School fair cakes!!

[MumtoD]

AIBU being a bit disappointed that I was the only parent at drop off this morning with non-store bought cakes for the school fair. I'm a single parent, work full time and study and still had enough time to slap some icing on a dozen cupcakes

I'm another demoralised baker - cakes that cost me about 70p each to make being sold for 20p. I'd rather just donate the money.

I didn't bother bringing home-made or shop-bought last week at all. I just turned up and bought stuff. Quite a lot of stuff, actually. Given they didn't seem to be running short of cakes to sell at the end, looks like it was the right decision, as far as their funds are concerned.

My first preschool bake sale was at Halloween so I got my little girl to help decorate them (because I thought that was the point!), one other mum who is a professional cake maker brought in a load of flash cakes, everyone else brought in shop-bought. They sold ours at 4 for 50p!

It is disappointing op YANBU
Glad to have left those years behind me ;)
Off to whip up a batch of Devil's food cupcakes for tomorrow's Christmas concert - to be given away free to dedicated parents and music lovers!!

Cake sales are few and far between at DC's school, and when they do happen they are aimed at parents, not at DC with 10p clutched in their sticky paws, so I bake large cakes (Victoria sandwiches and the like, loaf cakes, and occasionally brownies if I have disposable foil tins to recycle), wrap them prettily (I bought a huge roll of cellophane for other things but it comes in handy) and they sell instantly for about twice the cost of making them. I refuse to bake things which will sell for less than the ingredient cost (which used to include brownies, until I discovered Sainsburys 30p Basics dark chocolate).

My school fair always gets a huge amount of cakes, homemade & bought. They only sell the homemade ones at the fair for 50p (large) & 30p (small). They then sell off the bought cakes at hometime during the following weeks.

They make a massive profit on the cakes, easily 300+. It is a large school so easily done.

Shops must LOVE school bake sales.

costs £££ to buy everything and then they sell for 10p a slice.

I don't see the logic in it. When I said this and suggested I just give them the cash instead, they looked at me like I had 2 heads

I am SO glad my kids aren't in primary any more.

So, everyone here in favour of making cakes, what recipes and ingredients do you use to ensure a profit if the cupcakes will be sold for 30 pence each?

They sell them that cheap because that's all that people will pay ime. There's also limited time after school to set up and limited volunteers and then a massive scrum when the sale starts.

Sad stories here though, lots of thoughtful effort gone to waste.

They make a massive profit on the cakes, easily 300+. It is a large school so easily done.

So, everyone here in favour of making cakes, what recipes and ingredients do you use to ensure a profit if the cupcakes will be sold for 30 pence each?

The 'profit' in both these statements is totally ignoring the cost of the ingredients, electricity, cases etc and the baker's time surely?

You might be able to make plain buns for less than 30 pence each using the cheapest eggs and margarine not butter and value flour but once you start adding butter cream or other flavourings, you're going to bump the cost up.

We had a charity cake sale at work recently and I made a rocky road traybake using value ingredients from Aldi and I reckon it cost me £2.50 to make 15 slices.

We sold it at a pound a slice so that is a good profit, as would 50 pence a go, but I think a pound for a decent portion of nice, home made cake etc when it is for a good cause is about the right amount, more if very large or elaborate and at least £3 for a whole cake.

If people are only willing to pay 30 pence, surely it would be better to just donate the money instead of going to the effort of baking and selling at a loss?

The 'profit' in both these statements is totally ignoring the cost of the ingredients, electricity, cases etc and the baker's time surely?

Personally, I'm bloody not , but best to start with the easily costable things first, I thought. Rather than my electricity bill, patience, energy, time, impact that extra hour in the kitchen has on my day...

The profit is irrelevant though. The baker doesn't make any money out of the cakes anyway and they don't charge school for the cost of ingredients.

I used to donate home baking out of the goodness of my heart. I wasn't at all concerned about how much they sold my baking for.

Bunbaker

It isn't irrelevant. It seems illogical to me to donate say, £2 of ingredients plus the time it took me to make them, to... raise £1.80 for the school. I could have just donated the £2 and had time to do something for myself!

We do ours by donation, then no one feels their cakes are being undersold, for our Christmas and summer fairs and twice termly cake sales, which we do as a cafe so everyone stays, has a cuppa and eats the cakes. We get about 90% homemade and have some fantastic bakers, it works really well. The shop bought ones do tend to get left till last.

But I enjoy baking so it wasn't an onerous task for me.

I took in 32 cupcakes (Choc Orange and Choc Vanilla) and 30 Baby Jesus Crispys to DDs Xmas Fair this afternoon. The majority of the cakes on sale were from Tesco and included two boxes of posh donuts. They were all being sold for 30p each - which doesn't make any sense. At the very least it should have been 30p for the small cakes, 50 for the large cupcakes and a quid for the donuts.

I won't be doing it again - it wasn't worth the extra effort. Far easier to chuck a couple of Mr Kiplings in my trolley.

The mistake a lot of school fairs is that they put a cheap flat price on everything. My dc school do 30p for a tiny cup cake, 50p for average cup cake, 75p for flap jacks & 1 for a slice of victoria sponge etc. They only reduce to a 1 for 5 during the last half hour.

The larger cut up cakes always sell faster than the cupcakes. The bought cakes are held back to sell during several playground sales after the fair. That strategy works for the school but everybody has a different way of doing things.

Having helped at lots of sales: use value ingredients, make small cakes not larger ones, don't use chocolate, do decorate.

We sell a mixed plate of cakes for £1 (5/6) on a plate, and the nicest individual cakes at 50p each. People know that's what we do and bake accordingly.

I take a totally different approach baking for work sales, where most people will bung in at least a £1 for a slice of a decent looking cake.

Well, there you go then, Bun. Baking is a leisure activity for you? Then the end result will not be important. For me, baking means giving up a leisure activity. So I want it to be to some effect!

If they sell, they sell - who really cares whether they are shop bought or home made? The point of the cake sale is to raise money for the school - better to have 100 shop bought cupcakes and 50 homemade ones than just 50 homemade ones. Anyone who moans about parents not baking has a limited insight into other people's lives - your priority may be making cakes but it is presumptuous to assume that your contribution is somehow better. I can personally guarantee that shop bought ones will taste miles better than anything I produce so I give my time helping elsewhere.

LtEve, I'm intrigued.

What the jeff is a baby Jesus Crispie??

"What the jeff is a baby Jesus Crispie??"

I'm intrigued too. Is it a rice krispie cake in a cabbage leaf?

Rice crispy cake with a Jelly Baby in the centre and a fondant icing blanket. I always make them - although had some disapproving looks the first year at DDs very religious first school.

Our primary sells buns at £1 or £1.50 each if decorated. Very expensive if you're walking around with 3 kids. Xmas fair at our primary can easily see me spending about £30 at least.

I spent years making cakes for cake sales at primary but haven't done it as much recently because I always used to go early to buy back my own cakes. It seemed pointless. I let the kids choose a bun or piece of cake of their choice and it's very rare that they choose anything shop bought. Am very happy my kids are in secondary or very nearly there. These last few weeks had been non stop with demands from school for donations, tinsel day, xmas jumper day, pj day, bring a bar of chocolate in day.....

A decent cupcake sells at our school fair for a quid. Smaller ones for 50p.
Still less than the ingredients in many cases, but i suppose its all about taking part.
And yes the kids still just scoff the icing