How To Make a quick "Smash Cake"

*** SPOILER ALERT - THERES NO BAKING! ***

Cake smash sessions are so much fun, and a great way to celebrate a first birthday!  In the interest of keeping costs down for my cake smash sessions, I make the smash cakes myself. But I am very busy with my young family and running my photography business, so I don't actually bake them -  I buy these unfilled sponge cakes from Woolworths. (Don't bother looking for these in Coles, they no longer sell them)

Next I whip some cream with a little icing sugar and food colouring. For a "real" birthday cake I use buttercream icing and you can find a great recipe here.  If you use that recipe you will need around 3x per cake, so I would make 5x batch to cover these sponge cakes. 

If you are using whipped cream, make sure that it is very firmly whipped otherwise the rose shapes won't hold. Also keep in mind that it will start to sag after about 20 minutes, or sooner in summer. Butter cream is much stronger and will set overnight with a light crust. 


First, do a "crumb layer" of icing, this will help fill in any gaps between the roses.

Image from google

Use the Wilton 1M piping nozzle with a piping bag. You can get these from cake shops, eBay or Spotlight. 

Start at the bottom of the cake and basically just draw spirals starting from the centre and go around once. 

There is a great youtube tutorial for this here. 



If you have any gaps between the roses, just pipe little stars of icing in them to fill the hole. Pop some candles on top and boom - a flash looking rose cake done in under 10 minutes!

Now just add your adorable child and get snapping!

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Princess in the Park

One of my favourite little princesses returned for her 4th Birthday photo shoot! Are these curls not the most divine thing?  I can't wait to photograph her party in the coming weeks. Event photography is a great new service I now offer. If you have a special family occasion you would love captured please contact me for a personalised quote. 

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Coming Out of Your Shell

This little man was not quite sure about his big photo-shoot to start with, but once we got going, he had a great time! This happens a lot at sessions, which is why I don't put a time limit your photography session. Often children will relax more after half an hour or more of me jumping around in front of them, and thats perfectly fine! 

His big sister however was more than happy to be in from of the camera and was a super star - it is just so much fun to photograph such happy, sweet little people. 

I am in love with the patchwork blanket the family brought to the session also, how cool is that? 

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All The Girly Colours

I love photographing colours with babies - pinks and purples and yellows - so I got very excited when this little one's Mum said "I dont really have any colours in mind, go with whatever you like." Just what every photographer loves to hear! I had a great time playing with different setups and we got such a variety of images in their gallery. Obviously this little poppet was in a nice deep sleep for most of her session, and just between you and me, Dad snuck a wee nap in at one point too.  And why not?  Newborn sessions are very peaceful,  it's quiet and warm and you've been awake through the night. I totally would too. 

Remember to book your newborn session in early to secure your preferred date. Newborns are best photographed in the first couple of weeks and most families book during the second trimester to ensure a session in this time frame. Please email me for availability around your due date. 

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