I’ve been offering a range of sessions from my Earlsfield photography studio and outdoor sessions in South London for many years. From maternity portraits to family photography, I’ve done it all, but one thing has been missing from my repertoire – the cake smash.

Why haven’t I offered cake smash sessions until now? Well, I first toyed with the idea a little over a year ago, but Covid-19 soon put an end to that! But, with lockdown lifting and lots of requests from you all, I’m pleased to announce that you’ll now be able to book a cake smash photo shoot to celebrate your little one’s special day.

What Is A Cake Smash?

For anyone who isn’t familiar with cake smash photography, it’s very much what it says on the tin. Usually arranged within a few weeks of your child’s first birthday, it involves placing a gorgeous buttercream iced cake in front of a baby and then capturing what happens next!

What’s so fantastic about cash smash sessions is that your child’s unique character is captured on film to treasure forever. Whether they dive in face first or use their fingers (and toes) to explore the texture, it all makes for a wonderful keepsake.

What The Cake Smash Session Includes

If you’ve booked a newborn photography session with me before, you’ll already know that I’m a huge believer in making sure that parents, siblings, grandparents or carers make their way into photos, as well as the bundle of joy.

For this reason, my cake smash sessions consist of four stages:

Child portraits
Family portraits
Cake smash
Splash

Unlike some other cake smash packages, I feel that if you’re going to the effort of visiting my studio and paying for my services, it’s only fair that you get a range of photographs from your session. With that in mind, the sessions I offer are predominantly portraits which ends with the cake smash.

At the first stage of the session, I’ll focus on the child, using backdrops and various outfit changes to capture a wide range of pictures to serve as mementoes as your little one grows. Feel free to bring along any special items you’d like to feature in the shoot and outfits you love. I also have a number of props in my studio that we can use to add texture to the images.

Next, I’ll welcome you to join your child, and we’ll take family pictures against a plain-coloured backdrop. For these images, I invite you to bring along any key members of your family who you’d like to include in the photos, such as siblings, grandparents and even family pets. Each family is completely unique, and I strive to capture those unique personalities and family dynamics in my sessions.

Then, we’ll move on to – the cake smash! Your baby will be photographed with a delectable birthday cake against a backdrop of decorations chosen by you. I offer a range of packages, so there is something for everyone, more on that below.

Finally we will will get our beautiful baby tub filled with warm water for your little one to have a splash fun.

The cake itself is both delicious (take my word for it) and beautiful, and importantly has been carefully chosen so that it doesn’t overwhelm the picture with its size or decoration. This is an issue that I’ve often observed in other cake smash sessions – the baby stops being the focus of the picture as there are simply too many other things that the eye is being drawn to. Finding this balance is a delicate process and one which has taken plenty of trial and error behind the scenes to finetune.

In most cases, the majority of babies won’t actually destroy the entire cake; they’ll only take a few fistfuls to play with. So with that in mind, the remaining cake will be packed up for you to take home and enjoy with a cup of tea after the session.

Personalising Your Cake Smash Photoshoot

Are you crying out for pastel pink florals? Or maybe natural garlands are more your style? Whatever your preferred aesthetic, I offer a range of decorative packages to suit your tastes.

You may notice that none of the options are rainbow or dinosaur-themed or feature bold, bright colours. There’s a good reason for that! By keeping the colour palette neutral, the final collection of child and family portraits blend together seamlessly to create a compilation of photos that you can mix and match in your wall art or album.