At the small Christian school my son attends, about 1/2 to 3/4 of the high school leave for a big sports tournament. The remaining students have "Workshops" they can choose from, last year I did one on cookie baking and cookie decorating. I have been asked to teach again this year. The slots are 90 minutes long, I can do 2 slots if I want. I will be teaching high school kids. Any thoughts? I am thinking decorating techniques, borders, simple flowers , lettering for one. This is often the first exposure any of these kids have had to confections. Any thoughs appreciated, they will also have to buy minimal supplies. Heather

I think the cookie decorating one, esp. if you showed them how to make them into cookie bouquets, would be good to teach again. I love that cookies allow you to really be creative and, if you don't like the result, you've only "messed up" a little cookie v. a whole cake. Build their confidence before going into a whole cake. I would have loved that in high school!

If you want something different, I think your plan sounds good. I'd try to stick with "cool" techniques. Example: shell borders--not what I'd call "hip", bead borders--more "hip". Daisies--hip, pansies--not-so-hip. LOL

Are you going to bake cakes for them to decorate or just have them practice on something?

I was looking at your photos. You do good work. If you do one session about cookies, how about cupcakes for the other? You have various decorated cupcakes that both girls and boys should like to copy. Do you supply the cookies/cupcakes? What do the students buy? Decorating tips and bags?

I taught a cake decorating class to seventeen 12 and 13 year old girls from church last year. It was interesting to see what they could handle. I made them each a 6-inch, 2-layer round to decorate (I know! I'm insane!). We had four stations and I had 3 other women to help out with the stations. We divided the girls into groups and had them rotate among the stations. One station was filling and icing the cake, one was borders, on was colorflow hearts and another was making roses. Obviously they had to do the icing station before the borders, but everything else could be done in any order. The whole thing took 2 hours. It didn't work perfectly, because the rose station took up more time than any other and the colorflow hearts weren't dry (of course-duh!) in time to put them on the cakes before they went home, but the girls loved it and three of them showed amazing talent. At 12 years old! One girl was making roses that rivaled mine by the end of the evening.
I think high schoolers could handle any of these things and more. Some of them will catch on faster than others, of course. How much you teach will really depend on the size of your class and whether or not you have any help.
Good luck!

Thanx guys! I love the stations idea, will have to call the coordinator (she usually attends my class) and get her take on this, about 12 students.

I would have them buy a star tip, tip 2 and or 3, a leaf tip and their own cupcakes (start small). I thought maybe do the first 1/2 of class on borders, simple flowers, etc and the last 1/2 to decorate their cupcakes.

I would provide icing, parchment bags, colors and magazines for ideas.

Maybe cookie bouquets for the 2nd one?? Hmmmmmmmmmmm.

I think decorating cupcakes is a GREAT idea. Trust the woman who baked 34 6-inch cake layers for her class. lol

I don' t know if this will help. Or you may already know. I was on the Wilton site the other day and they have mini kits you can buy for teaching children. I think they were about $4 each. Came with a bag and a couple of tips and a coupler. Maybe you can get quantity discounts.