Jenn - I've been a pto mom for 10 years, and have had contact with probably 7 or 8 cake walks over the years. Our biggest challenge EVERY year is how to make numbers that will last all night because we ALWAYS put the numbers on the floor and of course the kids walk on them. We've tried laminated paper, cardboard, duct tape, numbers made with masking tape right on the floor...and nothing really works. I can't believe we've never thought of putting the numbers on chairs. Duh!!! Thanks for helping us shift our cake walk paradigm.

Our school has 32 classrooms and we aim for at least 3 cakes per class to be donated. Most classes hit this mark and then some, but others may only send in 2 or maybe 1. Because all cakes are donated, it is pure profit.

At our carnival, we always do a cake walk. We charge 4 tickets to play ($1.00). We ask our 5th grade class to donate the cakes, cookies, cupcakes, etc. We always have a ton donated and at the end give away more than one winner.

We set up chairs in a circle with the backs facing in. We tape numbers on the chairs. Turn on the music - everyone walks around - turn off the music and everyone sits down. A number is drawn out of a hat and the winner picks whatever dessert they want. We set out like 15-20 chairs and have at least 10 participate each go around (we draw until there is a winner). We make at least $500 at the cake walk and it's pure profit since everything is donated.

I think we figured 20 cakes an hour my first year planning and the last 30 minutes they drew more than one number. I think the last group of the day had 5 winners. Better to have too many donations than too little.

Thank you for all the information. We may try thisat our festival, but (and I know it has been asked before), how do you know how many cakes to have? If you do the game every 5 minutes for an hour, that is 12 cakes an hour-is this even close to what we would need??

My last school did a Candy Walk. It's run just like a cake walk but the winner picks from bags of candy - like the snack size stuff you buy for halloween. It's not as lovely as a handmade cake, but it's a lot easier to get donations. My SILs school does a Junk Food Walk - bags of chips, boxes of snack cakes, stuff like that. I know, there's nothing healthy about it, but the high school age kids at her school 'eat it up'.