I've come to some conclusions after making cake for this cakewalk at my nephew's school, just wanted to share the experience so bear with me please that this is long. I know when I read your experiences in detail I find it invaluable to see how something went from start to finish - to see what worked and what didnt work, what to do differently next time.
When I asked you guys for cakewalk ideas that really helped a lot. Well first off, Monday morning the whole carnival was possibly cancelled because there werent enough volunteers. By Wednesday night it was back on because a whole swarm of people came to the rescue. So as you can imagine I didnt start anything until Wednesday night GRRR lol.
Ok so my plan was to do 3 cakes. The carnival was hee haw themed so my 'plan' was to do a basket of apples, a pile of autumn leaves with a rake, and an 'old macdonald had a farm FBCT'
Somewhere this week I got a cold. A cold where your head feels like a bowling ball perched on your neck for 2 days. Wednesday night was a write-off after going around buying all my ingredients. Thursday and Friday were my days off work thankfully. But I was still sick, and thus unmotivated to take my brilliant ideas to the kitchen LOL.
The basket of apples I should have researched more. Structurally. I didnt use a dowel, but I thought I cant really put a note anywhere on the cake that it has a dowel in it for whoever wins the cake at the cakewalk. So my 3 layers of special sized round tins were wobbly (I carved the bottom and tops a bit to be angled inward). (Good learning experience for next time LOL By the time I stacked the 3 tall narrow layers on top of each other, it was really top heavy after apples were added.
So then I figure my MMF strips for the basket will keep it all tight together. Wrong. Knead in some melted chocolate thinking that will make it stiffer. It did, but cracked and looked well, rustic lol. That COULD have passed off with touch-ups. However By this time (thursday night) all 3 base cakes were done, the leaf decorations were done, but I still had to do FBCT for the farm cake. I'm getting seriously low on icing sugar at this point. It's late late thursday night and I suppose the corner store MAYBE sells icing sugar but I'm still sick so I'm absolutely not motivated to leave the house.
I still have 12 apples to cover with red MMF. I had a sparse amount of red MMF made up (rolled as thinly as possible to make it last) so I did the cheapo thing and didnt cover teh whole apples. I figure once they're in a pile 'in /on the cake' nobody will see the bottom of the cupcakes. Well, lots of holes around the edges where you could see the actual cake. (Bad planning lol) so I would have had to go to the store anyway to get more icing sugar to make more red MMF to fandangle some 'tops' of apples to have the whole basket covered. By this time I'm still sick, I'm tired, I'm cranky and ready to cry that this isnt going well and mostly that I am sick lol. So I say to hell with number 3. To hell with number 2 (apples), and I will finish the leaf cake and leave it at that.
Well when I got to the school yesterday (friday) afternoon to drop off the single donation (UGH) most of the cakes I saw were either cheapo 5 dollar storebought cakes. Or what 'looked' like just small round or square single layer homemade but with possibly a can of icing smeared on top and sprinkles or smarties to fancify. There was one school bus which looked cool. Nothing elaborate at that point. Also aside from the storebought ones, mine was the only one in a cake box (well actually my bakery at the store I work didnt have boxes big enough for what I wanted, so I bought some empty deli trays which was great because they have the tall see-through lids. The rest of the cakes so far donated were all wrapped in saran wrap. So that makes my mood jump from cranky to semi-cranky lol
Well I watched the cakewalk for a while and egotistical as it may seem LOL (different than watching your own family for reaction) I watched the reaction as my leaf cake came out and the boy who won it was oooh and ahhh and showed his mom and rest of family and they ogled a while and so did the staff at the cakewalk. So that's ok. Next year I shall really blow them away HAAHHA that's a whole year of experience I'll have.
I'm including a pic of the apple basket (took the pic on an angle so you couldnt see the top LOL (leaf cake is in photos) - anyway just to post what I Wanted to do lol. Any suggestions from anyone who has made a basket or that kind of shape before, on structure etc, would be appreciated. [/b]
Wow, after all of that, you did a great job! Sorry you got sick, that is really just what you needed after all the kinks in the cakewalk plans.
Your cakes look good, and you did a good thing making something special for the event. As the old saying goes "wait 'til next year." Janice
I think your apple cake was great!! It would have looked gorgeous next to the other cakes you described...come to think of it, it would have looked gorgeous anyway. 
I was wondering, how much did they charge per person to walk in the cake walk? So how much did they make per cake? As I said in the earlier thread, The ones I did last year went for very little, therefore, this year mine will be raffles instead in added to the cake walk.
I think your apple cake looked great! I also checked out the leaf cake, and I may just borrow that idea.
I think your apple cake looked great, and the basket that cracked made it look more authenic! Great Job 
I think your apple cake looked great, and the basket that cracked made it look more authenic! Great Job
well thank you! LOL What I DIDNT take a pic of was the view from the top lol. Maybe it wouldnt have looked so bad. After all looking at the side view with the photo I took with my cheapo webcam, it looks rather ok. But that's compared to me sitting right in front of it and noticing every little thing LOL. Still, definitely not even something I would have given to family even. I know after the flower /blackberry bundt cakeI did for my mom ended up looking awful because I added the blackberries to the icing,. you'd think I would be liberal
) After all handing this off to a child who would not know it was mine wouldnt be as bad, right?
I dont know, weird logic I guess. But no the picture makes it look better than it was, trust me! LOL. I have until next year to make big improvements, and I cant wait (and amongst those improvements is always making sure I have more than enough supplies in stock- like icing sugar lol
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