Cake smash!

So I'm ordinarily not one to encourage wasting food, but when it involves cute babies and cake, I'm willing to make an exception!

Last week some beautiful mums and their children gathered at my place to celebrate the first birthdays of three of our babies, born within two weeks of each other. This circle of women have helped me find my path in motherhood and feel less alone in my parenting choices. An amazing group to be part of and one I'm so grateful for.

With a photographer in the mix, and my penchant for cake, the plan for a cake smash photo session was hatched! Hugo hadn't had refined sugar before, so I wanted to go light on it. I used a classic butter cake recipe from Jude Blereau's ' Wholefood for Children' book, which calls for spelt flour as it's more easily digested than wheat flour, and raw sugar, the less refined cousin of white sugar. Instead of icing I used whipped cream, coloured red with strawberries. There were also two layers of cream in the cake, one coloured green with kiwi fruit, and one purplish one, using blueberries.

Given Hugo was shoveling whole fistfuls in his mouth I'm quite glad I didn't go with traditional icing! It was so fun to watch the babies start with licking the 'icing' tentatively, watching each other's reactions to the taste and texture, and looking for cues on what to do next. By the end they were right into it, clawing chunks from the cake delightedly.

They were really experiencing the joy of food and celebration, an important part of the food culture I want to foster in our family. I believe there is much more to food than simply nutrition.