What cakes for baking stall at fundraising fair?

[MotherForkinShirtBalls]

What do you buy? I've been volunteered to organise the baking stall at a fundraiser next month. I've never paid much attention to it before so trying to work out what will sell. What's your top pick?

Victoria Sponge
Cupcakes
Scones

Plain Victoria sponge and a chocolate traybake.
You might need to display the ingredients. Dont use nuts and declare milk and dairy products.

I've only ever been around kids bake sales. If primary aged kids are in charge of the buying, as much colouring and sugar ontop as you can sells well, as do beautifully decorated butterfly and flower biscuits.

Cupcakes with nice icing
Brownies
Flapjacks
Cake jars
A pudding to take home (crumble etc).

Who will be at the fair?

The ones at DDs school, it's rocky road, cornflake cakes and anything with chocolate and/or sprinkles that flies off the table.

The ones at county fairs, it seems to be scones and really fancy cupcakes with the mountain of buttercream and silly decorations like half a pack of biscuits or a full size Twix on.

Oh, do whole cakes sell? Brilliant. I have a few volunteers to do decorated buns and I traybakes. I'll check about fridge cakes. Yes, definitely lots of day glo buns to attract the sugar friends!

Dare I say Lemon Drizzle?

It's church fair so very mixed audience.

lancslass17 what's a cake jar??

Nigella 's domestic goddess book has a section on this very thing.

I'll see if it's in the library, thanks for the suggestion.

Find out what people normally pay for the cakes! If people will only pay 50p keep them plain and smaller but if people do pay more then go for more exotic

Gingerbread is always popular.

Cake jars are the dry ingredients for a cake, layered in a jar.

Do some small fair cakes or similar that children can afford to buy

Propervexed - I was just coming in to say Lemon Drizzle cake - still one of my most favourite threads.

"https://www.finchbakery.com/pages/what-we-do"
Explains it quite well some nice pics too.

Lemon drizzle is a stalwart, it'll definitely be there! Never thought of the dry ingredients pots, I'll look into them, thanks.

Kids usually let loose with pocket money so we'll have plenty of options for them.

Will people be buying something to eat on the spot with a cup of tea or coffee? If so, a cake that can be cut into slices would do well. Loaf cake, e.g. lemon drizzle, gingerbread, or a round iced cake - chocolate or coffee and walnut or a lovely fresh Victoria sponge with good jam and perhaps fresh cream if it can be assembled immediately before the sale to keep the cream fresh.

My mum is a veteran of a million church baking stalls and always makes several tea loaves a bit like this www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/grannys_cake_88424 or this www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/moira-young-s-tea-loaf-cake. I don't think she uses tea but her loaf does come out very dark and moist. (Yes, I should get the recipe!) They get sliced and buttered. Lovely with a hot drink.

One tip - don't sell slices or individual cakes too cheaply. It's very galling for the bakers to see something sold for less than the total cost of the ingredients, never mind the fuel.

We'll have a separate cafe going, so cakes will be eaten by the kids as they walk around but the adults usually take things home. I'll be getting advice on pricing!

Would little bags of home made marshmallows go down well?

We have made refrigerator cake (also called tiffin by some people) for every summer and Christmas school fair in ds's infant and junior schools, and it has always sold very well - to the extent that not much of it is left by the time the stall is set out We have made other bakes but that is our best seller - but we do use good ingredients, like Lurpak butter and loads of Galaxy chocolate on the top. Probably the cost far exceeds the amount paid but we don't care about that really.

My DSis made millionaire's shortbread once for one of our summer fairs, that went down a storm too. Lots of traybakes of rice crispies mixed with melted marshmallow and a little chocolate drizzled over the top. If there is somewhere for people to sit with a hot drink, they will often have a cake and a tea/coffee and then come back and buy more...

Cupcakes and fairy cakes sell well at ours, especially prettily decorated ones.

Also chocolate cornflake cakes / chocolate rice crispy cakes.

Muffins. Easy to make and transport. Chocolate ones always sell well. Put a slice of Mars Bar inside for a “surprise”. Anything with icing on is always a pain to transport. Banana muffins are always popular too, particularly with parents who view chocolate as the devil. The advantage of muffins is that you can make them dairy free very easily, using sunflower oil and oat milk.

Don't forget napkins and if you have little paper bags you can sell cakes to take home for later. Last time I ran a stall individual people were buying cakes for the family at home.

I just did a MacMillan coffee morning at work and made loads because we had a donation spot rather than a set price. People will pay for quality homemade cake, and unless your target audience is known for being mean you might just find people throw more in than the requisite 50p a slice

Donations pot!

Rock cakes sell well, and are quick and easy to make. There is a good recipe on bbc good food website.

Coffee and walnut
Carrot cake
Lemon drizzle
Victoria sandwich
Butterfly buns
Rocky road
Chocolate cake