Cake Decorating for Tweens

Here's a program I did with my tweens a few weeks ago: Cake Decorating. We've done cupcakes before (I showed them some fun piping techniques and we went to town) but this was an entirely different ballgame. 

But before I go on, here's my warning. This one is neither cheap nor easy, but holy smackers is it fun and worth it. I had kids from 8 to 13 and they LOVED it. 

Here's what we did. 

Before the program, I baked 10 cakes from a mix. That's right, ten. (I used a cake mix, which made it easier, but still...)

I put icing on five of the cakes and stacked the other five on top, giving me five two-layer cakes. I cut those cakes into mostly square pieces (each cake gave me about 8 squares, give or take) and put those on small cake boards. Then I spread icing on the outside and top of each square so the fondant would have something to stick to. 

Granted, you could probably just make five cakes and split them into squares, but I really wanted the kids to be able to decorate the sides of the cake as well and you need a double layer to get enough space for that. 

I then put green frosting into piping bags. One of the bags had a writing frosting tip and the other had a grass frosting tip. I made about 8 grass tipped bags and 6 writing tipped bags for everyone to share. The favorite was definitely the grass one - I should have made more of those. 

Then it was time for the program. I put out parchment paper and a cake square at each place and spread fondant tools, rolling pins, scissors, paintbrushes for the fondant glue, fondant glue, and the frosting bags evenly across the tables. 

Once the kids arrived, they received several different colors of fondant. They rolled white fondant to cover their cake. Then I showed them how to use purple and pink to make a snail and green to make a frog. There was also yellow fondant for flowers and embellishments. 

Snail and frog pre-icing. 

They placed their snail and their frog on their cakes and then got creative with the frosting making grass, vines, and whatever else they could think of. I walked around giving hints and helping execute their ideas. One of the boys (that's right, the BOYS) actually showed the kids around him how to make roses!

Here are some of the results: 

The roses. He figured this out by himself!

Someone used the fondant to make a butterfly. 

Fondant flowers. 

Getting creative with vines and flowers. 

It was great fun and the kids had a blast decorating their own small cakes. The results were stunning and, it was reported to me later, delicious.