The Scouts Cake Bake Auction

This week my son learned how to bake a cake. It was so nice to share that time with him in the kitchen (& discover that he really did understand fractions)

His scout unit had their annual cake bake auction fundraiser. The boys make cakes with little to no help from their parents. The cakes then get judged by a panel of judges from the community so that the boys can get awards for different categories. Then they get auctioned off to the highest bidder.

for us it started with Fire & Ice (& a few fish)

My son wanted to do a camping cake so we came up with all kinds of ideas for water & fire & ended up melting jolly ranchers~ I think mostly because he just wanted to eat ALL the extra JolliesI think the fire came out pretty good~looks like a cozy campfire to me

he also wanted to be sure that we had trees. Sugar cones were the sure way to go but the decoration of them was a little different. I knew I didn't want to walk him though making icing specifically for the trees so we raided the cabinet & used melted butterscotch chips & iced the cones with that & sprinkled some green sugar on them. They came out wonderful & I highly recommend that technique

Doesn't he look so happy mixing the ingredients~ I just love it

Here he is testing the consistency of the batter

tyring to pour the batter in the pans evenly

Ready for the Oven

(excuse all the ash in the bottom of the oven~I used the self cleaner last week & lets just say it was like a war zone in there)

FOR ICING ~ the best part

of course it was a HUGE battle from within for me to not grab the spatula & help him ice it when I watched him rub so hard back & forth that I just knew the cake was going to get lobbed off lol ;)

But all my anxiety went away when I peeked through my fingers & saw that he did just fine, as you can see by the cute little tent he made out of pretzel sticks, melted butter scotch chips & fruit by the foots

Here are some of the other cakes laid out on the table getting the judges once over.

And here he is holding his Judges choice Award!! Getting him to take this picture took a little coaxing. I think he got a little embarrassed having to accept the award in front of all those people

but in the end he was very excited about it & I think he was very proud of his accomplishment

Isnt it such an awesome display!

I know I was proud of him because he was willing to learn something new & he was able to express the ideas that he wanted to have happen. He was open to suggestions & he learned that great successes come from dedication & hard work

So here is to my little guy (well really not too little anymore) Who was creative himself this week

Finally out of the oven & cooled enough to transfer