Do people realise how expensive baking is?

[nikkylou]

I went shopping today, I'm making cakes for work tomorrow for my last day
It got me thinking, as it always does every time I bake on request. That people who don't bake don't realise how expensive it is.
Once I make the terrible mistake of baking for my workplace, I open the floodgates...
Every charity cake sale, half of the birthdays...I bake. Don't get me wrong I don't bake for every request and I wouldn't do it if I didn't enjoy it.
But even a victoria sponge can set you back £5-6 quid for real butter, cream, eggs and nice jam.

Is there any fellow bakers that regret revealing their talent and are paying the price (literally).

Is there any bakers that have negotiated this hurdle?

Or is it just me that spends £10 on various ingredients and then forks out another £1 on the day for a slice of their own cake...

Yes!!! And then the time spent on decorating... its easy 3-4 hours per cake, from start to finish, plus electric after initial ingredients.

I am making my best friends wedding cake and I am not getting much change out of £100. I hope she appreciates it

Tend to have the ingredients for a Victoria sponge in the cupboard. But it’s when I decide to go all out to impress work or something and so spend £££ on ingredients no one has ever really heard of or stuff to decorate the cake when quite frankly they would have appreciated a plain old Victoria sponge just as much if not more

We made brownies for brownies yesterday....£13 I spent in Sainsbury's....yes I got a block of cheese....and I have flour, sugar, cocoa etc for next time....but still...

Yes I made my brothers wedding cake as my present. And it cost a lot more than I would have spent as a normal present.

Yes to Lidl/Aldi for ingredients, it does save quite a bit. My DCs primary school did all their cake sales by donation not fixed price which is great as you don't know how much people are paying (they always made a good profit too).

Yes, school used to ask me to make a special cake for special birthdays, special occasions like the Queen's Jubilee, the Weddings etc. Never got paid so much as the ingredients never mind the hours and hours I put into making them.I told them the last one was the LAST one. I decide to stop being a mug.
I used to make cakes for other people then I put my prices up in line with a local baker.Only been asked once since!
It is expensive.

So true. Many, many years ago, 50s and 60s my mother used to make wedding cakes, and I mean everything except maybe the bride and groom figures. She would sit for hours and hours tracing out basketry, sugar roses, everything, this was when cakes were far fussier than today. The actual cakes contained nothing but the very best ingrediants. When she was asked initially and she quoted a price they were sometimes very shocked, it was three fruit cakes, wasn't it, her time and skill were ignored.

I did a macaron making course a few months ago. The lady teaching us gave a great tip - when using chocolate in cakes and the like no one except a master chocolatier can tell whether you are using Tesco Value cooking chocolate or Waitrose Super-Special Belgian chocolate, so don’t bother spending loads of money on that aspect.

I don't think home baking is that expensive as long as you have the ingredients in. If you have to purchase the ingredients specially, then yes it becomes expensive, but I keep all that stuff in as a matter of course and so home baking is cheap, quick and tasty.

My work does charity cake sales about 6 times a year ... I have to pay to come in non uniform and bake cakes ... and then I can resist buying a cake for lunch... I am one of the few that will
Home bake but got the vibe it was a little frowned upon if you didn’t bake or provide cake... costs a fortune ... oh and then there’s the raffles 😂😂

I think it works out cheaper if you buy a set of standard baking ingredients e.g. flour, butter, sugar, eggs, etc. and use them all up to consecutively bake. I find it becoming pricey due to perhaps baking once or twice every few months by which time some of the stuff might have expired so have to buy it all again every time I want to bake. Also, what brings the cost up is if each cake/baking thing requires a different dimension/type of pan and/or different decorations, extras etc. so would work out cheaper if you followed similar-ish recipes I guess

It is more expensive than buying shop bought cake made with cheap ingredients. But it is cheaper to bake than actually buy like for like in a shop. Because to get something as nice you usually have to buy from an upmarket or specialist place.

Yep, I don’t think most people do. I don’t bother making cakes for school anymore, too much time and money spent on ingredients which they often end up selling for 20p a cupcake or slice.
I just buy several trays of iced cupcakes in Morrisons that are 50p for 6!

