How to choose a smash cake

By Deep Arora · Still & Golden Photography · Frankston & South-East Melbourne

At Still & Golden, parents supply their own smash cake. That's deliberate — you know your child's allergies and what they're actually allowed to eat, and I'd rather you had full control over that than have me guess.

But it does leave you standing in a bakery wondering what on earth to order. So here's what I've learned from photographing these, and what genuinely makes a difference once the cake is in front of a one-year-old.

Buttercream, not fondant

This is the single most important thing on the page. Fondant looks immaculate in a display cabinet and behaves like a frisbee under small hands. A one-year-old will pat it, fail to make a dent, and lose interest — and the whole session depends on them making a dent.

Buttercream gives way immediately. Fingers go through it, it holds the marks of small hands, and it comes apart in exactly the way that photographs well. If your baker offers a choice, this is the one to be firm about.

One tier is plenty

Tall, multi-tiered cakes are lovely and completely wrong for this. They tower over a seated one-year-old, they're harder to reach into, and most of the cake ends up in the bin.

A single tier of roughly 5 to 6 inches sits at about the right height — low enough to reach into comfortably, and small enough to look proportionate next to your baby rather than dwarfing them. It's also considerably cheaper, which matters given its fate.

Pale icing photographs best

Colour is where a nice cake quietly ruins a set of photos. Deep reds, purples and black are heavily dyed, and that dye ends up on skin, in hair, on outfits and on whatever is underneath. Red in particular stains hands for a day or two and can look alarming rather than charming in photographs.

Soft colours do the opposite — they keep the images bright, they photograph cleanly against a light backdrop, and the mess still reads as cake rather than a crime scene:

• Whites, creams and ivory — always work, always clean.
• Pastels — soft pinks, peaches, mints, butter yellows. Lovely against a neutral setup.
• A single accent — if you want more colour, put it in one element (a topper, a drip, a few flowers) rather than the whole cake.

If your party has a strong colour theme, it's usually better to carry it through the balloons and the outfit than through the icing.

Allergies and dietary needs

For a lot of families this is a genuine first — the first real cake, and often the first exposure to egg, dairy or wheat all at once. That's worth thinking about a few weeks ahead rather than on the morning.

The good news is a smash cake doesn't need to be a conventional cake at all. Refined-sugar-free bakes, egg-free and dairy-free recipes, and simple banana or apple-based cakes all smash beautifully. What matters photographically is the texture and colour, not the recipe.

If you're introducing an allergen for the first time, do it at home a few days before the session rather than in front of the camera. That way you know how your little one reacts, and the session stays about the birthday.

Where to get one in South-East Melbourne

Three routes, all of which I've seen work:

A local bakery or cake decorator

Most bakeries across Frankston, Chelsea, Seaford, Langwarrin and Mt Eliza will make a smash cake to order, and many have done plenty of them. Search for cake decorators in your suburb, and when you enquire, ask specifically for a small single-tier smash cake with buttercream icing — that phrasing gets you the right thing straight away. Allow a week or two of notice, more in busy periods.

A supermarket cake, dressed up

A plain round supermarket sponge with buttercream is perfectly good, costs very little, and can be made to look the part with a topper, a few fresh flowers or some sprinkles. Nobody photographing it will be able to tell, and neither will your one-year-old.

Baking it yourself

Plenty of parents do, and there's something nice about it. If you go this route, keep the recipe simple and the icing generous. A dense cake holds together for the clean shots; a very light sponge can collapse before anyone touches it.

Timing and storage

• Collect it the day before or the morning of. Fresher icing behaves better than icing that's been sitting for days.
• Keep it in the fridge until shortly before we start. A cold cake holds its shape through the clean portraits at the start of the hour.
• Don't let it sit in a warm car. On a hot Melbourne day buttercream softens quickly, and a slumped cake is hard to rescue.
• Bring the topper separately if it's delicate, and we'll place it just before the cake goes down.

The short version

• Single tier, around 5 to 6 inches.
• Buttercream icing — never fondant.
• Pale or pastel colours; avoid deep reds, purples and black.
• Any recipe that suits your child, including allergy-friendly bakes.
• Fridge until shortly before, and don't leave it in the car.

Once you book, I send through a short guide covering the cake alongside outfit and timing suggestions, so none of this has to be remembered from a blog post.

Curious how the session itself unfolds? Read what actually happens at a cake smash session, or see the full details on the cake smash photography page.