This birthday episode really takes the cake

By: Susan Kelly

Posted: 6/21/01

Smash cakes sounds like a band, looks like a lesson in finger painting, and tastes like a tummy ache. In case you haven’t witnessed this trend in cakes for the birthday boy or girl, you are in for a mixed-up trick-or- treat, depending on your perspective.
At a birthday party this weekend for a one-year-old girl, I noticed two cakes on the table, both obviously courtesy of a bakery.
One was quite small in comparison to the sheet cake and was yellow, much like the color of a smiley face. After the hamburgers and hot dogs and a little time relaxing, we were all told it was time for the birthday girl to have a go at her smash cake.
Her mother changed her into old clothes, while her father got a high chair. Once they put the bib around her neck, down went the 8-inch baby smash cake in front of her waiting hands. She glanced around the room and then promptly put her tiny hands into the midst of the icing, cake, and to the delight of almost everyone in the room, squished it through her fingers, and smeared it all over her face and hair.
The oohs and ahs echoed off the large umbrella and headed south in the soft breeze, while several of us in the crowd watched in amazement at this newest in experiences for the affluent child.
I could just hear my mother saying, “How will the child learn to behave around other cakes? She’ll suppose that she can do that whenever she sees another one.” I have to admit I could see what she meant. I’m all for fun, but I didn’t quite get this whole picture.
Add to the smashing cake scenario the fact that these cakes are given free when a sheet cake is purchased, and you see profits being squeezed out of the picture along with so much icing.
When the kids become sugar crazed and get a tummy ache, I wonder if it’s a great little addendum to the birthday bash for little ones?
I wonder if Mr. CEO of the bakery thinks this idea is good for the bottom line? I wonder if he even knows about it.
Don’t even ask me about all the kids all over the world who don’t have enough bread and water. I wonder what their parents would think of us? I’m not sure I know what I think of us.