What does your pack do for Cake Bake?

[kari_cardi]

Historically, our pack does a auction of the cakes and donates the proceeds to charity. We are looking for other ideas. Auctioning cakes takes a long time and we always have disappointed boys in tears. My impression is that Cake Bake is one area where traditions vary widely among packs, so I am interested in hearing other ideas so we can formulate a fresh approach.

 

TIA!

[Scoutfish]

We kill two birds with one stone.

 

We hold or cake bake at our annual Christmas party. But we call it a "Parent/ Son Cookoff"

 

The goal is to make the colest dessertthat will be judges under :

Most creative

Most original

Best tasting

 

We give out 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place ribbons in each catagory and also have a grand prize trophy of overall winner.

 

The judges are selected fromour Co, but who do not have kids in the pack.

 

They cut a minimal sliver for the taste test.

Afterward, the cakes are sold for a fair price. Anywhere fron $5.00 to $25.00 ( depending on if it wins or not).

 

All procedes are sent to a battered womens shelter.

 

Thing is, the kids are focused on ribbons and how cool the cakes are. noyt how much money their cake made.

 

Plus it's also the Christmas party, so they are running around stuffed full of sugary desserts that weren't part of the cookoff.

[Lisabob]

We used to do this for Blue & Gold desserts. We'd give the kids a theme to work with. We called it the "macho man cake bake" and emphasized that it would be great if the boys worked with a male family member or friend (if possible), just to give moms a break and model for the boys that "real men" cook, too. The only serious rule was that everything on the cake had to be edible (decorations included).

 

The first year we did it, some folks were worried about how it would turn out, but the dads, grandpas, uncles, neighbors, cousins, big brothers, etc. had a BLAST with it and it became tradition. All those extended family/friends started attending the B&G, too - an added bonus in terms of building community and family.

 

Our pack provided some sort of certificate to every boy who made a cake. We took lots of photos of boys and their cakes. We didn't make it a competition, so much as a chance to display your creativity and have some fun. We displayed the cakes all through the B&G banquet, then ate them at the end. The kids spent half of the night plotting for who was going to get a piece of which cake. We made sure that the support staff (janitors) at the school where we held the B&G got slices, too. There was seldom anything left over. All went away happy. The pack didn't have to pay for desserts (well, we provided ice cream). No tears.

 

 

[ScoutNut]

Why does your cake auction takes such a long time? Why on earth are Scouts in tears?

 

NOTE - BSA does not allow it's members to raise funds for other organizations. A cake bake advertised as benefiting a specific charity would fall into that area.

 

If your Pack has to many Scout cakes to make auctioning them off individually workable, why not do a silent auction? Number each cake to keep the baker somewhat anonymous. Put out a sheet of paper (with the cake number on it) for each cake, and let folks write down what they are wiling to pay. That way your regular Pack Meeting programing can be going on at the same time.

 

At the end of the evening announce the winner/new owner of each cake by cake number. Then announce the total amount raised.

 

Give everyone who participated a certificate. Have maybe 3 award categories (best in theme, most unusual, biggest money maker, etc). Get some paper chef's hats and print on them the date, event name, and award name. Give these to the winners.

 

Then enjoy eating the cakes.

 

 

[Basementdweller]

Dude desserts for the Blue and Gold Banquet.

 

I have made a bunch of cakes with a bunch of boys without a significant male influence in their lives. Then I am about sick eating one piece of each cake.

[tdk101]

We do them as desert for our Blue & Gold. Everyone present gets to vote on different categories and then we all dig in and enjoy!

 

We gave out the golden wisk for the top voted cake. A wisk from the dollar store spray painted gold. Kids loved it.(This message has been edited by tdk101)

[denleader09]

We also do it for Blue and Gold. Our dens decorate the cake. No adults allowed. The cakes must be a standard shape (round, square, etc) and can have a layer of icing on them. The cakes are decorated to a theme, but the boys have to think of what they want to do and they have to do it. We have done it with having one winner, but now everyone wins a distinct category (most interestin use of gummies, etc) The cake is then served to each den and family as dessert. It's very popular with the boys.

[kari_cardi]

Thank you! Your ideas sound like much more fun for the boys! I'm going to suggest them at our next leadership meeting.

[ntrog8r]

Sasha,

 

At the Blue and Gold, we do a silent auction for the cakes. Prizes (certificates/ribbons) are given out for lots of categories: best-themed, best Scout theme, most colorful, tallest, best looking, coolest (selected by the Cubs), etc. We donate the money raised to the World Scout Foundation.

 

The "Grand Prize" has always been a golden bundt pan, but I like tdk's golden whisk idea, too.

[perdidochas]

We've found it helpful to have two Feller Cake Bakes a year. We have one in January (Web II and Wolves), and one in April (Web I, Bears and Tiger cubs). That keeps the time down. ANother thing is that obviously parent made cakes don't get prizes.

[boomerscout]

"NOTE - BSA does not allow it's members to raise funds for other organizations. A cake bake advertised as benefiting a specific charity would fall into that area."

 

Oh, piffle! Our twice a year canned food drives are the same as raising funds (for the food bank, in this case).

 

 

[ScoutNut]

No, you are collecting food, not money.

 

There is a big difference.

[MarinesWife]

Last year we did a cake walk at the end of the Blue and Gold evening. I didn't hear anything negative about that so I'm sure we'll be doing it again. I thought it was fun anyway!! I didn't see any disappointed boys/children and it seemed like they all enjoyed themselves and just considered it a game.

 

Anyone could play - parents/siblings/Scouts. As each person one they got to choose the cake they were taking home. In our rules for the cake bake we made sure it was very clear that boys would NOT be taking home their own cake, that someone else would be winning it.

[pchadbo]

OK on the raising money front: our pack takes what I would think would be an obvious choice. Our cake raffle at the Blue & Gold (based on that year's theme) are raffled off and the monies rasied go to Friends of Scouting.