Hi my fellow CC'ers,

For the first time in my cake career I've been invited to participate in a cake competition held by a non-profit organization in my community.

It's a small competition...only 10 decorators are invited each year. Our local county magazine will be there to feature each designer and cake...so win or loose, the local exposure is huge.....but now I'm challenging myself to come up with something awesome.

That is where I need your help with ideas. The theme is "Fall into the holidays". The agency is called the Crisis Nursery - they provide emergency, temporary shelter to babies and children. So I would like the theme of the event and the cause of the agency to be present in the design. The only rules are that it needs to be sculpted or tiered....and they encourage "over the top" designs. It must also feed 40-50 people (it will be cut and served for dessert after the judging.)

My initial idea was to do a round cake with a huge tree in the middle and the cake be divided into thirds (each section divided by a picket fence). One section would be dedicated to fall, one to spring and one to winter. Each section of the tree would represent the season....fall with falling leaves and a child playing in the leaves, winter - just branches with a child building a snow man, spring full of green leaves and a child working in a garden....and so on. This would be detailed - but not tiered or carved.....not over the top enough.

Any good ideas out there?

Thanks so much for your help.

SLK (Stacey Cakes)

I like the idea you have but I am not seeing where spring plays a part in "Fall into the Holidays". To me, that is more autumn into Thanksgiving into Christmas. Maybe Halloween is in there, too. And now I will have to ponder it some more. Hmmmm

While I agree with the tree & the kids, I think you're missing the "...into the holidays" part of the theme.

There was a beautiful tree cake at the SD Cake Show recently. Each leaf was individually made and hung. It was stunning. If you PM me your email address, I will send you a copy. (I try to post pics in here, but they never work.)

Would also be cool if you could get the kids "tossing" the leaves and have them on wires mid-toss.