Please help me think of easy 'natural disaster' themed biscuits/cakes

[Y3teacher]

Hi - I'm a teacher, planning a 'natural disaster' themed fundraising activity for Y3 kids. The team have decided the kids will ice/decorate biscuits or cakes, which we'll sell after school. There's no provision to bake anything: it's just about icing and decorating.
Help, please! Anything which would pass as a volvano, tsunami, avalanche, tsunami or tornado ???!!!
Money is tight. Obviously.
Thanks x

Marshmallow stuck to a digestive biscuit with a bit of melted chocolate. Cover marshmallow in same chocolate. When it's set dribble red icing ontop. Volcano!

Erm, isn't this a bit flippant? Fun sweet things in the shape of deadly, unavoidable things?
Ones that often kill the poorest and most needy people.

Surely there is a better and more sensitive way to raise money?

I agree with Zebra - the theme is in very poor taste.

It's our topic this term, based upon the guidance in the KS2 curriculum.
Part of their learning is an appreciation of the devastating impact these disasters can have. You don't think we should teach kids physical geography?

Watchingfromthewings - thank you! That reminds me of those teacake things, too - super idea!

Yes, thinking it's distasteful to bake avalanche cakes is exactly the same as saying children shouldn't be taught physical geography. Of course it is.

I'm not normally one to be bothered by such things but I really do think this is in appalling taste on a day where many have perished in such an event.

By all means teach it, but perhaps not through the medium of cupcakes. Just a suggestion.

Making cakes that look like tsunamis and so forth isn't really 'teaching physical geography' though. I would have thought using something like this as a novelty cake theme would be counter-productive to the aim of instilling appreciation of the devastating impact of such disasters.

If you were teaching them about road safety, would you have them making car-accident themed cakes?

I suspect that Zebra's point isn't that we shouldn't be teaching physical geography but rather that natural disasters aren't necessarily an appropriate fun theme for a cupcake.

Maybe just cupcakes with the keywords on them? Anything more could be really bad taste.

I've just googled 'volcano cupcakes' and they seem to consist of chocolate cupcakes turned upside down with artfully applied red and orange icing. Earthquake on the other hand seems to require baking two-tone bases. Tsunami cupcakes are covered in. Generous blob of white icing with a blue wave cut-out stuck in the top. Google images is your friend

Another one to find this concept massively insensitive and not a good idea for young children to understand the magnitude of natural disasters.

There is a type of cake or desert called a Mudslide though.

This idea is in very very poor taste.

Imagine how a child will feel being asked to decorate a cookie to look like an avalanche if their relatives just died in one.

Nobody is telling you not to teach physical geography FFS, just suggesting that you should do it with some appreciation of the human impact of these kind of disasters.

I'm not generally precious at all, but there's no way my DC would be taking part in this and I'd be telling the school why.

Decorating a packet of digestives in a way that supposedly teaches about earthquakes, volcanoes or whatever, sounds like nothing more than pointless make work.

If you're going to use baked goods as any sort of teaching point, then use a layer cake to demonstrate fault lines, but if you don't even have the resources or facilities to do any baking, then you're honestly better off sticking with cornflake packets and papier mache to model geological features.

I find it hard to believe that the KS2 curriculum insists that you must ice a bun as some sort of teaching point with this topic.

I have personally lost family in a natural disaster. The idea of children being taught about such things through the medium of baking and 'fun' light hearted things is absolutely horrific.

This is honestly the best idea you can come up with to teach this topic...?

It's no more tasteless than cakes at Halloween portraying coffins or dismembered body parts.

I'm naturally a disaster in the kitchen so can't help any further!

Bake a biscuit. Break it in half. Ta-da! Tectonic plates.

Maybe it would be better if they just sold basic cakes and biscuits but made some posters or a display about the disaster they're fundraising for.

Otherwise, it's in very bad taste.

I'd be upset if my child did this too. .I understand wanting an engaging activity ...Perhaps alter it. Ice them with themes on 'Helping in a natural disaster. So thinking about what things disaster relief might need like blankets and water supplies and organisations that help like red cross, medicine sans frontiers...Perhaps keep this disaster to backdrop and the bakeware Being 'Buying Some Help For The disaster'

I'm wary of this too. I sadly lost a dear friend in the Boxing Day tsunami and I am far from the only one.

What about "geography" themed baking to raise money for a natural disaster???

Is this thread even serious?
I feel like I have fallen into some kind of satirical trap.

No one is in any doubt that Halloween is tasteless. It's fairly integral. It's not integral to learning about the physical geography of natural disasters and this is definitely in poor taste. For no good reason that I can see.

In fact this is so weird and the op seems so obtuse as to why anyone would have a problem with it I wonder how real this is.

Cross post Zebra!

Thanks for responses and suggestions. I'm not appalled by the concept of making volcano cakes or avalanche biscuits, and neither were any of my colleagues, but perhaps we're too close to this to see the issue. The fact that so many of you seem to be upset is certainly something to consider, so thank you for that perspective. I'd rather be criticised here than in the playground.
I had no idea about the avalanche in Italy at the time of posting.
Probably going to leave it there!

I'm another who thinks this is insensitive and in very bad taste.