Cake Smash Photos

When I get an idea in my head, I make it my mission to make every detail come to life exactly how I picture it. I am so thankful that I was able to create most of my vision with the cake smash photo shoot. I'm posting the same pictures I posted on Facebook, but here are a few behind-the-scenes facts involved in this photo shoot:

• I moved my couch and opened the blinds in the living room so I could get as much natural light as possible. I took pictures every few hours yesterday to determine what time of day filled the room with the best light. Noon was the perfect time.
• I borrowed my father-in-law's camera (Cannon EOS Rebel from a decade ago) so I could actually focus and take multiple photos in quick succession. I love it!
• I made the pennant banner using scrapbook paper. The twine I bought to string the paper together cost three times as much as the paper did.
• Even though James' cake is essentially missing, it's because he finger painted the floor with it. He may have eaten two bites at best the entire time.
• It took sweeping, vacuuming, mopping twice, and scrubbing on my hands and knees with OxiClean to clean the Crisco covered floor. We still had an ant invasion within an hour.
• While I love the pictures, I unsuccessfully tried to remove the shadows on the wall for a good hour. I have not mastered Photoshop.
• James crawled away after five minutes. Maddie lasted a few minutes longer. Amelia was left alone daintily eating. All three were in the bath within fifteen minutes.
• James' tie was the source of hours of stress. I taught myself how to make a bowtie, then hated it once it was on him. I went to a dozen different stores to try and find ties but they all said the same thing, "We only carry them seasonally." I bought a $12 baby suit from Burlington Coat Factory. After all of that, we ended up using a clip-on tie that we've had packed away in the attic for three years. (I clipped it on to a ribbon with velcro.)
• I originally scoffed at the idea of having a cake smash photo shoot. I changed my mind when I realized the babies birthday party would be a different day than their actual birthday. Sunday's cake smash will be outside (weather permitting) in their high chairs so we don't have to clean up or worry about people cramming into our kitchen. 
• I bought the pink necklace that the girls are wearing for $5 from Claires. When I got home I was upset to discover that it was one long strand that was wrapped together to look like two necklaces in the package. The color matched the tutus perfectly so I just cut the necklace in half and twisted it to make two necklaces. You can tell in the closeup of Maddie. It drives me crazy.
• Maddie refused to keep her necklace on. For once, Amelia did not take off her bow.
• While writing this blog post, I am reminiscing about VH1's Pop-Up videos.

DIY Smash Cake and Cake Stands

If you haven't noticed, we've been living pretty minimally these days. It's hard to go over the top with decorations and outfits when you have a tight budget. I've been determined to make everything perfect for the babies first birthday, despite low funds.

My favorite first birthday tradition is the cake smash. Since their party is not on their actual birthday, I decided to let them have a cake smash on their birthday, and a small cupcake on the day of their party. As I was getting everything ready for the cake smash, I realized I couldn't put the cakes directly on the ground. A paper plate would look tacky and a glass plate could break. I looked online for prices of miniature cake stands and quickly decided that wasn't in the budget. So, off to Pinterest I went. I stole the idea to make my own cake stands using plates and bowls. It could not have been any easier! I spent $4 total at the Dollar Store on one pack of small plates and three plastic bowls.

You simply hot glue the base of the bowl onto the back of the plate. Within two minutes, I had three miniature cake stands that cost just over $1 each!

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Of all the birthday details and decorations, I felt most confident about baking the smash cakes. I baked them in my five inch round pans. (One cake recipe only made enough for two cakes. The second recipe made the third cake and 24 mini cupcakes.)

After the cakes cooled I leveled them. You could either cut the dome off with a serrated knife or use a cake leveler. I did not apply a crumb coat because the rose decorations would be more than enough icing on the cake.

Because I wanted to cover the cake in roses, I had to make a LOT of icing for these small cakes. I doubled my usual buttercream icing (double recipe: 1 cup butter, 1 cup shortening, tbsp of vanilla, 8 cups of powdered sugar). I tinted half of it pink, the other half blue. I used 1M tip to make the roses.

Once you fill your piping bag halfway, you simply swirl the icing onto the cake in a circular motion until you have roses. After swirling the roses on the sides and top of the cake, you'll be left with open spaces.

To cover them, you can either overlap more roses on top, or simply add swirls to fill in the gaps. FYI, it would not look great if you just filled it with dollops of icing because it would look like roses and stars. Try to swirl in the same direction as the roses so it looks less obvious.

Here are the final cakes on their cake stands. I already had all the supplies for the cakes since I bake so much, but you could buy all the ingredients and a 1M tip from a craft store for less than $20. If you didn't have small cake pans you could use a sheet pan and cut circles out or use ramekins.

I cannot wait for the babies to tear these cakes apart!