Hi everyone,
I really need some great ideas for two cakes I'm donating for my kids' cake walk at school. It's to raise money.
I will need some gender neutral cakes I guess? Or since I'm doing two, should I do one girl theme and one boy theme? ....what's popular with that age group?
Any suggestions would be great!

I like the gender-neutral idea. You could make an animal-themed cake (safari, zoo, farm, circus) and one with an underwater theme (fish, shells, corals, etc.), for example. I figure you should keep your potential client base as large as possible in these cases, LOL.

I think I would do one to appeal more to the adults, so something with more of an elegant look to it maybe, and then one to appeal to the kids with a kid-friendly theme. But I've never done anything like that and none of the cake walks we had when I was in school had any decorated cakes that I remember. I think you're probably going to wow them with anything you do if you are the only decorator making cakes for the cake walk.

This is my first cake walk, so I'm not sure what to expect. We live in a small town, so I wouldn't think there are too many people that do cakes. I only know of two and I know at least one of them don't have kids in school.
Also, I believe it is only the kids that are buying tickets for the cakes to take home. I don't think the teachers are involved in that part.
Thanks for the ideas to get me started!!

I've done a couple cake walks for pre-schools and schools, and I've always gone with a seasonal theme. For example, if I were doing one in the next two weeks I'd do spring flowers or easter eggs.

What is a cake walk?

How do kids grade 3 and under have enough money to buy a whole cake? And how will they take a whole cake home on the bus?

It seems this should be something the pta should organize for the parnts to come to buy. Wouldn't a young kid rather buy a cupcake or cookie so they can eat it right away? Sorry, i'm just trying to figur out the logic.

I did an owl mini cake for a cake walk at my children's school. My youngest child's teacher loves owls so I found and owl cake here on CC and used it for my inspiration. It went when the first little girl won. If you have children at the school take a theme they have studied this year or a previous year, fall leaves, Johnny Appleseed, penguins... that the children really enjoyed and trust me it will be the first to go.

The zebra cake I made in my pics was for my daughters elementary school cake walk. All the kids ooh'd and awe'd at it the whole time. When my cake was up tons of people, boys, girls and parents tried to get a ticket. I was a bit afraid it was too girly but it was a crowd pleaser.

If I remember correctly, a cake walk is sort of like musical chairs, and the person who is left at the end wins the cake. There's a competition round for each cake that has been donated. It IS a PTA-organized fundraiser in most cases, and both children and adults can participate, in one way or another. As Lindsram points out, the nicer the cake, the more people want to compete to win it, so the better ones take in way more money than the run-of-the mill ones.

Thank you. I tried googling it but am finding soMe odd things. So, how does the school make money on this? Do people buy a ticket then turn it in to compete for a particular cake?

Is it done after school at some kind of event, and the parents are there? I'm still trying to figure out how a small child would take a cake home from school. My daughter is 9 and i know she would drop a box with cake in it. Or else other kids might try to eat the cake on the bus.

Sounds like it could be fun for the kids and interesting if done correctly. I just worry about the school getting at least as much as it cost to make the cake. Whenever i help out with a bake sale at church, they try to underprice my stuff. I remind the lady that they will be losing money because I could have just donated the amount it cost me to make the item and hey would have had more. She then realizes they need to price higher.

Thanks for the info. It's always interesting to learn new ideas!

Kello, you could also do a generic one, with bright colors, stripes/dots. Maybe cut the top on an angle to be like a topsy turvy. Or a food shape, like a giant cookie, or burger, box of fries, something like that.

Please, let us know how it goes. Good luck!

What they are doing at the school:
Parents are asked to donate a cake of their choice. The more cakes donated, the better.
All cakes are then put out on display. Students purchase tickets for .50 cents each (as many as they want) and put their ticket in the box of the cake they want. At the end of the day, each cake box gets a name pulled and that is the winner for that cake.
They asked that cakes be on the smaller size and be in a sturdy box for transport, as some students will be taking it home on the bus......I know!

I'm liking the food shape cake, then it's not too tall.

Kello - I like the idea of the way you are doing the "walk" at the school. Its more of a Silent Auction if you think about it....I've donated tons of cakes to the K-3 school. My most popular are "Carnival Princess" in girly-girl; "Matchbox Car" boys; Play-Doh hugely popular; Candy Barrell hugely popular.

Carnival Princess idea: http://cakecentral.com//gallery/1036833 (purchased the crown at the Dollar store)

Car theme: Oops, didn't load that one into gallery! Me bad....just make a blue/brown cake & put your cars on top of GP road

Play-doh: http://cakecentral.com//gallery/1036543 (purchased toys at $dollar store)

Candy Barrell: http://cakecentral.com//gallery/1998564 (just added in gallery so you could see it)

HTH and more important, have FUN!

How 'bout a Candyland theme? Gender-neutral, and what kid could resist?

Just my knee-jerk initial thought...

And this is totally off-topic, but I'm on my local PTA and somehow never thought of a cake walk as a fundraiser. DUH! But what a great idea...

Good luck, kello - I'm sure whatever you do will be great!

The simpler, the better. Think of things kids that age like, for example, sprinkles. I wouldn't go all out for it, just a small, yummy cake, with tons of frosting (kids love the frosting the best, anyways)!