27th March 2023 / In-Home Cake Smash Photography Shoot, Battersea, London / Newborn, Family and Cake Smash Photographer

A little look at this gorgeous at home cake smash shoot in honour of this little man’s first birthday and the ins and outs of my cake smash shoots.

When should you have a cake smash photography shoot?

Cake smash photography shoots are usually booked to mark that all important baby’s first birthday. Having said that, there are no hard and fast rules; it’s entirely up to you when you book a cake smash shoot. As long as your little one is sitting up confidently and unaided and eating solid foods, a cake smash shoot can be booked at any time. Perhaps you’d like to have you little one’s cake smash to coincide with their actual birthday or perhaps you have another date in mind, days, weeks or even a few months before or after the big day! Or perhaps you’d like a cake smash shoot to mark their second or third birthday! It simply doesn’t matter and whenever we do the shoot, we will capture beautiful images.

Some details

My cake smash photography shoots take place in the comfort of your own home. Your little one can feel at home (literally!) allowing their cheeky personalities to shine through and everything is on hand for you so you can relax and enjoy the experience.

The shoot is up to 1 hour; long enough to capture a lovely variety of photographs for you to choose from but not too long that the star of the show gets bored and restless.

My cake smash photography shoots are designed to be completely baby led. Your little one can dig into their cake and get as messy as they like or perhaps approach it in a slightly more reserved way! We just have to wait and see. Whichever way they go, we will capture a variety of beautiful images, some before the cake is introduced while they are lovely and clean, some during the smash while there are exploring their cake and some afterwards when they are covered from head to toe in icing and crumbs! The shoots are just great messy fun and hilarious to watch; no shortage of cheeky grins and excited little faces at being allowed to explore their cake.

Whilst these cake smash shoots are very different from a traditional newborn shoot where the baby is mostly asleep, the images we capture will be no less special. At this age, their cheeky little personalities and inquisitive natures really shine through.

Will my baby actually eat any cake?

This is a common concern when booking your little one’s cake smash. Most little ones don’t actually eat much cake during their cake smash photography shoot. Some babies will dive straight in and really enjoy getting messy and will eat larger chunks of cake (or even go in face first which is always hilarious)! Some will be more reserved, licking icing off their fingers or picking up tiny crumbs. The focus for most of the shoot will just be on messy play; your little one doesn’t have to eat much at all to capture fun photographs and it is important to understand this so that you can relax and enjoy the experience. Just because they don’t go in face first doesn’t mean the images we capture will be any less fun or special. A little one only needs to interact with their cake in a few different ways to produce a selection of photographs and this can be anything from going in face first or delicately licking icing from their fingers to bashing the cake with a wooden spoon or simply looking at the cake slightly suspiciously! You never know they may even just choose to sit on the cake!

What I bring to the shoot

Once you have booked your cake smash shoot, we arrange a time to have a chat on the phone to discuss any last minute details.

I provide a naked vanilla sponge cake for the shoot but if your little one has any dietary requirements, we will discuss this then. I also bring a lovely white wooden (so as not to be too heavy or breakable) cake stand for the cake.

You might choose to use your home as the backdrop for your shoot or you might prefer a more studio style white backdrop in which case I will bring along my portable studio set up with lighting if we can’t use natural light.

I have a few simple white vests/bodysuits which you can choose to use if you would like to and also a birthday hat as you can see in the photographs. As with all my props, you can choose to use them or use something you have found yourself or just keep it really simple.

You might want to have a think about having balloons or other decorations in the background. This is entirely up to you and I am happy to include anything that you would like but I don’t bring these with me, sticking to my more natural style of photography.

So if your little one is approaching and birthday and you are thinking about a cake smash shoot or you would just like to book one anyway, please get in touch and we can have a chat! Hope to hear from you soon.

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