Business Logo cakes – continuous improvement.

Two years ago, I blogged on the Great Business Logo Bake Off and while some fantastic cakes were produced, I raised the point that I was hoping to get more students involved, and would think of some strategies to do this.

Since then we have run a couple of variations on the theme and each of them have their advantages and disadvantages. It’s a great way to promote the department and the best way to run it will depend on our own particular school situation.

Year 1: The students were asked to bake the cakes at home and then bring them in for judging.

The key advantage of this method is you get the best looking cakes. Students who love creating cakes really go for it. The other significant advantage is that it doesn’t cost anything, apart from any prize you decide to give.

The disadvantage of this method is that there is quite possibly a very limited number of students who are prepared to spend time on doing this and all of our cakes were brought in by girls.

Year 2: Plain cupcakes were provided, as was an icing kit. The students who came had approximately 20 minutes to produce a logo on the cupcake.

The advantage of this was that it now allows more students to get involved. There is a big difference between making a cake and bringing it into school compared with just turning up at lunchtime to ice a cupcake!

The disadvantages are that now a lot more preparation is needed. I organised for a keen student to bake the cupcakes and organise the icing equipment. The other problem is that a cupcake is a relatively small surface and so therefore not particularly easy to produce a decent logo.

Year 3: Teams of four signed up and were provided with a plain sponge cake. Packets of fondant icing were also provided as well as bottles of food colouring. The teams had about 30 minutes to produce a logo on the sponge.

The first advantage of this is it allowed even more people to get involved and work as a team as well. We limited it to 10 teams of four but it could easily be scaled up. The other key advantage compared to cupcakes is that the surface area of the sponge was a lot more conducive to better logo art.

The disadvantage was simple – cost. Providing the sponges and icing wasn’t cheap but we had budgeted for it.

For us, the most recent competition was the clear winner, despite the cost. It got the most people involved (including the boys who were much happier to be part of a team) and they all had a great time. As long our budget isn’t cut, we’ll be doing it again next year!