I've been asked by a local Secondary School (High School) to do an 1 1/2 hour long demonstration for their Transition Year Students (average age 16) before they decorate their Christmas Cakes this year.

I've never done a demo for anyone before. The teacher is talking about showing them both sugarpaste and royal icing and of course decorating also.

Now if I take in a Blank Cake & Marzipan it and then have a ready Marzipan Cake and put the fondant on it... thats about 30 mins gone.

In our town their is no specialist cake decorating supplies shop, so I want to do something with a minimum of tools needed (these kids won't use them again so no point in making them buy them and in case your not listing to the global media - here in Ireland anyone who isn't broke will be in the next few weeks ) So I want to keep costs down.

So can anyone think of something which doesn't use a lot of tools, is fairly quick to demonstrate and that teenagers might think is cool?

Also what will I do with the royal icing?

30 minutes is no where near long enough to cover a cake with sugarpaste and cover another with royal icing (presume this tutors means snow scene as flat icing takes no less than three coats with a minimum of 4 ours between coats).

It really does depend on what the tutors is happy with - if this was me then I would opt to demonstrate a few edible items which could be placed on their cake (all items freehand modelled) - Christmas tree/Snowman
http://www.ladycakes.com/xmas_tree_snowman.htm

I agree- a demo usually means coming in with an already prepared cake that you demonstrate how you can decorate it.

How about doing a christmas bow? Those are easy to do with just a cutter wheel. Show the process, then show a finished bow. I think they would like that.

Or maybe some cute little modeled penquins or a snowman....or maybe some piped evergreen boughs and a poinsettia.

I've done some school demos, and the kids loved it when I would just whip out a 30 second icing rose!

I've demonstrated in the past, so here's what I did.

I made 1 dummy copy of the project, completely done. Then I prepped another dummy for decorating. I made enough gumpaste/fondant decorations, in advance, to complete the project during the demonstration.

When I demonstrated the project, I covered the dummy as needed, then I demonstrated how to make 1 or 2 of each of the decorations I was using. When I was done making the decorations, I used the already-prepared decorations to complete the project.

If you go there with all this done in advance, then 1 and 1/2 hours will be more than enough time to demonstrate your project.

Theresa

Thanks for the idea's guys!

The demo is an hour and a half in total.

I know myself I can't show them how to do a proper royal iced cake, I like to leave overnight between coats on mine and to be honest I think its a waste of my time and theirs to show them snow.

Thats a nice wee Snowman Topper. I was thinking of a Santa Claus but to be honest, there are too many colours and I don't want to leave there and them to have a list of pots of colours/equipment to buy... because having a kid the same age here.... I know they want the works if they go to do anything by themselves and they will only use it the once.

I think I will go in there with a Dummy Cake as you suggested, ready iced and then show them how to cover a cake and who them how to make the decorations and then use a bit of royal icing to finish the decoration.#

Thanks again for the advice.