While those offerings sound wonderful, I'm not sure your efforts will be appreciated by the elementary school crowd. I was in charge of a cake walk booth for many years. Honestly, the most popular items were the nasty Walmart cupcakes with neon frosting or plastic junk stuck in them.

I wold save yourself time and money and find a middle ground between your elegant choices and the plastic container of cheap cupcakes.

Back a few years when I was involved in such things....the most popular was dark chocolate cake with marshmallow frosting...EWW!!
If I were planning a cake decorating contest...I would ask people to bring plain cakes with a simple frosting and provide decoration "stuff" and let the kids have at it....then raffle off the finished products...
but I'm not in charge....this time!! LOL!
Linda C

Linda, I love your idea!! I remember being very little and my father showing me how to decorate a cake. "It's just like caulking."

It's a hard choice between what tastes best, what looks best and what sells best. The latter depends on the rules of the game. If this is the one that's a combo between musical chairs and a raffle, that is, where the person closest to the cake number called when the music stops gets the cake, then I'd think taste would be a big part of it. You want good looks so that when your cake is one of the few left people still want to try for it, but it's most important that people be happy to eat the result. If it's more like a silent auction looks are more important.

My best cake isn't much to look at but is really yummy (chocolate-pumpkin marble). The brownies sound similar--yummy but not very colorful.

Doesn't the cheesecake need to be refrigerated? That might not be a good idea.

Sugar cookies with M&M's are colorful and popular. Maybe not as yummy as your brownies. So going for that kind of color look, have you thought of putting a few icing flowers on the brownies? For that neon coloring that Deee mentioned. Kids love icing flowers. I think they sound kind of revolting with peanut butter truffle brownies, but they'd pretty them up for the whole decorating contest thing, and the adults don't have to eat the flowers. :)

When my kids were in elementary school and I sent in cakes for the cake walk they had to be box mixes and canned frosting in a pretty gift bag! I think there was a hepatitis B scare at the time.

I'd be happy to buy tickets for a chocolate layer cake, or a stack of brownies. White chocolate macadamia nut cookies are very popular. My kids loved anything strawberry flavored and pink colored as kids.

Anything with gummy anything on it will go first.

Jo

This is a guaranteed kid-pleaser. Due to possible allergies, I'd omit the peanuts.

BROWNIE PIZZA

1 (21.5 oz.) package fudge brownie mix
2 Tbs. flour
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 cup miniature marshmallows
1/2 cup M&Âs
1/2 cup unsalted peanuts
1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine brownie mix, flour, water, oil, and egg in mixing bowl. Beat 50 strokes by hand. Pour brownie mix onto a pizza pan and spread out to edges. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Immediately after removing from oven, sprinkle with marshmallows, peanuts and M&MÂs. Cool for 20 minutes. Drizzle with ice cream topping in a criss-cross design. Cool completely. Cut into squares or wedges to serve. Cover with plastic wrap to store. 12 to 16 servings.

The schools around us don't allow any home-made goodies at all anymore. : ( Everything has to be store-bought.

At my daughters carnival last month, the most popular cakes were "Puppy Cakes" from a local grocery:

2 cupcakes inverted side-by-side, then frosted and decorated to look like a Lhasa Apso. One cupcake is the head and the other is the 'bum'. They are very cute!

Sandy

Everyone - thanks for the the ideas & suggestions.

Plllog - you're right - I didn't even consider the cheesecake's need to be refrigerated. **crossing it off the list**

I'm thinking Ruthanna's brownie pizza is the way to go. I've got the brownie mix & mini marshallows on hand, so will pick up some M & M's later today. Thanks!

I've done some rice krispie treat cakes that went well in back sales with similar audiences. You can do a layer cake (put frosting in the middle but not all the way to the edge) and decorate it with a row of another cereal or candy around the top and bottom where you would pipe icing and anything that strikes you fancy on top -- marshmallow flowers, gummy things, cereal polka dots, etc. I also did them in the giant cupcake mold with cocoa krispies (add a T or two of cocoa to the melted marshmallows for even color) for one half and the other plain. Two recipes make two cakes of inverse colors. No filling in between. All I did to decorate those was put Fruit Loops on the top like sprinkles. Other shaped pans and popcorn mixtures work too.