Cakes too cheap at school fair?

[Clary]

It was our school fair this afternoon; I went to help as requested on refreshments, carrying cakes I had made (big chocolate cupcakes topped with chocolate buttercream).

Got there only to see a notice advertising cakes on sale at 20p. Surely that's ridiculous? It wouldn't have covered the cost of the ingredients in the cakes I made. Now I know people donate the cakes, but surely no-one objects to paying 50p a cake at a school fair, do they, even if it's just for a glace-iced bun?

The cost of ingredients has risen hugely in the last couple of years (a dozen eggs is £3 up from £2 a year or two ago, the butter I use is now £1.40 where it was 90p two years ago, etc) and don't PTAs need to bear that in mind? Or AIBU?

(BTW I am on the PTA and will be putting some of this to the chair).

Can I ask what a "mufti day" is? I have never heard of it.

No beertricks, I never charge for the (considerable amount) of time I give to the PTA and other organisations.

TBH I enjoy organising things, baking cakes, seeing the pupils at the events etc.

I don't charge as such for my donated cakes either; but if they will be sold for less than I spend making them, then yes, I will donate the money next time; if everyone does that we won't have the event at all, will we?

The whole point of a donation surely is to spin it into more money than it cost - raffle the £4 bottle of wine and sell £8 worth of tickets; buy 20p hot dogs and sell them for £1; spend £10 on face paints and paint 40 kids' faces for £1 a time.

When we moved from preschool to primary, we were the only family to choose that school, so no-one knew me well enough to know that actually I'm a perfectly competent cook. I spent the next seven years telling everyone that I couldn't bake for toffee. I helped in lots of other ways, including secretary for a year and chair for two, but I'd had enough of the tyranny of the cake sale in 'baby school'! We had a policy of 'at cost' for events that were very child centred, eg sports day, and 'every penny we can wring out of them' at more adult orientated fund raisers that were open to the wider community. But there's always got to be something for every budget, otherwise poorer families feel excluded. Carrotsandcelery you are so right about donations! Although it did go pear-shaped one year with mulled wine after Nativity, parents were chucking cash into this box which was actually the church collection... the Vicar was very touched at how much our parents had donated to the Christmas appeal when I next saw him!

I don't like the larger cupcakes and would rather pay 20p for a smaller fairy cake type one. I really dislike this idea of making food bigger all the time and cupcakes just look greedy to me.

I have spent several years on the PTA and would much rather sell for slightly cheaper and have people happy and want to come back again than hearing all the moaning about having to spend out money again. I think goodwill is incredibly important when fundraising for the school.

And I think a mufti day must be non school uniform carrotsandcelery! We used to do it for a bottle for the bottle tombola, which is a fantastic fundraiser so long as you remember to pad out the Cabernet Sauvignon with plenty of Lidl Own Brand fizzy things.

Hear hear Morticia. These mega cupcakes are just too big, especially the weirdly coloured ones. I'll stick to getting my calories from Cabernet Sauvignon

Hmm well I would charge at least 40p for a fairy cake tbh. And 60p for a bigger cake. Would people really moan about that?

Agree that goodwill is important wrt PTA, hah! including that of the cake bakers!

We didn't have a bar this time randommoment but it has been known , trouble is it needs to go on a while then and have a nice sunny evening (not available today!) to get people to hang around with a glass of beer.

Thanks random - we call it "Come As You Please" and the children make a donation to dress up or wear casual clothes.

There's a bit of "cake-upmanship" going on at some of these things, too.

If you know they're only charging 20p for a cake make more little ones. Rice crispie cakes, or fairy cakes with a few sprinkles.

YABU :D

When you make a cake for your kids school fayre, it's a donation isn't it? It's not about the cost to make its about selling and profit

I wouldn't like to pay 40p for a fairy cake, it just seems too much even if the money's going to the school. Ours charge 30p each or 4 for £1.

We've never had a shortage of cake makers so it wouldn't be a huge loss if one got the hump because her cakes were being undersold.

I would rather pay a tenner than to turn up to most of these events, and indeed have been known to do so.

I expect I'll have to put it up to £15 soon.

Aren't you missing the point? It's not a business. However much it costs you to bake is irrelevant. It's for the school (i.e charity)...can't see the point of the OP tbh.

Yes it's for the school which is why I'd like to see the school making more money...

The point of the OP is to see if people think 20p is about what they expect to pay or if they would happily part with 50p.

Seems opinion is divided. Which is fair enough I guess. I didn't know btw that they were going to charge 20p, or I wouldn't have bothered baking the cakes (at 20p a cake it's almost impossible to cover costs, which for me is a reasonable minimum, even tho I don't claim the costs of course!), I'd just have donated the money.

YANBU. I think maybe you're supposed to use very cheap ingredients or donate cheapy shop bought stuff. I use whatever ingredients I use for home baking, so obviously go for reasonably good quality ingredients and have been quite disappointed at the price the cakes sell for. Far better to just give the school the money spent on making them.

Our school fair charge £1 for coffee/tea and a slice/peice of cake for adults, 50p for a drink and a cake per child.

I agree about not over charging and if it annoys you make cheaper cakes or don't do it at all.

Yes thank you for understanding my point there megpixels! I only use Free range eggs etc so maybe that's my mistake!

Thanks for feedback all, will make a gentle suggestion at next PTA meeting.

Alistron1 the school is actually losing out by charging lower than cost price because it would have been better for them to just be given the money direct.

I always have in a ready-to-mix bag of cake mix (about 22p from Sainsbos or Tesco I think).
Lidl eggs are about 85p for 10. Their butter is £1.10
Then I posh 'em up a bit with fancy icing.

Sell 'em for 5p for all I care. So long as a bit of money is made for the event and it is part of a nice community feel.

Now, our school charging £2 per child for a bit of a bounce on the bouncy castle. That IS annoying.

How do I make cheaper cakes tho?

I wonder if people realise how much ingredients cost? I buy own-brand flour, own brand sugar (caster admittedly and fair trade), won't use battery eggs, cocoa and chocolate are not cheap even Asda own brand; I suppose I could down-grade the butter I use...

I'm not making cakes filled with clotted cream or saffron or macademia nuts or anything, just chocolate buns with butter icing!

x-posted Nonnomum. 22p for cake mix sounds pretty cheap!

I think 20p is a bit too cheap. Our charged 50p which I think is a bit pricey so i woulkd go for 35p-40p!!!!

I do think it is a very fine balance between making money and annoying parents!
I personally think our tombola was a rip off at £1 for 4 tickets with only a one in ten chance of winning, especially when every single prize had been donated by parents.

Also I remember baking for the school council only to find that all buns were being sold at 5p!!!!!!!! Now that was annoying.

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Stick a bit of cocoa in it, or coffee and walnut.

And the Lidl eggs are free range.