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).

In our school it is £1 for 'fancy' cupcakes, 50p for bog standard fairy cakes, and 25p for things like choc crispy cakes or teeny fairy cakes.

But having organised a fete before (not a school one) I agree that running at a loss on some stalls is okay if others are profit making, as it is about the whole experience, which if enjoyable leads to increased profit overall.

So if you have a new toy poundland tat stall, it is not going to make as much money (probably about 30% profit) as one of the games stalls (say apple bobbing or skittles) which are 100% profit more or less. 'Guess the number of sweets in the jar' may raise £30 and cost £5, whereas the sweet/tuck shop stall may be selling at a 20% markup.

To have a successful fete you need a wide range of stalls, and if people enjoy it they are going to spend more money.

A family of two adults and 3 children at our school fair may spend at least £20, as well as donating cakes, bottles and chocolates.

Burgers & hotdogs £1.50/£1 each
Facepainting £1 (PTA provides the face paints)
Tea/coffee and a cake £1(good profit and the buyer chooses cake)
Juice & cake 50p(how cheap is diluting juice?)
Bouncy castle 30p
Tombola 50p
Hook a duck etc 30p
Cakes 4/5 in a bag £1

So whatever way you work out the profits that is a lot of money for a family to spend, quibbles about the price of cakes should be worked out in relation to how much people are willing to spend, and the cake stall at our fairs always make great profits and we are not living in a wealthy area. There are no children dying because we don't make enough money, we buy whiteboards for the school and tracksuits, not exactly luxuries. Without the average family supporting these events we would make nothing at all, so I think a cake stall should be reasonably priced without worrying about the cost of making the cakes. It is a donation if you don't like it make some scones or don't bother!

The fair is not about profit alone, it is about the school being open to the community and everyone having some fun.

I have to say, I agree with tapstel. It does seem churlish imo to donate a cake then complain that it isn't being sold for enough. I made a lot of cakes for ours. I worked hard and bought all the ingredients. I then donated my time to run the stall. Didn't moan about how much my cakes were sold for or feel underapreciated. I was proud of the job we did and the money from our stall accounted for a quarter of the overall money made.

Now however, I feel like shit. As if I have somehow undervalued someones efforts or shortchanged parents.

I made a fabulous chocolate cake for the school fete, but didn't see it on the table. After making discreet enquiries I found out it had been snaffled by the staff for morning break.

Oh the joy of working out the price of a cupcake to the nearest £ :(

The supermarkets run at a loss on some items to get customers in to the shop to buy from their range of fantastic offers - they then slap It back on to other items making the OVERALL profit for the shop nice and healthy ....

In our own minuscule way we do the same... We sell our summer fair cup cakes cheap along with other yummy food, this puts everyone in a happy mood, they forget about the £1.00 entrance fee and the £1.00 a ticket tombola doesn't seem half as bad a price because they've just eaten loads of cake at a snip of a price.....
OVERALL profit good and everyone has come away feeling happy.

Isla- that's just wrong :( !

the ones i made were 10p :( they were ice cream cones with cake in and buttercream on top swirled to look like ice cream and sprinkles and flakes... the fruit cakes i made were £1 each tho

Isla, one gent bought a chocolate cake and asked if he could leave it with us while he looked round. Said yes, he paid and off he went. An hour later someone rocked up, asked for his cake, pointed it out and went. Then 1st bloke came for his cake. It had been stolen taken by the second one. So we gave him his money back.

Green and Blacks, double cream... the bloody works.
lissie that's awful!

I wouldn't pay more than 20p-30p for a fairy cake at a school fair.

Surely school fairs are meant for children to be able to spend their pocket money. Dd and ds usually take about £2-3 this needs to cover anything they want to buy, tombola a go on activieis etc.

I would make cheaper cakes, I can;t stand these fancy cupckae things anyway and always take the goo off before eating.

I took over the cake stall at out school last year and rebelliously upped the price of a cupcake to 50p. Smaller things are 3 for a pound. Big cakes 4 or 5 pounds.

Stall always sells out and makes 200-300 pounds.

The mums and dads who bake like to see their effort actually raising some money.

Also, the school really does need money.

It's cute to charge 10 or 20 p, but you can't buy a treat anywhere for that kind of money.

Give your kid 50 p, come on!

lissielou my £3 a dozen eggs are from Asda! I only buy free range tho and don't like using Stork-type marg personally. I'm not prepared to compromise that even for the school cake sale. BTW I was happy to help on the stall, as I said in my OP.

Really just wanted to test the water wrt to prices with you all so thanks for feedback; I actually think the answer is to charge more and then reduce if needed; but actually we get so few cakes donated that I doubt that will be an issue. I agree btw that tiny bought ones from supermarket are not worth 50p, which is why you need a range of prices IMO.

