Mix together jaunty music, sugary treats, community camaraderie and what do you have? The recipe for a successful cake walk. Several years ago, I hosted the first cake walk for Munger Place Days, the annual home tour weekend event for our neighborhood. It was a big hit with kids and adults and has become an annual tradition.
Yes, that’s my husband enjoying the cake walk with all the little kiddos.
When I was a kid, the cake walk was always a huge draw at the Halloween Carnival in my hometown. Held in the corner of the old auditorium, teachers organized it and PTA moms furnished homemade cakes. Silly me, I thought everyone grew up with the cake walk tradition. I was surprised to learn many of the adults and most of the neighborhood children had never participated in a cake walk. Wah?
It’s a southern thing. Maybe a small town thing?
The rules are simple.
- A few weeks before your carnival, spread the word to neighbors and parents asking for homemake cake walk donations such as cakes, brownies, cupcakes, cookies. Designate a time and place (your kitchen) for delivery. Allow yourself enough time to divide and organize the goodies. Although the original cake walk involved winning a whole cake, I prefer to spread the sugar among the masses. Cut whole cakes into fourths, package 3-4 cupcakes together, group half a dozen cookies in a plastic bag. You get the idea.
- A few days before your event, give some thought to your cake walk music. You only need a handful of songs because you will stop and start the music over and over again. If your fundraiser is Halloween or Christmas related, include a seasonal song. Play Sweet Home Alabama. Lynyrd Skynyrd always gets everyone moving. And remember, kids love whatever is popular. If your venue includes a microphone system, use the microphone in conjunction with your iPhone music. Crank up the tunes. Music is part of the draw.
- Make numbers for your cake walk. There is no one way to do this. I prefer to cut colorful circles from scrapbook paper (about the size of a dinner plate), add precut numbers (1 – 12) and cover in clear contact paper. Contact paper not only makes the numbers more sturdy during the cakewalk (there will be lots of feet trampling them), but when it’s over, you will be able to wipe them down and reuse them next year.
- Place the numbers in a circle in your designated area and duct tape them to the parking lot or gym floor. Nothing about this has to be perfect. The circles can be lopsided. Don’t worry about perfect spacing or measuring, just eyeball it. Kids care only about the CAKES!
- Arrange desserts on tables near the cake walk. Yum. Everyone will want to participate.
- Sell tickets for a quarter (or whatever is appropriate for your event). The first 12 children with tickets stand on a number, the music starts, everyone walks and walk and walks in the circle until the music stops. A number is drawn from a hat. The kid on the winning number picks his selection of desserts. A new group of kids starts the next round. This continues until all the desserts are chosen. In our neighborhood, there is no charge for the cake walk. Everyone plays multiple times. Everyone wins at least one dessert.
So don’t you agree that a cake walk would be the perfect addition for your next neighborhood get together, school fundraiser or fall carnival?
Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.
P.S. Don’t miss Munger Place Days, September 19-21, 2014. Cake walk on the 21st!
I loved cake walks when I was little. I’m originally from Oklahoma, but that’s not where we did cake walks–we did them when I lived in Alaska! They were really popular at all the school and town events, and we lived in the second largest city in the state. It’s interesting no one down in Dallas knew the tradition.
How interesting Caitlin! Thanks for sharing.
Will you be at the Cake Walk in Munger Place this year? I love a good Cake Walk.
I’m thinking this is a great idea for the Friends of the Library for a fundraiser. Thanks for all of the information.
Let me know if you do it and how it turns out!
What a cool idea and thanks for the instructions. I remember cake walks but I would have to think about how to put one together. Our church (small town) still has a Fall Bazaar. What a great addition this would be!
Thanks Dot! I bet the kids will love it:)
Oh this brought back so many sweet memories for me! My town was once a small midwest farming town and my school had one of these every year at the carnival….I actually won a huge chocolate cake when I was seven and it was covered with jellybeans!! I was so excited!! How awesome that you are able to share this wonderful tradition with your town! You are creating sweet memories for those kids!!! Happy weekend! Nicole xo
My memory of a cake walk as a child was at the fall festival and I won a big stuffed My Little Pony. Not really a cake but i had it around for a lot longer.
too funny Jeanetta!
When I was a little girl my family went to a community celebration. It may have been a fundraiser for something. A man my father knew bought a long strip of tickets, and when I walked up to the conversation between the man and my father, he gave me a strip of tickets and told me to go have fun. At last I was lucky and won a cake! I hurried back to the men to show them the cake I had won, and the man took it. I couldn’t understand. My father quietly said, “You were walking on his ticket, honey.” I handed the man the rest of the tickets and said “thank you.” I didn’t think it was much fun to walk in a circle to win a cake for some one else who had ‘given’ me the tickets.
That’s pretty mean of him.
Reading till the end and I noticed that the article was posted almost 10 years ago. I am from China and the reason I found this article is because I am searching for the “cake walk”, very impressive experience for me :))
Thank you for your sharing about the cake walk, they are very helpful and I am also suprised that the website is still updating till now. It’s wonderful that someone can insist a habit for such a long time.