DIY Cake Smash

Last year for Christopher’s 1st birthday we were right in the middle of a move from Hungary to Germany. 

Luckily, the apartment we were renting was semi-furnished so we had the essentials but everything else was already in Germany. 

Needless to say we weren’t able to throw a big party. 

Of course, being the celebration obsessed mom that I am, the party was not canceled but rather postponed. Sound familiar? 

With social distancing and quarantine life being the status quo these days I thought this post might be useful to many other moms needing to postpone their little ones big celebrations while still making the actual birthday really special. 

What I did was make my own cake smash. A cake smash is a good way to celebrate on a small scale because you still have birthday cake, balloons, a party hat and amazing photos to treasure for years to come. In this blog post I share all the steps I took to create the perfect cake smash.

This is what you will need to make your own cake smash:

• A backdrop (with balloons, birthday banner, tassels, streamers etc. get creative!)
• A party hat
• Cute outfit (this is totally optional, when cake is involved just a plain diaper will do!)
• Cake
• Camera (the camera on your phone can also work)

Finding the items to make your backdrop should be easy. If you are crafty you can make the decor yourself. Usually I spend months ahead of time making my own party decor, but planning a move with 2 toddlers allowed for little spare time. 

I did some online shopping and came across Ginger Ray party supplies. They have the most beautiful selection of party decor and everything you need to throw a party. 

Among their products is a complete baby cake smash kit with everything you need to make your own cake smash – minus the cake (we’ll get to that later). 

The kit includes:

• 1 x bunting
• 1 x party hat 
• 16 x tassels 
• 5 x confetti balloons

The package arrived in record time from the UK to Hungary and the quality was exceptional. I found an extra foil balloon from another shop which said “First Birthday Boy” but with a color scheme of blue everything matches.

So once I had my kit ready I needed to prepare a cake. Usually this is my shining point. I have a passion for themed birthday cakes so I was a little disappointed that I wasn’t able to make my sons 1st birthday cake (with all my baking tools already in Germany). But I made a backup plan and ordered a cake from the local cake shop. I collected the cake the day before the birthday to make sure it was ready in time. 

If you aren’t able to order a cake, you can definitely make your own! Don’t worry too much about it being perfect because the truth is, most 1 years olds aren’t going to dig in and eat the whole thing. It’s mainly for them to make a mess so you can snap some cute pics of them. Just bake a simple vanilla sponge cake and decorate it with some colored whipped cream. You can even use a cupcake if you like. 

The setup: 

The night before the birthday I setup the backdrop of the shoot using the kit I bought. 

When choosing a spot for your setup, find a place with good natural lighting so that you will get the best pictures. 

The setup was fairly simple and I got it to look exactly as advertised so I was satisfied. 

The shoot: 

On the morning of Christopher’s birthday I took a few photos of him wearing the cute outfit I had purchased for the occasion in front of the backdrop (before we added the cake). 

Then in the afternoon, when Daniel came home from work, we did another shoot with the cake. This time only wearing a diaper. We waited until after nap time so that he was in the best mood. 

Daniel took some photos with the Canon and I used my iPhone at the same time. Gideon was an excellent assistant getting Christopher to smile and showing him what to do with the cake. At one point he was even feeding Christopher which was adorable! 

At the end we all had some fun and ate the cake together. It ended up being a very special birthday celebration and we got some amazing photos from it. 

A good thing about doing the cake smash ahead of the actual birthday party is that you can print the photos and use them as part of the decor or even have them on your invitation. 

We celebrated his party with all our friends 2 weeks later once we were in Germany. 

I was able to reuse everything that came in the cake smash kit (apart from the balloons, of course) for the birthday party too. I ordered everything else we needed for the party from Ginger Ray too so all the decor matched and I didn’t have to think too much about it.

This was the first time I had ordered all the party decor instead of making it myself and I’m so grateful I was able to do so because it saved me so much time! 

And of course I used that time to make him a birthday cake! 

I highly recommend Ginger Ray for any party you are planning because of their excellent quality and good service. 

A cake smash is messy and fun and you can’t really go wrong with it. even attaching a few balloons to your baby’s highchair and snapping a few shots of them eating their very first birthday cake will make some incredible memories.

However big or small you choose to go with it is up to you. Whatever you decide, I hope you got a few useful tips from this post!

Sincerely,