Upon first glance at the above photo of four babies enjoying a first birthday cake smash [1], everything seems totally normal, right? Why don't you go ahead and do a little double-take though, because there are, in fact, only two babies in the above photo smashing pink and white birthday cakes — the two on the ends.
That's right, Lily and Lyla, the real twin girls celebrating their first birthdays together, were joined by cake versions of themselves [2], who also had their own mini cakes to "smash." Their mom, Lara Mason, shared the photos on The Motherload Facebook page [3], and told group members that she decided to make such elaborate cakes because she used to bake as a side job.
"Totally get this won't be everyone's cup of tea [5], but not a lot of other people do this crazy thing that I do so I thought to myself . . . Why not?!" she wrote in her post. "I mean, what other kids get to say that their mum made them life-size cakes of themselves for their 1st birthday!? . . . I'll be cleaning buttercream out of the floorboards for months but I reckon it was 100 percent worth it."
Lara told The Motherload that the cakes took "about 100 to 120 hours" to make over the course of a week, and that the hardest part was making the girls' hair, as each strand was made individually out of pulled sugar. "It's the most critical I have ever been while making 'cake people' because I feel like I did such a good job making them so cute in the first place!" she said.
Check out the incredibly lifelike cakes, as well as the real Lyla and Lily, below!
Lily and Lyla with their cakes.
Cake versions of Lily and Lyla with their own cakes.
All "four" babies, enjoying their cakes.