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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Cakes too cheap at school fair?

253 replies

Clary · 08/07/2011 22:38

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).

OP posts:
OracleInaCoracle · 09/07/2011 09:07

Stealth, I do get your logic, and next year I will take that into consideration. The problem for us was the hugely different demographic of the school and the difference in the quality of the cakes. The people with the lopsided fairy cakes had put in as much care and effort as the ones with elegant swirls and top notch ingredients. So we decided on a fixed price. There are some people who will pay more (one woman bought 12 of my lemon cupcakes for £10), some will pay less (one woman waited til everything was reduced) but it all goes to the school.

lisianthus · 09/07/2011 09:08

Good point on the Gift Aid.

sockmonkey · 09/07/2011 09:09

We had a cake sale this week. The price of buns (and my cookies) depended on their size and the effort that went into them. plain buns, no icing were 25p, but there were teeny tiny buns with icing and a jelly tot which were also 25p, bigger buns with icing ranged from 30-50p We are in a poor area, all the cakes sold and we made money for a school trip. There were only 5 mums that baked, and we were all happy. I was only sad that my rice krispy squares had gone before I had chance to buy some back.... should have kept some at home really Blush

CurrySpice · 09/07/2011 09:11

Stealth. It's profitable for the school to sell the cakes at any price, regardless of what the supermarkets charge because they are not buying from the supermarket, they are getting them foc

The amount of profit the school makes is entirelly independedent of what the supermarket charges.

StealthPolarBear · 09/07/2011 09:11

As a poster lower down mentioned, I really bet that asking for a donation would be better!

RustyBear · 09/07/2011 09:13

The problem with pricing cakes individually according to quality, as someone suggested, is that you get fallout from aggrieved parents wanting to know why their lopsided Victoria Sandwich, slightly burnt and oozing jam from every pore was priced lower than the delicious, beautifully iced and decorated coffee cakes made by Mrs S, for which there is a stampede every year....

StealthPolarBear · 09/07/2011 09:14

no, because the alternative is not getting zero, it is getting the cost of the raw ingredients from the bakers.

lisianthus · 09/07/2011 09:14

Lissielou, you might also want to consider that if you have a demographic where a lot of the parents can't afford much, it's even MORE heartbreaking for the cake maker to donate £10 (or whatever) of hard earned ingredients plus time and have your cake stall work as a mechanism to turn that into a £5 donation, seeing the children miss out on half of what the donation would have bought.

catgirl1976 · 09/07/2011 09:20

Last thing I went to cupcakes were £1 per cup cake and although that wasn't a school fete it was a very similar thing

CurrySpice · 09/07/2011 09:21

Stealth, I'm not sure if we are misundertandting each other. FOR the school it doesn't matter if the supermarket charges the cake maker £10 or £100 or £1000. If the school sells them at 20p, they make 20p profit regardless of the amount the cake maker paid for the ingredients because the school paid zero pounds. It is the cake maker who makes the "loss" (or donation) the school makes the same, no matter what the supermarket charges

OracleInaCoracle · 09/07/2011 09:25

lisianthus, the cakes would not cost more than 20p per unit to make.

Morloth · 09/07/2011 09:27

Ours used to charge 50p per cake.

I would go to Waitrose, buy two trays of their little chocolate muffins, a tub of Betty Crocker Chocolate icing and some of those silver ball things. Slap it all together.

Total time, about 30 seconds...

StealthPolarBear · 09/07/2011 09:29

But if the cake giver is buying the raw ingredients to make the cakes then presumably they are willing to donate that money to the school (as that's what it amounts to). So they are the 2 options for the school - the money or the cakes.

StealthPolarBear · 09/07/2011 09:31

"lissielou Sat 09-Jul-11 09:25:05
lisianthus, the cakes would not cost more than 20p per unit to make."

ah well in that case it makes sense to sell them at 20p. I am happy :o

WynkenBlynkenandNod · 09/07/2011 09:35

Curry, yes it is the cakemaker who makes the loss, the school still profits. But they would have profited more if the cakemaker had donated the cost of ingredients directly to the school who could then have claimed another 28p (not sure of whole Gift Aid thing yet ) if they are a registered charity which some are.

So if someone spent £5 on ingredients, made 10 cakes which sold at 30p, the school has made £3. if same person donated £5 and Gift Aid applied then school would have £6.40 profit (am working off 28p in pound for Gift Aid), which is quite a difference .

The real cost to the cake maker is higher as there are energy costs as well which haven't come into it. Obviously there's the whole fun/social element which you have to factor in but I don't think you can ignore the basic economics of it .

Why on earth did I let myself get stitched up as Treasurer, life is stressful enough without having cake economic worries !

CurrySpice · 09/07/2011 09:36

Yes, they are donating, so the school doesn't give a flying fig about the supermarket costs. It's up to the cake makers to decide if they would prefer to make cakes or send money

CurrySpice · 09/07/2011 09:37

I realise that Wynken

StealthPolarBear · 09/07/2011 09:37

Yes, and if they have a strong preference to make cakes then that also has to be factored in. But if they don't choose to also donate their time, then the school profits more!

startail · 09/07/2011 09:45

I think we charge 20p-30p for small buns and 50p for large ones.
We have endless cake stalls and I think 50p for everything would alienate mums with lots of children.
Also I can get free range eggs for £1.60 a dozen (now the lady with the hens should put up her price, but let's not tell her)

My Mum used to send money to guides, because they sold her cakes for less than cost.

CurrySpice · 09/07/2011 09:47

The PTA doesn't make more profit because the time spent by the school organising a cake sale doesn't "cost" the school because staff and fuel costs are already budgeted for. They don't take a bit out of the staff budget and give it to the PTA for not having a cake sale and saving them time! And the PTA helpers give their time free so there are no costs there to reduce. So there wouldn't be more profit.

But it would be less hassle.

And less fun :(

StealthPolarBear · 09/07/2011 09:53

no I mean donate their time in making cakes

they can either donate cost of raw ingredients + time + energy making them into cakes

or cost of raw ingredients alone

PTA gets more money in the second case

It really is that simple

CurrySpice · 09/07/2011 09:54

and I wouldn't be able to scoff my whole body weight in delicious home-made cakes at knock-down prices

StealthPolarBear · 09/07/2011 09:54

Yes, that definitely needs to be factored in. Cakes bought and eaten for a good cause are calorie free, I think.

WynkenBlynkenandNod · 09/07/2011 09:56

Well if I don't need to count Weight Watcher Points for cakes from cake sale then I am going to suggest we have one next week !

joric · 09/07/2011 10:07

What if a school fair is without cake stall or any other stall?

Do I moan when a box of chocs I donate goes to someone with a 20p raffle ticket or the unwanted gift bubble bath set (rrp £5.99) gets sold for £2.? No I don't because money is generated and that's all that matters.

People donate in whichever way they can- time, money, prizes, cakes, bric a brac, books or they just come along and spend money on the day

It's the variety of contributions that mAke it work and good fun! If the only way people contributed was to give money then it would be a collection- not a fair.