The university wants to restructure the college to increase its proportion of "research active" staff, while cutting $1.3 million from the college budget, a figure it says covers what the college requires in subsidies this year.
The cake stall was symbolic of raising the $1.3 million, Tertiary Education Union southern organiser Kris Smith said.
Staff handed out slices of cake and protest pamphlets to about 70 people gathered outside the college in Union St during the short protest.
"When finished, serve to your children and grandchildren," the recipe said.
The university plans to cut 27 positions by the end of 2012 and fill seven of those positions with people with different skill sets.
The union says teacher educators - the academic staff who teach student teachers professional practice - are being targeted and the restructuring will result in poorer teacher training programmes and produce teaching graduates who may lack skills necessary to perform in the classroom.
At worst, the proposal would see half of the college's teacher educators "sent down the road", Tertiary Education Union national president Dr Tom Ryan said at the protest.
Some would say the "so-called restructuring was a decimation", Dr Ryan said, rating the proposal "a C minus, and that's pushing it".
"It's a D," a voice called from the crowd.
Tertiary institutions throughout the country were all reviewing their operations and shedding staff, Dr Ryan said after the protest.
He said he did not know how many people had lost their jobs in the past year or two as it was "hard to keep up" with figures.
Asked if protests made any difference, Dr Ryan said he was not sure.
Proposals for restructuring were sometimes amended and sometimes not, he said.
Otago "clearly had a willingness" to radically change the structure of the College of Education, he said.
