The scouts in the community wanted to go to scout camp, but there wasn’t enough money. They decided to do a fundraiser. At the scout meeting, they brainstormed for ideas.
“How about a car wash?” John asked.
Nathan shook his head. “The girls already did one, and we don’t want to be copycats.”
Lots of ideas were suggested, but nothing seemed exactly right.
Then Jason asked, “How about we have some kind of dinner?”
“We could use the last of our funds,” Leon, the scoutmaster, said. “But it can’t be too expensive.”
“How about pancakes?” John asked. “They’re inexpensive, and everybody likes them.”
Everyone liked that idea, but Leon said they needed something unusual to draw people in. They talked about it for a while, and then someone suggested each boy and his father bake something.
“That would be unusual,” Jason said. “I don’t think my father has ever baked anything.”
“Maybe we could all make the same thing and make it a contest,” Seth said.
They discussed ideas and settled on cakes. They decided each boy and his father would make one, and the cakes would be judged in a contest before they were auctioned off.
With the plan decided, the next few weeks were spent organizing. They used their last funds to purchase pancake mixes, eggs, and syrup. The boys’ mothers would bring jam, jelly, and drinks. It became a big thing in the community, with everyone discussing which father and son they thought would make the best cake.
As scoutmaster, Leon thought he needed to work at it with his son to set a good example. He planned to practice, but the day came quickly, and he hadn’t done any.
With only a few hours before the dinner, Leon and his son made a cake. It was as hard as a brick. They tried another, and it fell so much that it looked like a roof shingle and tasted like one, too. They were out of time, and Leon didn’t know what to do. Then, he got a brilliant idea.
He took the smoothest, most perfect cake pan, turned it over on a piece of cardboard, and, together, he and his son frosted and decorated it. “When the auction comes,” Leon told his son, “I’ll just buy it back.” Then, they made a pact not to tell anyone what they had done.
The dinner went well, and then attention was turned to the auction. When the cakes were all brought out, Leon was shocked. About half of them looked like his. He started searching through the name tags, but it was soon time for the judging.
Wanda, a prominent lady and good cook, was the judge. She narrowed it down a few at a time until she finally settled on one. The winner was announced, and Brent and his father received a cake mix as a prize. Then, their cake was to be the first auctioned off.
“I think Wanda should try a sliver of it to tell us if it tastes as good as it looks,” an old man called out.
Brent’s father objected, saying he planned to buy it, but before anyone could stop him, John took a big knife and cut into it. To everyone’s surprise, except the cooks, it was simply cardboard shaped like a cake and frosted.
Everyone was shocked for a moment, then laughter filled the hall. Someone suggested they should check all the cakes. Leon felt a surge of panic in his heart, but the cake was out of the bag, and there was no stopping the check-it-out train. He still tried to stop them, but the strongest scout stuck the knife right through the pan and cut it all the way to the end.
When his wife saw it, she gasped and turned to him, “My best pan?!”
The cake sale didn’t raise as much as planned, but Leon felt better knowing his wasn’t the only fake cake—in fact, almost half of them were.
It was a night everyone talked about for a long time. Too long, Leon thought.
