Oh how I love to hear the words "cake smash" from clients coming to my studio near Robinson, IL.

I'm not sure what gets me more excited - the sweet smiles from the little ones eating that sugary sweet confection or the potential of a catastrophic mess as cake flies everywhere.

One thing is for sure - no cake smash is ever the same.

What is a cake smash? 

Just what it sounds like. Celebrating your child's birthday with professional photographs of them smashing or making a mess in their first birthday cake.

How involved the child gets in the process varies.

One a couple years ago brought a full out cake tossing - messy but providing me with one of the best cake smash memories ever.

Other kids are more timid, content to simply enjoy the delicious cake without making a real mess.

Earlier this month, I had a sweet 1-year-old in the studio for photos. The session wrapped up with a "smash."

I always recommend parents "practice" with the child. When we put cake in front of our own 1-year-olds, they didn't even know what to do, other than look at the cake and then us. What now, they seemed to ask.

Maleah had practiced but you still never know what's going to happen. Like many, she looked at the cake then her mom then the cake, unsure of what she was supposed to do and then if she was going to get in trouble for doing it.

Then a finger went in and a smile spread across her sweet face. Then another finger dragged across the icing.

This was fun and what do we do when we're having fun? We run to Mommy with messy icing hands.

We set her back into position and a foot suddenly found itself in the cake. More sharing.

Then, we got it on our nose and that, my friends, to young Maleah was the deal breaker. 

She giggled when I put it on my nose too but other than a brief smile, the cake event was over.

Thankfully, we had taken it slow at the beginning and she was super happy for all but the last frames.

If I had to guess, I'd say she was in a sugar-induced coma on the ride home.