I can’t believe how fast a year went by, I remember going into labor just like yesterday. Some days seemed to drag on (ok, most of those sleepless nights and clingy days, right?!), but overall, I feel like I just blinked an eye, and my baby is ONE!
We had a birthday party for V the weekend before his birthday (his birthday was on Monday and the party was on Saturday; shared every detail of the birthday party in this post) and on his actual birthday which was March 7th we went to the temple in the morning and in the afternoon, we had a Jungle theme cake smash for him at home.
We did all the decorating ourselves. I love how it turned out, given how little time and energy we had after the birthday party. I wasn’t happy with the birthday decor our event planner did, it was far from what she agreed to deliver and what we paid her for, so this cake smash decor pulled us all from the deep disappointment.
Vihaan’s 1-Year Jungle Theme Cake Smash
Theme
It’s a jungle theme or wild one.
Why did we choose the Jungle theme for Cake Smash?
One of the words I use to describe V is wild. When he gets excited, he squeals with delight, babbles loudly, bangs on things, speed walks around the living room, he just goes wild, and we love it. His burst of energy brings us so much joy!
A lot of the things we incorporate with our children are things from our relationship in the past,” said Jason Wisniewski. Both I and my husband are animal and nature lovers. I’ve spent my childhood more outdoors than indoors, I want little V to be raised the same way. I want him to appreciate and take care of nature and animals!
Jungle Theme Cake Smash Decorations
After a bit of searching online and looking at several jungle-themed cake smash pictures on Pinterest. I got an idea of what I wanted to do and how to make the backdrop stand out without a balloon arc and add my unique touch.
Materials Used for the Wild One Cake Smash Decoration
1. Backdrop stand
I initially thought of taping the leaf garlands to the wall, but it was my sister-in-law’s idea to use the backdrop stand. It made the process 3x faster, and the bunching of the leaf strands looked more real this way. We re-used the background stand we got for our house warming.
2. Leaf Garland
Green, brown, yellow, and orange were the colors I wanted to focus on to bring the jungle vibes. The leaf garlands were perfect to up the greens, and they looked real.
3. Animal Figures
We didn’t have any life-size animal soft toys, so we got the 3-piece balloon set from Party City. I got them blown at the party city itself, so one less task for us.
4. Wild one Banner
I knew the burlap wild one banner would look incredible against the leaf garland, adding some texture to the whole look. I became a huge fan of using burlap for decors after using it as a backdrop for our housewarming decoration.
5. Animal Print and Safari props
The animal print lanterns were my favorite find. I like finding alternatives for balloons to reduce single-use plastic, and lanterns are hands down my favorites. We hung the 2 lanterns with a rope to the backdrop stand, one on the right and the other on the left. It broke the monochrome green look and added some depth and safari vibes.
I got this Get Wild wall decoration kit! We randomly cello-tapped the props on the wall.
6. Splat mat or any easy-to-clean mat
A cake smash is going to be messy, and putting the cake on a mat that is easy to clean will save a ton of time while cleaning. I used our leather splat mat, I am glad I got it in a solid color; it went beautifully with the whole backdrop. I removed all the cake pieces and threw the mat in the washer, easy peasy!
Jungle Theme Cake Smash Outfit
I preferred a printed cake smash outfit over a solid one for two reasons. #1 I wanted Vihaan to blend and yet stand out against the backdrop. What would be a better way to do it than to pick an outfit that goes with the theme and pick it in the color or print that is not used in the backdrop? #2- This is the age and time to dress them up in colors and prints, especially baby boys. When they grow up, they tend to prefer neutrals and blues.
The tail was the cutest part of the outfit 🙂
The one-crown hat also looked cute, but sadly, it didn’t last long. V pulled it off immediately!
I wish the bow was stitched to the neckband. With one pull of V, the bow came off. I recommend safely pinning it or stitching it before putting it on the baby.
Jungle Theme Cake Smash Cake
I planned on baking a healthy cake for the cake smash, so if he ended up eating, I wouldn’t have to worry about a sugar crash. But after the birthday party, I was super tired. Blame it on Covid; engaging with 30 people after 2 and half years exhausted me. We ordered a cake at the Gaint (our favorite go-to place for cakes) the night before and picked it up in the morning.
We chose a jungle-themed photo cake, The baker recommended whipping cream frosting over buttercream when we asked for less sweet options. They made a vanilla sponge cake with luscious whipped cream frosting. I am glad we asked for green stripes on the side instead of plain white; it looked beautiful with the whole decor. The cake wasn’t fancy looking, but it was delicious. I am glad we didn’t spend much on it, as most of the cake ended up in the trash.
That ends all the details on our little cake smash celebration. Now, let’s get into the fun part,aka the smashing part
The Cake Smash
Vihaan always surprises me. I thought he would eat the whole thing up. Anything he holds goes straight into his mouth first, and who doesn’t love the taste of cake? But this kid just enjoyed flapping his arm on the cake, touching and sensing it. Watch the video HERE.
We follow baby-led weaning, so he is used to touching the food and feeding himself. He crushes the food with his palms and makes a mess (which is normal) during meal times, but comparatively, he was gentle with the cake, lol!
The real smashing started when we gave him the one prop.
Still no sign of eating the cake. At this point, I am glad that I didn’t go through the pain of baking the cake!
Our nephew (my husband’s sister’s son) is trying his best to feed V some cake. But he doesn’t budge, he only wanted to touch and play with it. You can say he understood the assignment well! 😀
Finally, he licked the frosting when I offered some in my hands and didn’t go back for more, What?
That ends our sweet little boy’s cute little jungle-themed Cake smash. Thank you for re-visiting the day along with us virtually. 🙂
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