Let them eat cake too! Your furbaby is a member of the family and deserves a birthday celebration too. So, move over babies, doggie cake smash is here. We recently set up a magical backdrop for our princess puppy complete with ruffles, crowns, and all things pink. Since I have all boys, this was a welcomed change. Do you want to recreate this at home? We are sharing the best tips to help you set up a successful cake smash photo session too. Well Fido, let’s get ready to dig that nose into some cake.
1. Choose the Color Theme
When choosing the color palette, try to keep it to 3 or 5 colors. Less than 3 can seem a little plain and more than 5 can be too visually overwhelming. Since Ruby is our first girl, we went with the obvious color, PINK! To compliment the light pink, we added rose gold, metallic gold, bright pink, and white. Pinterest is a great resource to help pick colors.
2. Style the Shoot
Think about the atmosphere and overall mood of the photo that you want. We wanted Ruby’s cake smash to be whimsical with a backdrop and balloon garland arch. To balloonify the backdrop, we mixed together light pink, metallic rose gold, metallic gold, white paw print, and rose gold confetti balloons. Eucalyptus stems finished off the garland. Most of the balloons were purchased from Party City and delivered right to our door. The white brick vinyl backdrop was something that we already owned but a similar one is linked below. We laid a roll of white seamless paper across the floor. This made for easy clean up too…win win! Lastly, no 1st birthday is complete without a birthday chalkboard sign.
Decoration Details:
- 5-inch Gold Metallic Balloons
- 5-inch Pink Balloons
- 12-inch Pink Balloons
- 5-inch Rose Gold Pearl Balloons
- 12-inch Rose Gold Pearl Balloons
- 12-inch Rose Gold Confetti Balloons
- 12-inch Paw Print Balloons (only one not from Party City)
- ‘Let’s Pawty’ Cursive Letter Balloons
- Balloon Arch Decorating Strip
- Balloon Glue Dots
- Eucalyptus Stems
- White Paper Roll
- Birthday Cake Squeaky Toy
- Birthday Chalkboard Sign
- Brick Vinyl Backdrop
- Backdrop Stand
- Cake Stand
- Cake Topper
3. Picking the Perfect Outfit
With having a house full of boys, this was the perfect opportunity to go all out with pink, ruffles, pearls, and everything girly. We found an adorable dress with pearls on the back from a local pet boutique called Petshion. The matching Birthday Girl bandana was purchased on Amazon and the 1st birthday crown was handmade by a shop owner on Etsy. Ta-da – My little princess!
4. Determine the Location
Lighting is key in any photography set up. At first, we attempted to set up outside, but it was just too windy. The next best option was moving the kitchen table and setting up to face the two large glass sliding doors. Weather can also affect the amount of natural light. So, if you don’t have studio lighting then pay close attention to the forecast beforehand. If there is not enough light, then the photo can appear grainy.
5. Bake or Order a Cake
Since human cakes are not good for dogs, you can either order a cake from a local pet bakery or bake your own. We have several locations in town that offer dog birthday cakes and other treats, but we opted to make it ourselves. Puppy Cake Cake Mixes are wheat free and come in 5 different flavors including peanut butter, pumpkin, carob, banana, and birthday cake. We choose peanut butter and used two boxes to fill the bone-shaped pan. The cake mixes also come with icing that is safe for dogs. However, be mindful that eating too much and too fast can cause bloat and make your dog sick. Ruby ate about 1/8 of the cake which for her size was plenty and we boxed up the rest to give as a treat over the next few days. We purchased the cake mixes, bone-shaped silicone baking pan, peanut butter paw print treats, and the Happy Birthday treat bone from the same local pet boutique as her outfit called Petshion. The small bone treats along the border were purchased at Target and she loves them!
6. Photographing Your Dog
My biggest tip that I have for you is to gather a few helping hands. Unless your dog is perfectly well behaved, you will need someone to help position the dog between shoots. Even before we allowed our dog next to the cake, we took a few photos of the set up and checked lighting. I will be the first to admit, we haven’t done a super job on training our puppy. However, in our defense, puppy classes were non-existent during the pandemic. She does know the command sit so we went with that one. I wish you could have seen my hubby helping me get the perfect shot. As he got her positioned into place, he would then lay as flat as possible right in front of me until she moved again. It was definitely a team effort.
7. Take Your Time
Dogs can be unpredictable just like any one-year old baby. Some may dive into the cake at the first chance and others will take their time sniffing it out first. To me that is part of the fun to see what they will do. So be patient and continue to make it a fun experience for the puppy with lots of encouragement and smiles. Just be ready for wherever the experience takes you.
