Stella's 1st Cake Smash

Ok guys, for the first time ever, I attempted a cake smash with my baby daughter Stella. She just turned 1 year old and I used my home to take her photos. I want to tell you about how I made the cake and set up the perfect scene for Stella.

The cake. If you go on pinterest and to any wedding these days, you’ll see a ton of the cute trendy naked cakes that are absolutely adorable. I thought I’d make one of those not only because they are cute, but because I thought it would be easier considering I didn’t have to make any fondant. Here’s a little secret for you… everything was from a box or container! I used a Duncan Hines yellow cake mix and a whipped frosting from a container to put this cake together. Why would I make a fresh cake with home made frosting just for Stella to smash!? I’m probably just a little lazy, or efficient… After looking up a YouTube video to decorate this cake with flowers, I became pretty confident that I could do this. I bought flowers from Trader Joe’s and inserted straws into my cake to attach the flowers. I bought a “one” cut out for the cake topper on Etsy and a cake holder from Target. This did take a little planning ahead of time since I had to buy 6 inch pans as well. What else was I going to do during my downtime with quarantine though!?

For the backdrop, I used my wall and my kitchen table. I used a white table cloth to cover the table and later edited out the line where the table met the wall to make it look like a solid white backdrop. With the string I had at home and the flowers from Trader Joe’s, I tied about 10 flowers upside down and strung that on the wall as decor. All I had to do after that was dress Stella up and get my husband to help me position Stella.

Ok, a frustrating part of this was Stella’s clothing. It was hard to shop with all the stores closed and another item that was supposed to come in the mail didn’t come on time, so I ordered this outfit from Amazon and it came before Stella’s party. It worked perfectly.

While shooting at F 1.6 for that dreamy out of focus background you all love, I got beautiful portraits of Stella. Next time, I’d probably shoot at F 1.8 instead to have both Stella and the details of the cake. I hope you enjoy the photos! Not bad for my first time, right?