Mamamia Out Loud opinion: You should make your kid's first birthday cake.

Roll up your sleeves.

Prepare the dirty nappy into a spherical projectile that you can throw at my head.

Because I’m about to say something that will make me V unpopular with the mummy community.

My friend  is about to host a first birthday party for her baby.  She’s excited. I’m excited. There will be balloons on the front gate and hopefully lolly bags for adults.

And in the ensuing discussion of said party she slid her phone across the table, and said: “And this is the cake I’m going to get!”

Artists impression:

First birthday cake ???? #goldcoastcakes #firstbirthdaycake #chocolatemudcake #vanillabuttercream #pinkganache #blueandvioletbuttercream

A photo posted by Gracey’s Cakes (@graceyscakes) on May 30, 2016 at 1:14am PDT

So of course I did what anyone without a kid would do. I voiced my opinion. “This is bullshit.  You need to make this cake yourself,” I declared, with all the bravado of someone that gets seven unbroken hours of sleep a night. “You need to have a breakdown at 11pm and lose your mind over it because that is a RITE of passage for parents and you MUST MAKE THIS CAKE.”

Watch Monique, Mia and Kate De Brito limbering up for Mamamia Out Loud, before they got stuck into opinions like this one… Scroll down for the podcast audio…

Cakeshaming. I cakeshamed a mum.  Because, people, you need to make your kid’s first birthday cake. The Women’s Weekly Birthday Cake Book dream needs to be kept ALIVE. Don’t let the light of the chip-duck flicker out. If we all start buying in cakes, what will happen to the train cake? What will happen to the pool cake? Who will be number ONE?

A photo posted by moniquebowley (@moniquebowley) on Oct 31, 2013 at 11:49pm PDT

 And now of course,  I’ve realised that the first birthday cake is a V BIG DEAL:

What has happened to the average, slightly shit DIY first birthday cake?

The normal cake, the home-made cake, the cake that’s just lovely in its simplicity: a homemade vanilla cake with sprinkles and a candle in the top?

Because while Instagram-worthy cakes look amazeballs, there’s so much happiness in seeing cakes like this:

A photo posted by @_lovetildy_ on May 25, 2016 at 9:19pm PDT

YES.

Cakes that require the character-building challenge of, you know, making it yourself?

According to Kate de Brito and a lot of people on my Facebook page, no one in their right mind would bother with the nonsense of cake-making when you can just buy a slab from the shops or pay someone else and be done with it.

So with me at the “homemade-or-bust” spectrum, and KDB at the other, Mia Freedman stepped in with the perfect compromise.

She has spent 18 years in the cake conundrum and has found a pretty good solution. Listen here: (post continues after audio)

Genius.

I’m going to continue in my love and defence of the homemade birthday cake. But if all that fails, there’s always the Freedman hack.

The full episode of Mamamia Out Loud is here. It’s the weekly podcast that’s like a chat with your girlfriends. With everything from pop culture to politics, to pot pourrie. Subscribe in itunes so you get it every week (highly recommended), or listen here (also recommended):