Growing up in Porthleven I would often spend lots of my time around my Nan’s house, she had a big garden and it was right next door to a play area. On rainy days however I would hunt through the cabinets looking for a VHS (video) to watch. The film I constantly returned to was one that completely captured my imagination and sense of adventure. Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier was a Disney film released on 1955 and featured two Tennessee wilderness settlers and their adventures in the America’s. Bears, Native American Indians, chases on horse back, gun fights, it had everything I found exciting.
The film not only has a special place in my heart because it was exciting and full of action and adventure, more so, that it reminds of a time of rainy days and warm cups of tea and getting cosy on the sofa at my Nan’s house. I’m not entirely sure why my Nan had this particular film in her VHS collection, I’m certain there were more modern cartoons I could have picked. All Dogs Go to Heaven, is another I recall. Maybe she knew that this 1955 film about a frontier adventurer was right up my street.
I started thinking about Elsie’s Cake Smash before she was even born and I knew I wanted to create something that was really personal. "A Davy Crockett theme would be really fun and unique”, I thought to myself. Jo hadn’t seen the film so had no idea what what I was jabbering on about.
The first thing I made was a campfire, using some pipe insulation and different coloured card. Next I decided to make Davy Crockett’s iconic coonskin cap. Jo really had no idea what was happening when she saw the fabric arrive!
The trees were great fun to make and we had some trunks left over from our Christmas Winter Wonderland sessions. I added branches and cut leafs from green card. I got help from Jo’s Mum to help me create a Teepee, we used some old fabric that was lying around and a couple lengths of wooden dowel for the poles. I strained the fabric with tea and then use some Sharpie pens to draw some Native America symbols on the side. The only thing I really had to purchase for this cake smash was Elsie’s Indian outfit which I got from Amazon.
The cake was made by a lovely lady also called Jo, she has an amazing business in Redruth called Creative Cakes and creates fantastic custom cakes of anything you can think of. We gave her some ideas of what we wanted and she created the perfect cake for our Davy Crockett theme. It even had an edible bear on top, which of course I ate after Elsie had finished. Yup the cake not only looked the part it tasted great too!
Cake Smash Sessions are the perfect way to get photographs that are personnel to you or your child. At one year old, Davy Crockett doesn’t mean anything to Elsie but I know that when she’s older I can tell her the story why we did it. Time spent with your loved ones is precious, maybe one day when she has a cake smash for her daughter/son she’ll choose something that reminds her of a time spent with her Nan/Nana or Grandad/Papa.
If you'd like us to design the perfect cake smash for you and your little one just send us a message and we can start to plan the perfect backdrop for beautiful photographs that you will treasure forever.
01209 315422 | info@jobuckleyphotography.com
