decoration

Cakesmash Photo Shoots have got so much more popular over the last 5 years.

The word now needs no explanation and is universally recognised as the way to mark the milestone of a first birthday.

But why do parents choose a Cake smash?

It needs to be said that cake smash photo shoots are nowhere near as wasteful as they are sometimes made out to be. When a baby comes into my studio for their session, it’s often the first time they have been given free rein over food like cake. Many more babies are hesitant to get stuck in than you would imagine. Of course, you do get babies who faceplant the cake and start taking chunks out of it! But babies are pretty good at regulating their own intake of food, so the amount they actually eat during a cake smash is minimal. For the babies who are more hesitant, I often have to give them a spoon and show them how to bash the cake (because a cake makes an excellent drum!)

One year old boy at his Cake Smash in Milton Keynes. He has a fistfull of cake and his foot is resting on the cake. Behind him are blue birthday decorations including balloons and bunting

So, in short, although your baby may make a little bit of a mess, the vast majority of babies don’t actually ‘smash’ the cake. My studio is also spotlessly clean. I have little people in my studio daily, so a thorough cleaning schedule is a must. This means that the only person who has touched the cake, is your baby, so at the end of the session, if you like the remaining cake goes home with you and is perfectly edible (if not a little bashed!)

Essentially a cake smash brings all of the elements of your baby’s crazily speedy development over the last year, into one place. Their ability to sit, stand, pick up objects like a spoon, feed themselves and practice that pincer grip on the sprinkles, all come together in a cake smash. It’s no wonder they are so popular when the end result is such a cute record of all of those milestones.

Then, of course, it’s the milestone itself. Your baby’s first birthday! That first birthday is a huge one and kind of marks the beginning of the end for ‘firsts’ There have been so many ‘firsts’ in the last twelve months, and they definitely slow down a little after that!

And we can’t talk about cake smashes without mentioning the fact that at one, your baby is endlessly filled with personality and expression.

They literally wear every feeling and discovery on their faces at that age. There is no hiding their delight at the squidgy buttercream or their inquisitiveness when presented with a wooden spoon. The way they inspect the jam that’s trapped between their toes and then deem it fit for licking straight off their foot. This is an absolutely precious time. And a cake smash does the best job in capturing it all. Every single exquisite second.

A one year old girl at her Cake Smash. She's looking at the camera, smiling while holding a wooden spoon in the air with a multi-coloured cake in front of her. There is a rainbow balloon arch behind her

Want to see what I’m talking about?

Go take a look at my Cakesmash Gallery Here and see for yourself. It’s little wonder that parents love bringing their baby to a cake smash session and even less of a wonder that they cherish and adore the portraits it produces!

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