I don’t find a good Victoria sponge is that cheap either, I’m fussy about jam and like a really nice one to go inside so that racks up the price a further £1.50-2, then the buttercream, the price of butter is extortionate at around £1.60 most places at the moment.

Credit to those who bake a lot but I def don’t have the money to so I don’t. If you feel under appreciated, I’d say stop.

I by the cheapest stuff and only bake when I can be arsed, even if requested, no one has complained and the cakes get eaten. I really don't think most people (at my work at least) care either way about the quality of a small bit of cake with morning coffee.

I remember baking butterfly cakes from scratch to impress my new mum’s group at their bake sale. I had to buy everything - the tins, the paper things that go round the cakes, fresh cream, butter, free range eggs etc. Then they sold them for 30p each! I should have just given them £15.

Yes!!! And then the time spent on decorating... its easy 3-4 hours per cake, from start to finish, plus electric after initial ingredients.

I am making my best friends wedding cake and I am not getting much change out of £100. I hope she appreciates it

I don't think it's incredibly expensive. But then I'm not particularly snobby about my ingredients. Flour and sugar are cheap. We always have eggs in the house anyway. I'll be honest I have a huge tub of stork in the fridge. Then it's just decorations. Most of my baking is done with my kids, so not generally arsed about immaculate presentation. I don't bake stuff for other people so don't get requests.

Next time you get a request, just buy them a cheap cake from Asda and pass it off as your own.

Definetly agree on Lidl/Aldi for ingredients. I bake a lot for my sports team and switch out the pricier ingredients for cheaper alternatives and cut as many corners as possible. I know I'm being cheap, but there's 50 odd folk involved in my team and it's always the same 10 that bake every single time, it's very annoying. I use marg instead of butter, but some recipes, like shortbread, really need the butter taste so I'll go 50/50. Buttercream does need all butter though.

I'm extremely picky about cake too, and totally understand about PP saying about undercharging at bake sales!

I always used to spend more on ingredients than the cakes made for charity. I ended up getting pissed off, too, at staff who would cut themselves a huge slice of fudge cake and only pay when forced to - and would begrudgingly hand over 50p. It was always, always middle aged men who did that.

I bake using Aldi ingredients. I use butter but I may switch to their fake Stork on the recommendation of a pp. There are lots of cakes which are cheap to make, such as Tottenham cake. They taste so much nicer than shop bought cakes which are full of additives and palm oil.

Does no one care about hydrogenated fats in marg etc?
I don’t bake much anymore, but always use butter and free range eggs.

Actually I often use Flora buttery. That works well and is healthier.

Fortunately I haven't got into the expensive decorating, bar a bag of Maltesers and a killer ganache!
Did experiment with ready to roll icing which was fun for Christmas cakes, although a little expensive.
Glad I'm not alone! I've currently got brownies in the oven.
I have a reasonable stock of ingredients but I always have to buy butter and eggs...and inevitably one of my sugars / flours / extracts are running low... unfortunately eggs and butter go off, and although I bake reasonably frequently I can't justify keeping them in.
I try to avoid too many one off ingredients but I like trying new things...so for instance, today it's raspberries... that I've spent 2.50 on for raspberry cakes.
Even cheese scones requires buying a block of cheddar.
The worst is being asked to bake something, for it to be sidelined for the mini rolls...Or the whole office (which at least half drink the stuff) announce they don't like coffee cake after you made them one...after telling them you were making one with no objections.

The economics of bake sales as a way of raising money frustrates the hell out of me. Costs are always higher than the prices, people would do better to just donate the price of the materials. If I ever do need to contribute something I try and bake something like carrot cake or apple cake that has a low cost.

i think the people finding it expensive are those making very detailed or fancy cakes for sale, and i get that because you have to factor in time and decorations etc.
if you just bake for the family its not that expensive. I use cheap brand flour, butter etc and can make a basic lemon drizzle or sponge or traybake quite cheaply. yes, more than shop bought but tastes better and no lists of additives so worth it.