By Steve Huffman
Salisbury Post
SPENCER ó Wanda Taylor said there’s only thing wrong with having students in your cooking class bake cakes to be sold at a church fundraiser.
“They wanted to keep them and eat them,” Taylor said, laughing as she described the delicacies. “I was extremely proud of the students. It took quite an effort for them to give them up.”
The 14 students in Taylor’s Foods II class at North Rowan High School last week baked 10 cakes that were sold Saturday at Spencer’s Central United Methodist Church.
The cakes were sold as part of “Cakes for Kids,” a fundraiser intended to raise cash for art supplies for children.
“Some of them were sold before they even got in the door,” Taylor said of the cakes that came from North Rowan. “They were all sold before the end of the day.”
The idea behind students baking cakes for the fundraiser developed when Kim Lentz, a media center assistant at North, mentioned that her church was planning a bake sale as part of “Cakes for Kids.”
Taylor heard and grew interested in her students contributing to the project. The Rowan-Salisbury School System provided ingredients for the cakes.
All of the cakes had themes that were likely to appeal to children. They included:
– Spiderman by Nick Durette.
– Winnie the Pooh by Josh Reid.
– Bahama cake with dolphins and stars by Nakia Hyde.
– Princess cake by Nicholas Stinson.
– Sponge Bob by Kim Coburn.
– Blue’s Clues by Chamoine Blakeney.
– Sesame Street by Mallory Poplin.
– Fire truck cake by Stephen Dunham.
– Strawberry Shortcake by Tejal Anderson.
– Volcano cake by Krysta Shay.
Taylor said that included with each cake was a card that featured the name of the student who’d created the masterpiece.
Taylor said that any of the students who wish to cook professionally also included their phone numbers on the cards so they could be contacted if the buyer wished to purchase more cakes or other offerings.
“They’re ready for hire,” Taylor said.
She noted that this is the first time in 10 years that a cooking class has been offered at North Rowan and said response has been overwhelmingly positive.
In addition to the “Cakes for Kids” endeavor, students have also prepared dishes that are served to staff members on Fridays.
On May 8, North’s drama class is producing a play, “The Fourth Wall.” Taylor’s students will be preparing a meal that night as part of a dinner-theater celebration.
Students must complete several hours of community service work prior to graduating. The work they involved themselves with in the “Cakes for Kids” project counts as community service.
Taylor laughed that not all of the cakes produced as part of the “Cakes for Kids” project turned out perfectly. A few fell, she said, during the baking process and students had to start again.
Decorating was a trial-and-error endeavor.
But that’s part of the fun of it all, Taylor noted.
“It was quite a learning experience,” she said.
Contact Steve Huffman at 704-797-4222 or shuffman@salisburypost.com.