Hi! I was asked to do a career day presentation at my daughter's middle school. I will have 4 groups of 22-25 kids each. 7th graders, 13 years old.

Other than showing my pics and talking about my routine with baking for a restaurant, what can I do?

I thought about bringing in a bunch of bagged icings and either cupcakes or brownies in muffin cups for them to decorate and letting them have at it--does anyone have any thoughts on the best way to present that? (The cost for any supplies is gonna come out of my own pocket--so I need to keep it real--I just donated cakes and cupcakes for the middle school play's cast party--250 servings and about 40 hours of labor--last week.)

Also, with the cupcake idea--I'm thinking I should have them wear gloves as they will be sharing the bags--that's another expense. My daughter's said to just do tubs of icing with plastic knives, but that seems like something they all probably have done before. They may not have used a pastry bag before tho'.

I know you guys will help me out...I'm just not having any luck coming up with ideas for this! Thank you!!

If there's a grocery store you use frequently or that is close to the school I would go to the manager, explain what you need them for and ask if they would donate a box of the gloves the deli handlers wear. I know they're not what would be best, but they'd work and the cost is minimal, so the store may go for it.

Good Luck! I just did this with my daughter's Brownie troop and taught them how to decorate cupcakes (the video on YouTube that shows how to make a cupcake flower) and the girls (and Mom's) loved it!!

I know just the video you're talking about! That's a good idea! Thanks! Any others?

Since this is Career Day, in a school, you might want to talk about the decisions they need to make now, such as taking business classes and working on a business degree if they want to run their own bakery or food business; how it's a constant learning experience, with new techniques and new tools; how they need to keep up on the legal side of things, like Food Safety Certification, sales tax changes, etc.; how they need to have proper speaking and writing skills for dealing with the public and writing contracts (there's that legal thing again!).

Address the question kids always have of their teachers: When am I EVER going to use this info?

I think if you went into a grocer you frequent and ask them to donate the gloves ..I would also hit them with maybe some mini cupcakes they might be more than willing to donate them to the school..good luck

Thanks Debi, I will touch on those ideas, too, but from a standpoint that I don't know much about the schooling part, myself. I am a hobbyist baker who got very lucky to have a friend who owns a restaurant and wanted me to work for him. I learned most of what I know from this site and other online cake sites. Not a traditional education

I may just ask my boss if I can get the gloves from work. There are 20 schools in our district and the businesses in the community are routinely bombarded with donation requests.

Any suggestions for the best way to teach a large group of 13 year olds how to decorate a brownie with a pastry bag?

Oh...and on a fun note....

Last year, there was a plumber who brought in a super powered toilet and they got to take turns flushing golf balls down it. That story is in their memories--so I have to try and outdo the toilet guy!

They already know me as the "Cake lady", so I have somewhat of a reputation to uphold!

Has noone done a career day at school before? I find that impossible!!

bump

well, it wasn't officially a "career day", but I give presentations to schools all the time. I give a cake decorating demo. I talk to them about what to expect in the industry. I EMPHASIZE the importance of good math, english, organization, and a hard working ethic. I've never done one where the entire class participated in doing something.

For example, I asked the class, "If a recipe calls for 2 tsp of baking soda, and we triple the recipe, how much baking soda do we need?"

I love telling them their answer of "6 tsp" is WRONG!!! The look on their face is funny! My response to them is, "I'm not paying you to measure out 6 TEAspoons of something, when 2 TABLEspoons can be done faster. Time is money and your teacher puts those conversion charts on your tests for a reason." It's a great lesson for them when they ask the question "why do I need to know this?"

I talk to them about the money needed to open a business. About how important it is to have good credit if they expect to get a $100,000 start-up business loan. And no, there are NOT people lined up waiting to just GIVE you money to start a business.

I dont' just talk about the mechanics of a job .... they need to know the management of the career choice also. It's the difference between "career" day and "job" day.

All great points Debi, thank you!!! That helps tremendously! However, I think it would be better if I could come to you and sit in on your lessons first! Do you have one scheduled between now and next Monday?