Tips for a Successful Bellevue Cake Smash Session
As a Bellevue and Seattle area Childhood photographer, Cake smash sessions are one of the sweetest ways to celebrate your baby’s first birthday. They’re messy, silly, and full of personality — the kind of moments that perfectly capture the magic of childhood.
As a Bellevue childhood photographer serving families across the Seattle area, I get asked often whether I offer cake smash sessions. The short answer is yes — but there are a few things that can make a big difference in how smoothly the session goes and how the photos turn out.
After photographing many first birthday milestone sessions, I’ve noticed a few patterns that help create the best experience for both parents and babies. If you’re planning a cake smash photoshoot in Bellevue, Seattle, or the Eastside, these tips will help your session go beautifully.
Choosing the Right Cake for a Cake Smash
Believe it or not, the cake itself can make or break a cake smash session.
You don’t need an elaborate bakery cake. In fact, simpler cakes often photograph better and make it easier for your baby to explore and interact with it naturally.
Here’s what I recommend when selecting a cake.
Keep the Cake Small
A 5–6 inch round cake is ideal for cake smash photography.
These are easy to order from most grocery store bakeries and usually cost around $12–16.
A smaller cake keeps the focus where it belongs — on your baby. Larger cakes can block your child from view in photos and make it harder for them to crawl around and interact with it.
Your baby is the star of the session, not the cake.
Stick With Simple Frosting for Cake Smashing
After many cake smash sessions, I have one strong recommendation:
Avoid bright colored icing.
White or ivory frosting photographs beautifully and allows the set design and your child’s expressions to shine. Bright frosting colors tend to pull attention away from the subject and can clash with the color palette of the photos.
There’s also a practical reason: brightly dyed frosting stains everything.
When it comes to frosting thickness, simple is best. Thick frosting can quickly turn into a slippery mess once a newly mobile one-year-old starts exploring.
Buttercream is perfect — just keep it light. Even a semi naked-cake is perfect for a smash.
This is what the aftermath of a lightly frosted cake looks like. Still quite messy in all the best way but this is after the entire session was done and you can see that the mess was still well contained.
This guy had a very heavily frosted cake. His images were still beautiful but the frosting covered the entire set and we had to take breaks to keep the frosting from upsetting him when it started to get in eyes.
Cake Toppers: Cute but Temporary
Cake toppers can be adorable, and I’m always happy to photograph them.
If you’ve picked a special topper that says “One” or matches your birthday party theme, we’ll absolutely capture a few photos with it before the smashing begins.
Once your child starts exploring the cake, though, the topper usually comes out.
There are two main reasons:
• Toppers often block your child’s face in photos
• Babies tend to grab them immediately and ignore the cake
So we’ll capture a few images with it, then let the cake smash fun begin.
What to Expect During a Cake Smash Photoshoot
Parents often ask what a first birthday cake smash session actually looks like.
The flow of the session is designed to keep babies comfortable while creating a variety of images.
Portraits First, Cake Later
Before the cake comes out, we start with simple personality portraits.
These portraits are often my favorite images from milestone sessions because they capture your child exactly as they are at this stage of life — their curiosity, expressions, and emerging personality.
Starting the session this way helps your child feel comfortable in the space before introducing the excitement of the cake smash.
Not All Babies Love Cake (And That’s Okay)
This is something I always tell parents ahead of time:
Not every baby dives into the cake.
Some babies are fascinated.
Some poke it cautiously.
Some immediately cry when frosting touches their fingers.
All of these reactions are completely normal.
A cake smash is a big sensory experience — new textures, smells, and attention all at once.
When babies are hesitant, we simply slow things down. Sometimes a spoon helps curious explorers. Sometimes a gentle smash from mom or dad is enough to spark a giggle.
Even when babies don’t fully “smash” the cake, we can still create beautiful milestone images full of personality.
If you’re worried your child might be shy or hesitant during a photoshoot, I wrote a full guide about that here:
Read more →
https://tellydezphotography.com/2026/03/05/bellevue-childhood-photographer-shy-child-photo-session/
Should Siblings Come to Your Cake Smash Session?
Milestone sessions are typically designed as single-child sessions, with the focus on the birthday child.
Milestone sessions often include exciting elements like balloons, cake, and sometimes confetti — which can make siblings feel left out.
If possible, I recommend bringing only the participating child to the session.
If childcare isn’t an option, please reach out beforehand. I’m always happy to help create a plan that keeps the experience positive for everyone involved.
Styling Makes a Big Difference
Before your milestone session, I highly recommend taking advantage of the styling consultation.
This allows us to coordinate:
• outfits
• set design
• special birthday outfits or heirlooms
If your child has a special birthday outfit — like a tutu or heirloom piece — we can design the set around it so everything feels cohesive and intentional.
A little planning goes a long way toward creating timeless milestone portraits.
The Most Important Thing: Have Fun
Cake smash sessions are meant to celebrate your baby turning one.
Babies are unpredictable — and that’s part of the magic.
Whether your child dives face-first into the cake or cautiously investigates it, we’ll work with their personality to capture joyful and authentic images that celebrate this milestone.
The goal isn’t perfection.
It’s preserving this fleeting season of childhood.
Book a Cake Smash or Milestone Session
If your baby’s first birthday is coming up and you’d love to document the moment, you can reserve your Bellevue Cake Smash Session session here:
Book your milestone → HERE
Sessions take place in my Bellevue studio near Larsen Lake Blueberry Farm, serving families across the Seattle Eastside including:
• Bellevue
• Redmond
• Kirkland
• Issaquah
• Sammamish
• Mercer Island
• Seattle
