So my work had a silent auction to raise money for the American Heart Association (we're doing a Heart Walk on September 19th). I submitted three entries for the auction. Co-workers could also vote for the healthiest, most creative, most store-bought looking, prettiest, best theme, and funniest cake.
Sarah came over to help. We make a good team. We brainstorm together and toss around different ideas. I bake the cake and make the frosting. I help with basic assembly. She takes over when it comes to making it perfect. :) Note the very evenly spaced M&Ms. Also note the very nicely spread frosting and note the lack of "patchiness" on the surface. This is a white on white cake with almond extract.

Here's a dark chocolate cake with the almond extract frosting.

And here's some beautiful ganache.

Still going...


And topped with some chocolate shavings.

Here's Greg's entry for "healthiest cake."

The
ganache cake is on the right and Greg's "healthy" cake is right next to it. I added some shredded carrot as garnish.

The M&M cake.

And guess what? Greg's cake won for healthiest. The
ganache cake won for prettiest
and third place for most store-bought-looking. Woo
hoo! Even better, the white cake raised at least $12 (I only know that it was at least $2 above the minimum bid), the
ganache cake raised at least $55 (the last I heard), and the healthy cake raised $2.00 (thanks to a funny teammate) for the American Heart Association.