I need an idea for a cake to celebrate my son's first grade class all making benchmark on their testing this week. Benchmark means that they all are doing at least what they should be in reading.
The teachers are going to have a party to celebrate they're so excited, they've never had a whole class do this well.
This is a big deal since this is a reservation school where kids don't have clothes that fit properly, don't come to school or the parents are out every night partying. I swear that if you are up here for more than a couple days you see the stupidity of No Child Left Behind placing all of the blame on schools.
I don't want to do anything really elaborate, I have a 3 year old that I have to drag with. I need enough to serve 18 kids and 2 teachers.
I don't want to do anything based on a first grade book and asking my kid for a character to base it on won't work either since he'd pick something the other kids aren't reading.
First: C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S!!!!! ::happy dance:: 
idea #1 how about sheet cake with a round cake on top.
the round cake would be made to look like the circle part of a Native American Dream Catcher.
the sheet would have the other decorative items associated w/ a dream catcher and also the message.
is there a saying in the native language of the children that would be something along the lines of continued sucess in catching your dreams for a brigth future.
idea #2...a picture of some native american great spirit...such as the wolf or the eagle (whichever would be most appropriate for the culture) with a message (i lean toward eagle as then can bring in images of soaring on winds of success)
Thanks but I'm a little reluctant to do something on that, my husband is the Native American and his family isn't very traditional so I don't know much about the culture. Most of the people around here don't speak much of the language and stuff so it's not unusual but I don't want to do something wrong and offend someone who is picky about it.
How about a cake that looks like a book either opened or closed. You can have something like Keep Reading or We Did A Great Job Reading, or any slogan or whatever the school or teacher may be using as a theme. Use that as the title of the book and the teacher's name as the author. HTH
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=coppermine&file=displayimage&meta=search&search=bookworm&cat=0&pos=0&search=bookworm
here is a really cute cake of a book with a worm coming up through it.....maybe you could do something like that.....and say something about reading or bookworms or something on the front?? Or nothing at all.....the book itself explains..lol It is cute though and I think the kids would get a kick out of it.
you should be able to just roll it out the size of the top and binding on the cake (book) and then lay it on top......the bottom part looks like it's just a snake like shape of the fondant placed there to give the effect that the book has a cover on the underside.......and the cake would be frosted white and then just use a knife or spatula or something to put the little lines making it look like paper sheets. Doesn't look too difficult!
You wouldn't have to use fondant for a "book" cake, mbelgard. You could use buttercream, smooth the top, and comb the sides to look like pages. If you want a worm, you could add one of marzipan. Most kids I know will clamor for the marzipan bits of a design, it's so delicious! If you can't manage a bookworm or don't want one, you could just pipe "Good Work Kids" (or something similar) on the "cover."
When my son was small, I did a few cakes for our local library branch's Summer reading club. Here is a link to my websites page with those cakes:
http://www.sugarfrosted.com/thumbnails.php?album=search&type=full&search=reading
I think my favorite was the Olympic theme, because I know the goals of the Olympics are Higher, Faster, Stronger. I used a foil covered chocolate coin for the medal. You could use fondant, too. I also like the Question Mark guy, because his notepad says, Get a Clue! Read!
Good Luck!
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