The cake smash.

Meet Everleigh. She was one day away from turning one. I had been planning this cake smash shoot for a long time. Ok, to be fair well over a year. She is my first grandchild and let's face it, when you have a relative who is a photographer and you are a cute as she is, she is destined for years of free photoshoots. This cake smash was no exception.

I mainly specialize in sports action and seniors/family photography. So, when I started researching how to capture the cake smash, most articles and videos I found all covered the action of the cake smash. Challenge accepted!

When starting off, I found a cute "sweetshop" backdrop that I thought would go well with some of the decorations I already had around my house. At the time this was done, my studio was packed up and I used the inside of our house. Evie was already comfortable in our house, just not used to having decorations and cupcakes on the floor for her to explore and eat!

I used a 7x5 Kate backdrop with a clear plastic mat, also from Kate. I used a white backdrop for the floor and put the plastic mat over it. I think if one used a white sheet, that would have been fine as well. I had bought some pink flowers from the dollar store and cut off the stems and randomly placed them around the mat. I also placed them on the seam of the bottom of the backdrop and the floor. This helped blend in the backdrop a little better to the floor. I then added in my props. Other than the flowers and the cake mix and frosting, I didn't buy anything else. The white stand that the cake is sitting on, I bought off of Etsy a few years ago.

I liked the idea of having cupcakes around the mat as well. This went in line with the "sweetshop" theme of the backdrop. I had scored these free white stands a few years ago (more on these below) and put some cupcakes on them. After doing another glance at the final set, I decided it needed more flowers. Luckily, my mini roses and hollyhocks were still in bloom. They were a pretty coral/pink and white color. I cut the thorns off and added those in for some extra dimension.

Lights, Camera, Action!

Evie and her parents arrived, and we let her settle in for about 10 minutes, got her dressed and then I brought out the cake/cupcakes. Her parents set her down on the set and then we all watched her, me on the floor with camera in hand. It took her around a minute and then she really started to become fascinated with the frosting.

My take aways: 1) the lights I use (FJ400's) can make a beeping noise when the flash goes off. I should have turned this off. I like having them on when I do team and individual sports pictures so I can hear them go off. I think this could have been distracting for Evie. 2) I loved the look the plastic mat gave the pics, BUT I wish I had bought a larger plastic mat. I actually got the mat for a sports purpose and using it for the cake smash made me realize that I will need something bigger. So fine for this but not fine for it's actual intent. 3) true to every blog and etc that I researched, some kiddos like the cake, some prefer the frosting, and others are confused as to what is going on. Evie was all about the frosting. I don't think she discovered the actual cake but with the cute frosting pictures, who even needs the cake!

Would I do this again? Absolutely! It was a fun experience, and I am glad the first time I tried this was on my own family. There was zero pressure, and the parents had fun watching their birthday girl explore the frosting. In the northern Minnesota area and want to know more about a cake smash session? Fill out the contact form below and I will get back to you.