JEANERETTE — A freshly baked cake is one of those sweet rewards of life that can bring a smile to anyone’s face.

Members of the Entre Nous Club of Jeanerette are well aware of delectable cakes, an all-time favorite dessert. Perhaps that’s why their club’s old-fashioned cake walks have been a successful fundraiser throughout the years.

Members of the Entre Nous Club of Jeanerette have been holding cake walks as a means of raising money for various community organizations and events for more than 50 years. This past weekend, club members proved the time-honored cake walk game is still an unsurpassed favorite of adults and children alike.

Twenty cakes donated by Entre Nous members were up for grabs at the “Jeanerette Live!” event held Saturday in downtown Jeanerette. Adults were even getting into the spirit of the festivities of the day as they eyed the table full of freshly baked cakes. After all, who can pass by a freshly baked cake stacked with decadent layers of chocolate, a butter pecan cake with a pecan praline topping, a hummingbird cake or a layered cake filled with shredded coconut or pineapple without trying their luck at the popular prize walk —all in hopes of winning one of the many tasty cakes.

“Entre Nous Club members have been baking cakes for more than 50 years for fundraising events and it still seems to be popular. I was 12 years old and can still remember my mother (the late Irene Hebert) baking cakes for the club fundraisers,” said Janice Mekash, an Entre Nous Club member.

“I stumbled across an old photo of my mother at a photo exhibit at the Jeanerette Museum of her holding a cake for the Old Country Fair Cake Walk in 1968 and it reminded me of just how long Entre Nous Club members have been doing this and how people still enjoy a cake walk.”

Elaine Landry, of Jeanerette, is well known for her cakes that are baked from scratch. When she arrives at a gathering, family event or club fundraiser with an Swedish Pineapple Cake or Italian Cream Cake in tote, she is always welcomed with opened arms.

“I prefer to bake from scratch instead of using a box mix. You’d be surprised at how simple some of the homemade cake recipes from scratch can be to prepare. From start to finish, the Swedish Pineapple Cake can be mixed and ready to serve in less than an hour,” she said.

However, Landry’s Italian Cream Cake made with three layers of rich moist cake filled and topped with a fluffy cream cheese frosting and garnished with chopped pecans is a little more time-consuming to prepare.

“The Italian Cream Cake is a little more work intensive so I reserve it mostly for a special celebration or event. It’s a recipe that I usually bake only a couple times a year. But when I hear my guests raving about it, I know the time was all worthwhile. The oohs and aahs are like the icing on the cake,” said Landry.

“This recipe was passed on to me by a friend from Kentucky and has become a family favorite. I’m expected to make it for each family Christmas celebration. The cake was a blue ribbon winner in the 1971 Kentucky State Fair.”

While some club members think baked from scratch is the way to go, others prefer the simplified versions of cakes made with the ease of a cake mix and adding a blend of traditional flavors of their own — all resulting in a delicious dessert that takes half the time.

As part of a family of longtime sugar cane farmers, Mekash rarely misses an opportunity to use raw cane sugar or sugar cane syrup when baking sweet treats.

Mekash, of Jeanerette, gets a jump start on the preparation of her praline cake with a boxed butter pecan cake mix, but adds Louisiana pecans, raw cane sugar and Steen’s sugar cane syrup for a baked sheet cake that is unforgettable.

One bite of Liz Robin’s Chocolate Turtle Cake and it would be hard to disagree that a devil’s food boxed cake mix could be turned into a scrumptious dessert.

“It is a recipe that was passed along to me by a friend and I made a few changes. I really don’t bake a lot, but this recipe was so easy to make and so good. It will be one that I will be baking again in the future,” said Robin.

While some may say that a moist layer cake baked from scratch is a true test of good bakers, others say all you need is a boxed cake mix and a little creativity to turn an ordinary cake into extraordinary.

Either way, the experience of baking your own cake can be rewarding and won’t dent the holiday meal budget.