The occasion: baby's first birthday. The mission: seek and destroy. Watch video
For some kids, like 1-year-old Viviana D'Ippolito, sugar is an acquired taste.
When prompted to dig into a turquoise buttercream cake with a dollop of frosting, "Vivi," wearing a tiny silver crown in her wispy brown hair, an oversized black tutu and a shirt with a metallic "1" on it, would start to wail.
It wasn't her party, but she would cry if she wanted to.
Basking Ridge photographer Harshita Malhotra says that's just the way it goes sometimes with "cake smash" photography. That's the idea, anyway -- baby meets cake, baby smashes (and eats) cake.
A new rite of passage for babies turning 1, cake smash is the latest genre of photography starring young children. It's a way for parents to celebrate a big first in the life of their child as well as help introduce babies to the wide world of processed sugar.
Photographer Harshita Malhotra, at left, tries to get 1-year-old Viviana D'Ippolito in a good mood for her 'cake smash' photo shoot. Malhotra's daughter, Avneet, 5, uses a squeaky toy to get the baby's attention as Viviana's mother, Heather, looks on. (Amy Kuperinsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)"A lot of kids don't like cake," says Malhotra, 38, of Avnida Photography, a business she runs out of a home studio filled with baby props, blankets and little special occasion outfits.
Though a baby sitting in a highchair smearing frosting all over the place is a familiar scene, it can be difficult to recreate something so organic. And after an hour of coaxing and crackers -- after squeaky toys, peekaboo and multiple renditions of "If You're Happy and You Know It," "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider" -- the perturbed baby still would not touch her birthday cake.
About 25 minutes in, Heather and Riccardo D'Ippolito had put a small dent in the cake, if only to entice their baby to do the same. They cooed at her in Italian, begging for a single bite, lick -- anything.
The confection sat on the floor mostly unspoiled, a mound of saccharine blue-green roses with a large silver "1" poking out the top (her parents blamed teething). Malhotra had concocted a "Breakfast at Tiffany's"-inspired scene with a black mini-chandelier and tissue-paper flower accents. Parents pick the motif of the cake smash, often to match their child's birthday party theme.
Because some babies aren't exactly hellbent on the smash, Malhotra, who charges anywhere from $400 to $550 for a cake smash shoot, takes regular portrait shots before the cake sessions -- and the (usually) inevitable carnage to come. Clients consider the cost no obstacle when envisioning their bundle of joy tearing apart a confection like Godzilla wrecking a metropolis.
Malhotra began offering cake smash photos four years ago and specializes in newborn photography. Cake smash, however, is the newest star of the baby photography scene, she says -- she usually books about six smashes per month.
"I have kids that are, like, body-slamming into the cake," says Waldwick photographer Cassandra Barbara. (Cassandra Barbara Photography)"The messier they get, the cuter the pictures get," she says. Parents arrive at her studio with a cake -- she prefers they order it themselves because of the potential for allergic reactions.
"They (the babies) hate anything with a heavy cream," she says, so she recommends whipped cream, if possible. For hesitant smashers like Vivi, Malhotra recruits her 5-year-old daughter, Avneet, for songs and playtime, to diffuse the negative energy.
"I've had two or three babies that would not leave the cake at all," Malhotra says. "They start crying because they want more." One of her best smashers was Baby Robbie.
"I had been trying different cakes with him even before the photo shoot, but he never really had frosting before then," says his mother, Elyse Gibb. The prep work paid off. At smash's end, little was left of the chocolate cake with fresh strawberries, and Robbie's Mickey Mouse shirt was thoroughly smeared with whipped cream.
Katie Glasser, a photographer in Sewell, took her own daughter, Allie, outside for a smash.
"Some babies love it and some go crazy over the sugar," says Edgewater photographer Asiya Khaki. "Oftentimes those babies will not even use their hands -- they put their face right in the cake." (Photography by Asiya) "We actually did a beach cake smash," she says. "You can just go and dip them in the ocean." She says most first-birthday shoots she does now involve cake smash.
"A lot of (the babies) don't even realize that it's food," says Glasser, 32, of S18 Photography. One in particular had a pretty pronounced reaction to the sugar.
"Her whole body just ... shivered," Glasser says. "Some babies, they just bend down and put their whole face in it."
Rachel Ravior of Washington Township (in Gloucester County) booked Glasser for her son Noah's comic book-themed cake smash photos.
"It's kind of like the thing to do lately," she says. "He took his naked baby foot and put it into the cake," Ravior says. Glasser makes the cleanup -- a dip in a porcelain tub -- the grand finale of her cake smash shoots. But Noah wasn't having any of that. Cue the tears.
Sewell photographer Katie Glasser set her daughter Allie's cake-smash outside. "We actually did a beach cake-smash," she says. "You can just go and dip them in the ocean." (S18 Photography)While parents have been taking their own photos of non-choreographed baby cake smashes for years, elaborate newborn photography served as this genre's precursor. The style, which positions sleeping babies who are just days old like cocooned caterpillars in little swaddling blankets or with various props, exploded after Australian photographer Anne Geddes earned raves in the 1990s for her richly imagined baby photos, which planted cherubic bodies in cabbage leaves, butterfly wings and flowers. The serene images filled coffee table books and calendars.
Though not every family who books a newborn session will return for a cake smash, the genre is now part and parcel with first-year photography packages. A Texas mother of two recently got in on the trend to celebrate her 30th birthday -- with a cake, tutu, crown and bottle of Champagne. While it's a bit early to speculate about "adult cake smash" becoming "a thing," it looks like baby cake smash is here to stay.
And while the outcome is unpredictable, cake smash photographers often include the sessions as part of a first-year package.
"I love seeing babies that I photographed as infants come back as 1-year-olds to do the cake smash," says Asiya Khaki, 29, a photographer in Edgewater. "I actually encourage my parents to make the cake themselves," she says, citing allergies to ingredients like eggs.
Toes are always fair game in smash-land. (Cassandra Barbara Photography)Cassandra Barbara, a photographer based in Waldwick, books about three cake smashes per week. She works with a baker to make a plain vanilla cake tailored to each session.
"The first time they have sweets they make the funniest expressions," says Barbara, 31. "You don't know how they're going to react. I have kids that are, like, body-slamming into the cake."
But she says the smash doesn't always have to be centered around a cake.
"I have one, we did a watermelon," she says. Her own son, while not an amateur Gallagher, was also not a cake enthusiast. "He hated the texture and doesn't like to get dirty," she says.
For the apprehensive smasher, there are all kinds of tricks to try. Barbara asks parents to bring familiar snacks. She'll cut a hole in the back of the cake and load it up with the baby's favorites. Such careful planning is all worth it in the end, she says.
"This is a big deal, turning 1."
Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup. Find NJ.com Entertainment on Facebook.