Anonymous wrote:Another annoying way for parents to curate moments that were once spontaneous and cute and turn it into an empty photo op.

For the love of god. There is no such thing as a 1 year old "spontaneously" having some cake. They didn't jump in the car and go to a bakery. This is not new. I have a picture of me at 1 with a destroyed little cake, actually it was probably an 8" round pan, so not exactly little, it was everywhere. It was 35 years ago.

But here I go, adding to the shit stirring that OP intentionally trolled for. Because even if you have never heard of anything baby related (um like me, what the hell is a Nose Frida I remember asking) any idiot can figure out what the words "smash" and "cake" probably mean when used together in reference to a baby eating cake.

Anonymous wrote:I wasn't going to do one but Giant had a deal where the smash cake was free if I bought a sheet cake, so we had a smash cake. It was 12 years ago and I still love that awesome photo of my kid covered in rainbow frosting. Do one or don't do one. It's not awful either way.

I abhor pictures of people with messy faces.

Anonymous wrote:Another annoying way for parents to curate moments that were once spontaneous and cute and turn it into an empty photo op.

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jeez. I cant believe that even letting a baby play in cake is seen as over the top.

I have an 8 month old and wasn't planning on having any party but was going to go buy a cupcake to let her smash. That felt like the absolute lowest maintenence birthday celebration ever lol.

Of all the things to harp on...it's just a little fun. I agree that yogurt/Ezekiel bread lady is crazy, and I suppose baking and preparing a perfect mini birthday cake seems like some work (but what if they just genuinely enjoy baking?!) but what do you care?

This is something that doesn't hurt a kid and is a good time and yes, gasp, a good picture opportunity.

Letting a baby play in cake is not seen as over the top. People have done this forever.

Making a baby a separate individual cake to play in is seen as over the top. (And a cupcake is not a "smash cake" -- it's just a cupcake -- you're fine.)

Exactly. We gave my daughter a piece of cake on her first birthday. It was the first time she'd ever had chocolate, and it was an instant hit. She didn't smash it, though, she just ate it with her fingers. It was messy, but in a normal baby-eating way. Micromanaging and overstaging and creating "photo ops" for events that are just supposed to be fun gets so much on my nerves.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a small cake that parents make (or have made) for their child on their first birthdays. Allegedly looks good for photo ops when the kid "smashes" the cake.
Along the same lines as: gender reveal parties, push presents, babymoons, etc

Back when we didn't know any better, 'we' would just use a piece from the regular birthday cake.

Yeah, how silly were we?

Actually, we didn't smash at all. That would have been considered incredibly rude. My mother saw a smash cake party recently and emailed me "WTF is this all about? There's cake everywhere. Why did they allow X to do this?"

Eh, I love baking and had a great time baking this cake for my son's 1st: http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2010/09/monkey-cake/ (option 2). You get an extra cupcake for the kid. It was his first chocolate, and if he could have figured out how to lick his high chair tray clean, he would have. It was really fun. But, I'm the dork who's excited to bake fun shaped cakes for her kids.

But, if I weren't into baking, he would have just gotten a slice of whatever!

That monkey cake is delicious, by the way!

Anonymous wrote:Jeez. I cant believe that even letting a baby play in cake is seen as over the top.

I have an 8 month old and wasn't planning on having any party but was going to go buy a cupcake to let her smash. That felt like the absolute lowest maintenence birthday celebration ever lol.

Of all the things to harp on...it's just a little fun. I agree that yogurt/Ezekiel bread lady is crazy, and I suppose baking and preparing a perfect mini birthday cake seems like some work (but what if they just genuinely enjoy baking?!) but what do you care?

This is something that doesn't hurt a kid and is a good time and yes, gasp, a good picture opportunity.

Letting a baby play in cake is not seen as over the top. People have done this forever.

Making a baby a separate individual cake to play in is seen as over the top. (And a cupcake is not a "smash cake" -- it's just a cupcake -- you're fine.)

Jeez. I cant believe that even letting a baby play in cake is seen as over the top.

I have an 8 month old and wasn't planning on having any party but was going to go buy a cupcake to let her smash. That felt like the absolute lowest maintenence birthday celebration ever lol.

Of all the things to harp on...it's just a little fun. I agree that yogurt/Ezekiel bread lady is crazy, and I suppose baking and preparing a perfect mini birthday cake seems like some work (but what if they just genuinely enjoy baking?!) but what do you care?

This is something that doesn't hurt a kid and is a good time and yes, gasp, a good picture opportunity.

Anonymous wrote:I almost got wrapped up in the smash cake nonsense with my twins. I almost made (? like I seriously had time to do this) them their own smash cakes. Then three days before in a moment of clarity, I said F It you can eat Costco Cake just like the rest of us. So I cut off a corner of cake for each of them and everyone was happy.

If you are on Facebook or Instagram or any social media its so easy to think that you NEED a smash cake at a First Birthday Party.

Yes, I think this is the best answer. Add to that Pinterest, which I don't think is bad ,but definitely has amped up keeping up with the Joneses aspect of our lives.

I almost got wrapped up in the smash cake nonsense with my twins. I almost made (? like I seriously had time to do this) them their own smash cakes. Then three days before in a moment of clarity, I said F It you can eat Costco Cake just like the rest of us. So I cut off a corner of cake for each of them and everyone was happy.

If you are on Facebook or Instagram or any social media its so easy to think that you NEED a smash cake at a First Birthday Party.

Anonymous wrote:My stupid DIL did this smash cake.

Monkey see monkey do.

If she did anything original I think we'd all drop dead. God she gets on my last nerve. And she's ugly too.

You're terrible.

So we just didn't a piece of cake, because I made her cake and wasn't going to make two.

I did go to a 1st birthday party where the smash cake had fondant icing. So it looked great, but the birthday boy couldn't break into it because the icing was too hard. It was...comical. His mother had to bash in a side of the cake for him. He was confused.

So people think it's cute when they have a gigantic mess, icing all over face and fingers which is hard to clean off, and a waste of a (small) cake?

Do people also laugh and cheer when your kids dumps out a bowl of cherrios? Or flings avacoda? Or any other messy foods?

Dd got a few pieces of angel food cake which was easy to pick up with her fingers and easy to easy. A few crumbs. Done and done

Anonymous wrote:Some in my circle make a faux cake for the baby to smash. Layers of ezekiel bread and greek yogurt, shaped into a mini cake. Guests get the real cake.

I don't even know WTF ezekiel bread is. Good thing my youngest is in first grade.

I "made" one for DD, which was banana muffin and whipped cream. She wasn't a fan of sugar back then, not things the texture of frosting or paint (grew out of that also). She LOVED it and the guests enjoyed cupcakes. We did put a cupcake on her tray but she wasn't interested.