Cake Smash with Here Or There Photography

​If you have a young child, you're interested in cakes, or you have a Pinterest account, you have likely heard the term 'Cake Smash', but what is it?

The cake smash trend started in America and is commonly done to celebrate a child turning 1. In it's most basic form it requires a beautiful cake, a young child and a camera... Cake smashes can also be done as a fun way to celebrate and record a milestone birthday, for example a 21st or 30th birthday.

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to do a Cake Smash Session with local photographer Elisha from Here Or There Photography. Her studio in Ingliston is conveniently located less than 30km from my kitchen in Bacchus Marsh and I love supporting fellow local small businesses. I had previously met Elisha when she did a Christmas mini-session with my daughter who was 4 months old at the time, and I had admired her gentle yet confident way of positioning Miss A and catching on film the most fleeting glimpses of smiles.

Photo from Miss A's Christmas mini-session December 2015

​With Miss A now 8 months older, I looked forward to professionally recording some of her animated facial expressions, and of course catching her first taste of cake.

Miss A is a little unsure of her first taste of cake, but she quickly decides she's a fan!

​The cake I made for the shoot was a Vanilla Cake made with natural sugars in place of refined sugars, and a cream cheese frosting.  The only refined sugar in the whole cake was the edible 1 topper (made with white chocolate and sprinkles) and a small scattering of edible confetti. As Miss A had only had the tiniest amounts of refined sugar before this, I wasn't too keen on giving her free range with an entire cake, so the natural sugars were a nice compromise in my view. Did she actually eat much of the cake? In fact, yes, I was surprised by how much she ate. She LOVED rubbing her hands in the frosting and licking it off her fingers, then once she found the cake inside she was grabbing fistfuls and shoving them in her mouth! This all made for great photos which Elisha captured beautifully.

Miss A grabbing fistfuls of cake!

Elisha let me take a few behind-the-scenes photos for the purpose of this blog post, and I think it also helps to illustrate the difference in quality between an amateur with a smartphone (me) and professional quality photos.

My photo

Elisha's photo

​Throughout the whole session Elisha made sure to maintain a warm temperature in the studio, which along with her calm and reassuring demeanour, ensured Miss A felt comfortable. Elisha also tirelessly entertained her to ensure she was smiling and facing toward the camera when needed. Since receiving the disc of images from the session Elisha's talented eye for the perfect shot has continued to amaze me, and I'm beyond happy with the final images.

Miss A especially loved the clean up part of the session. She loves bubble baths and her rubber duckies so there were HEAPS of smiles here.

For the remainder of 2016, I am offering a special deal of 10% off the price of Cake Smash cakes (sugar-free or regular) to customers who are booked in for a Cake Smash Session with Here Or There Photography. Simply let me know you're booked in with Elisha, then once I have confirmed I will update your quote for the 10% discount. Easy!

Here Or There Photography can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/hereortherephotography or on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/here_or_there_photography. Let her know I sent you! ​☺

UPDATE: Almost a year later and these are still among my favourite photos of Miss A. I'm so glad to have this special keepsake to look back on!