(Wasn't trying to show off with my cakes ; I like baking and try to bake something people will want to buy. Didn't realise I was unwittingly entering a competition.)

Let's face it, an individual decorated cupcake in Asda is 85p; to up the stakes, a piece of flapjack at a National Trust tearooms (posher and nicer of course!) is about £1.40 IME.

Really shocked at poster who said they sell big Victoria sponges for 50p. Much much better just to get a £1 donation from the baker isn't it? You can't possibly (nonno's cake mix notwithstanding ) bake a large victoria sponge for 50p.

Isla that's shit.
I was furious. Who steals at a fundraiser?

Elpha, good point re the pocket money. Every child had their own £1-2 and a cake came out of that

Incidentally dd recently did a fundraiser at school for GOSH. I donalted a huge box of party prizes (used to run children's parties) The minimum trade value was 80p each with some larger donated rpizes. She ran a lucky dip prize every time stall for 20p each. I guess with hindsight we should have made it 50p but the point was that children could bring a small amount of money and have a go. There were 3 or 4 other stalls also at 20p each. They ended up raising around £60, just a few year 4 kids.

As far as I was concerned it wasn;t the fact that the stuff I gave was going for much less than it originally cost, but dd and her friends helped give something back to GOSH (a classmate was recently treated there).

Its up to you clary. I'm happy with the price structure we had. 30 eggs cost me £3.30, freerange, I used stork (I can't tell the difference, neither can anyone else) and everything else is smartprice. I don't think we underpriced and nobody said anything.

Agree soverylucky

Stealth and RT, I salute your patience and equanimity.

When dd2 enters the cake-sale age range I'll be checking out their pricing before I so much as crack an egg. If they undersell, they'll get a donation instead.

They make at least £100 per cake sale at our school charging same price as redhotpokers. At fetes and special events the cake stall/tea room may make twice that or more.

clary -sorry, I didn't really mean show off in a nasty way, just it's kind of nice to show what you can do and bet the appreciation...

*get the appreciation

I bake (well) and am known for doing so. I am often asked to bake stuff for cake fairs etc.

It really pisses me off when the stuff that I've spent ages baking is sold for less than it would cost in Sainsbury's/Waitrose, which is our local demographic. Or if sold by the slice a local cafe (eg. large Victoria sponge cake sold at bake sale for £2. smaller one in Sainbury's = £2.25, Starbucks = £2.50/slice).

MY cakes are better than the supermarkets (I'm usually pretty modest, but they are) and I don't see why I should subsidise members of the local community to have tasty tea time treats.

Or even worse, have my efforts passed of to their MIL as 'homemade' by the purchaser, who hasn't even paid a realistic price.

My cakes make MORE money if I dump one in the coffee room at work with an honesty pot and a note explaining 'help yourself, donations going to X topical charity'. Last time I did that ONE victoria sponge cake made > £10 quid.

Perhaps the issue is that my colleagues are accustomed to buying cakes in cafes/shops and the people that run the charitable bake sales locally don't so genuinely have no idea what the current market value for a slice of cake is.

Personally, I don't care what price is charged for any baked goods I make and donate to a school. I do however, care that the school makes something out of it, but since I have borne the cost of the raw ingredients, whatever the school charges , is a profit AFAIAC. If however, schools decided to forego the finished products and go down the donation route, I probably wouldn't bother at all. Equally, if a school decided not to bother with a summer 'fayre' or Christmas bazaar, in favour of donations from parents, I think they would make much less money than they do now. This is because a lot of people, like me, will visit such an event even though we don't have any children at the school, but since we are not parents at the school, we would not be asked to make a contribution. The primary school my own DCs used to attend, regularly made around £4500 at each of these events. In order to make that sort of money from donations, they would be looking to receive around £21.50 per child. There are not many parents who would be happy to pay that, especially if they had several children. Having 'events', brings in money from people who would otherwise have no reason to give money to a school. Whatever price is charged for the donated cakes!

Lurkerspeaks I did that with a batch of brownies and cupcakes after I did Race for Life; staff at school where I work donated more than £30 which was FAB!

Lurker, I'm really shocked. I was asked to make cupcakes for a function after the school fair (by the woman who bought all mine) and I turned it down because I don't want it to stop being fun. My cakes may be better than those served in shops or cafes (and I've been told they are) but I would never be pissed off if they are sold at below market rate. I've donated. Not sold. And frankly, I would never pay more than 50p for a fairy cake or similar at a school fete. Kids don't have a fiver to take with them! I look at cakes in the supermarket and think "I could do better" but I would never expect anyone to charge that for one of mine. And more than £2 for a slice? Really?