A Cake for the Harvest Festival

Harvest Festival is, perhaps, a misnomer. There's no actual harvest. It's a PTO fundraiser for the elementary school.

This year, in spite of heavy rains and tornado warnings not far from here last night, the "festival" will be outside. The sun came out today. Last year it was rained out twice, which means they moved the festivities inside. Including the inflatables. Imagine four or five large inflatables taking up most of the floor space in the gym. No ventilation. Many, many children. And smells the like of which you don't want to encounter when walking into an enclosed, unventilated space.

Eeeeewwww.

One of the big draws at the Harvest Fest is something called the Cakewalk.

It's a very popular event. An artistic take on musical chairs. A big circle is made with carpet squares, each with a number. The participants each stand on a square. When the music starts they dance around the circle. When it stops they get on a square. Then someone picks a number out of a hat, and the person standing on that number wins a cake.

Because there are so many cakes to win, the judging often turns subjective. As in, at least one winner will be some five year old crying because he/she hasn't yet won a cake. Or the winner is the judge's neighbor. Or something equally disturbing, like the judges will decide that the winner is the best disco dancer. Let's put aside for a moment, that the parents of these children, nevermind the children, were probably much too young to go clubbing when disco was in vogue. So who wins? Some cute little kid about to melt down because they haven't won a cake.

Do you see a pattern here?

Cakes are provided by the parents. Some are unbelievably creative. Some are pretty basic. Some are store bought. And some... are bundt cakes. The bundt cakes are always the last to go. Usually, the ones that are most creative or have the most candy are the first to go.

A lot of cakes show up for this thing. They never run out before the end of the day.

Our cake offering this year is homemade. Chocolate cake, chocolate buttercream frosting, decorated with randomly thrown M&Ms.

My son, the decorator, calls it an "M&M lovers chocolate cake".

I think that's a pretty accurate description.

And it's probably the cake he will try to win. Because he likes to make cakes that he likes to eat. Or he will go for something improbable... like a store bought cake with a few crushed Oreos on top.

Personally, I say "blech". I'll hold out for the year they have an Ice Cream Walk.