All you need to know about cake smash ft. Skinny Tofu Tarts

Funny story - I was first exposed to cake smash when one of my BFFs had a baby. I still remember in the group chat we were all like "Huh, what?" "Why would even want to do a photoshoot on that?" I was so baffled. Now that I am a mother with my own little boy, I am like we need to give him a photoshoot on his first birthday to capture that moment. 

To be frank, I am not hard on a cake smash. I just wanted a fun concept so I explored several options:

• Smashing a watermelon - The photographers told me the photos won't come up as good
• Coloured cereals as confetti - Was too worried he would eat them all, how unhealthy
• Milk Bath - Still thinking about it (maybe I will save it for #2) hehe

In the end, we settled for cake smash cos I found a baby-safe version at Skinny Tofu Tarts (less than $30 too!). And it was really pretty too, so pretty in fact I hesitated to let my son smash it. The cake is made of tofu and fruits (actual tiny fruits pulps mashes can be found).My son loves tofu so he was more than happy to eat it, he ate a good half of it in fact. 

The photographers actually recommended a 5" cake. Ours were 4" and I think it works well. I just couldn't imagine the consequences if my son tried gobbling down a 5" instead. This cake doesn't come with cream but it still creates a decent amount of mess for the effect. Some babies hate being messed up by cream so cakes like this scare them a lot less and you can still get to take photos of them interacting with the cake. 

Some of you may be wondering so what's the whole deal with this cake smash concept? Based on my research, it supposedly commemorates their first exposure to sugars (babies don't take sugared products before 1YO). When they taste it, they might give the confused face or flash the sweetest smile. And also the mess they made is adorable.

Parents can either choose to do the photoshoot themselves or engage a photographer. We chose the later because the mess can be massive. His red panda costume is of our own (regrets) LOL cos I took a while to clean off the cake. And it does help to have an experienced photographer as they can help to encourage to take a bite and know the better angles!

We happen to take the shoot on our baby's lunar birthday so I decided to get the mini tartlet versions (8 for $16) as well for the family. After trying them for ourselves, I can understand why my baby love it. They are like egg tarts with fruit flavours. My BIL hates tofu but he took 2 LOL! Quoted from him "the smell of tofu is effectively masked!"

Overall, I would think both the custard and crust is very well done. The price for the cake is definitely a lot more affordable in comparison. Don't be too surprised if you see us ordering more for the special occasions in the family! It also does help that these sweet treats are healthier versions and can be enjoyed by both the very young and very old (which we have both in our family!) Haha. 

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Baby goes staycation

I did think quite long and hard before finally deciding to risk it and bring the family for a staycation. At this point, the Covid situation was worsening and we could only dine in 2s. Back in June, we couldn't even dine outdoors and we thought it would be lame to go ahead with the staycation so we postponed it. 

Initially, we were supposed to stay in Sofitel @ City Centre. However, as they became a Stay-Home Notice Dedicated Facility, we were moved to Fairmont Singapore instead. I was quite impressed by their honesty (which gave me a bit of faith in the measures that they would put in place) so I decided to go ahead. Upon reaching, I realised Fairmont was an approved hotel for the Green Lane Passengers when I spotted people in PPE. I admitted I freaked out a bit and wanted to take a cab back but the taxi driver being highly efficient had unloaded my luggage.

To be honest, the first day at the Fairmont didn't go well. During the weekends, the restrictions changed so the operations teams probably couldn't react too. My booking was apparently not transferred properly. They got my name wrong and addressed in the wrong salutation too. The complimentary dinner was no longer part of the package (sad), but since we were in town there were quite a lot of good food around so the Hubs told me look on the bright side and not let this affect my mood for the next few days. 

Since we can't dine out as a family, we decided to have our meals in our room. They had this online ordering system. But somehow, it wasn't working very well and I had to call in to make my orders. They also got my orders wrong (I think) and we ended up with Antidote's high tea (around $90 for hotel guests). I have to say this was the best high tea I ever had. It was so good that it made my day literally (and after that, everything just got better too!)

