I was asked to provide entertainment, hands-on activities for a group retreat for 2 hours on one afternoon. What you would suggest to do?!?!? I could show a slideshow of some of the cakes that I have done and give a little history on how I got started etc. I thought about giving them some fondant and letting them create a teddy bear or flower and give them all a cupcake to decorate to put it on. The thing is, these people aren't involved in cake decorating. They are just on a retreat so I don't know how interested they will be in all of the actual decorating or if they just want to be entertained and have a good time. I'm just not sure how to entertain with something like cake decorating?!?!!? Any suggestions would be awesome! I need help!

Have them make a fondant critter. Pick an easy one and have at it. Or, do you do cookies at all? I have a ton of cool ideas for cookies that are very easy to execute even for a novice, which are designed to teach techniques that are used on both cookies and cakes. For example, make a heart cookie and roll out fondant, use an impression mat and stick the fondant heart to the cookie and dust with lustre dust to make it pop and they have something beautiful that they made, not to mention they learned fondant CAN taste good, how to use an impression mat, they have exposure to lustre dust and a feeling of confidence "yes, I CAN do that!" Well that's my $.02!!

Duff Roses! My daughter taught a short class at a church activity. I suggested Duff roses as part of her presentation. It was a hit. They are so easy everyone had success. They decorated cupcakes as well. Some had never heard of fondant. Others always pealed it off without even tasting it. She used MMF and most really liked the taste. She also had cakecentral.com info in her handout, along with some simple recipes. Several ladies were interested in taking classes after her presentation.

What time of year is the retreat? Let's say spring. Make a cake/dummy for spring. Pass out a small portion of fondant to each person. Show them how to make a flower, daisies perhaps. Have a rolling pin, plastic placemat, and a cutter. While they are working on the daisies, give a short speel of decorating while walking around the room to help. When everyone has almost finished the flowers, base ice your cake and give pointers. How to level, torte, and smooth the icing. Show them a basic border and bring along flowers to accent your cake. Pass around or slide show pictures of you cakes. Talk about the "work" that goes into a quality cake. You can not make a chain store cake for next to nothing because of the cost of quality fresh ingredients and that sort. 2 hours seems like forever until you get started and then it is too short. HTH

Hmmm.... What type of retreat is it? Is anyone else sharing the same 2 hr time slot as you? Without knowing, and based on what you said, I think you're probably on the right track. But just to add...

If you have a photo album of your cakes, bring it for display and sharing. If you have any kind of finished gumpaste or other sugar work, bring some examples. Whether or not you are "into" cake decorating, people tend to show interest in it because they cannot believe it's sugar! So many non-cake people talk to me about my gumpaste work because it intrigues them. And as you mentioned, you can bring some fondant for people to make things if they are so inspired.

And, don't forget to share some stories... Leaving out names, etc., you could share your best, funniest, scariest cake event.

Sorry I'm not much help, but I wish you the best of luck & I know you'll do great! Have fun!!!

Thanks so much for the feedback. Sorry I did not get to it sooner - I have a problem getting email notifications for forum posts! I do some cookies so that would definitely be an option. I am a little bit aprehensive about showing myself actually decorating a cake. First, I am not very fast and secondly I use Viva to smooth my cakes and I'm not sure what people's reactions will be to someone smoothing a cake with a paper towel. Am I just being silly?!?!?!?

I also forgot to mention that it is supposed to be 30-35 women. I am thinking that I would be in a little over my head doing this by myself!