Our plan was to use our staycation as a base to explore the other areas. The CBD area was like a ghost town and I managed to take many nice scenic shots. (Nobody in sight!) It is kinda of surreal and sad at the same time. But it was quite safe for baby because of the lack of crowd. Fairmont is at quite a nice location so we could take a nice stroll to most of the nice attractions - Gardens by the Bay (read about our experience here!), Esplanade, Chjimes.

Although it was a staycation, it did feel a bit like we went overseas haha. Nice food around their vicinity (if you are not into room service) includes - Hvala, Senor Taco, Wooloomooloo steakhouse etc. Yums. 

One of the highlight for any kid (if you don't stay in a condo) is probably the pool. Not only did I bring our own unicorn float, I also brought his shades along. The pump ($25) and float ($20) (both from Baby Spa) took a good 25% of our luggage. In fact the husband and baby's stuff took a good 60%. For the first time, I packed very very light for myself. Baby was decked cutely in the Short Sleeve Rashie Set ($51.90) from The Baby Closet. (First time and probably last time wearing cos he grows big so so fast!)

We were initially quite hesitant to bring him to the pool but according to my husband, Covid doesn't spread at the pool. Also, you had to book for a slot at Fairmont. So at any one time, there were a max. of 2 families at the different ends of the pool (non-heated by the way). You could also only swim in 2s, hence I was the official photographer. Cute towel is from Cheekaboo.

Thought we will end with some quick tips for parents who are planning to bring their kids for a staycation as well. We did prepare food for the baby - mainly fruits. He also shared our fruit platter for breakfast. For the sterilizing of bottles, we brought our own tingkat (yes, you didn't hear us wrong) and poured boiling hot water in it to do it the traditional, portable manner (haha).

By the way, room cleaning is only on request. So thank god, I brought along my zip-lock samples packets for baby's soiled diapers. Locked the stench in and kept our room fresh throughout the whole stay. My favourite collapsible snack container ($19.90) from iTOTS was also very useful for acting as a bowl for baby or a container when on the go!

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Day Out at the Botanic Gardens

 My poor son was placed on SHN for 5 whole days and it was awful for him really. He enjoyed going out for leisure strolls and being forced to lock indoors was terrible. Worse, it was merely a viral fever but because he didn't took the ART, he was "naturally" placed on SHN. 

For us, it was just huge change of plans. But we have a really good support network, so basically it was my parents who had to take extra days off for him haha. I just took 2 days (and 1 was merely to celebrate his release). And maybe to take a breather too, cos taking care of an irate baby who wants to vent his anger by hurting himself is no easy feat. 

By now, I have pretty much realised that weekdays are the way to go when you want to avoid the crowd. There were so many animals spotted there. We were first welcomed by a hen and her brood of chicks. I saw older kids having a lot more fun chasing after the chickens and roosters. My baby could barely walk so he was happy to cling on to us as I *pants* run after them instead.

There were also the usual squirrels, fishes, swan (only 1 spotted) and tons of monitor lizards. I think covid and the lack of human presence has allowed them to breed freely and sort of be less fearful of humans. I am on the other hand petrified by the lizards especially, now they don't demarcate boundaries. 

Botanic Gardens is one of my favourite gardens in Singapore, maybe because it is free haha or perhaps because of the memories I have with it. A lot of the photos I took with my child, my mother had the exact same photos with me. We did try to recreate some old photos with little success because my boy still can't walk very well.

Now that we ain't considering going overseas, I am feeling so much for this colonial-designed garden. Some parts of the garden let me feel like I just step out off Singapore...Nice! Generally, the garden is very child-friendly. Fresh air and a long, tiring stroll does make me feel better!

Sadly, we missed lunch that day because we thought it would be great to see all the sights - band stand photos are being held hostage in the Hub's phone. Boo! You really need to decide where you wanna have a meal because the eateries are spaced quite far apart. Best tip for you, grab a nice cold coffee at every eatery to drink on the go. Super shiok in the hot weather!

My bad decision for the day was deciding to eat a late lunch at Dempsey and all the restaurants were on their afternoon break. To be fair, most of the eateries serve pretty boring western brunch food and I was in the mood for something more exquisite. Ended up going hungry, the kid though had a ball of fun as seen in the photos!

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Note: Laptop is down, so posts won't be as frequent!