Preschool bake sale

[Discopanda]

Hi, I know it's a subject that's been done to death but would really like an opinion. Wednesday is DD1's preschool's Halloween bake sale. Last year was our first as she'd only started in the September, I got all excited and she helped to make spider cupcakes and gingerbread stars with Halloweeny colour icing because I thought the point was that your kids help make the cakes to sell. How wrong was I?! All the other mums brought in shop-bought cakes and DD1's efforts were sold at 20p for 3! I've got all the ingredients to make cupcakes, plus gel colours to do themed icing, shall I bother to bake or just get a couple of packs of cakes from the Co-op to donate? I'm very much swayed to put in the effort because that's what I did when my school had bake sales growing up and it all seems a bit sad buying a cake that's just been bought from the shop and brought in.

oh and the allergies thing is a good point - I usually get parents who offer to buy egg/dairy/wheat free cake for the free from selection - which is lovely, because it gives the kids with allergies more to choose from.

It helps at DD's school that it's referred to as a cake sale, not a bake sale (given that her school is in England, not the US). No pressure to actually do any baking.

As both my DCs have serious food allergies I would never let them have home baked cakes that say they are nut free/egg free because I had no idea how careful the parent baking them had been. I once was offer nut free bakewells at a bake sale. With marzipan. Given that children can go in school hours and buy the buns it's not worth the risk, I used to send in cakes for mine.

I love baking, it is how I relax. I used to spend ages making cup cakes. Then realised that the cakes that go first are the chocolate rice crispy cakes. They take about 10 mins to make and are easy to transport to school. So for the last few years when requested I make those.

I can't be arsed baking. Shop bought flapjacks are the way forward.

Have never baked for a fundraiser - it's one of the most inefficient ways of raising money ever - you spend far more on ingredients than you're ever going to raise with the 25p for a cake price (considering that most kids are not going to be given more than a £1 and will want to buy one for themselves, sibling and mum, for example. So I used to buy a traybake and give the kids a £1 each to spend. However, if that's how people want to spend their time, I wouldn't judge, just don't expect a medal (or for your creations to sell at a reasonable price!)

Who's doing the lemon drizzle?

Amazed that people would bother to make allergy 'friendly' cakes if they didn't have a family member with an allergy. I always make dairy free cakes now because DS has a CMPA and so baking dairy-free is my default. I wouldn't actually buy DS a supermarket 'free from' cake because those tend to be 'gluten free' rather than dairy free.

Agree it's daft that the cakes at school sales tend to cost less than the cost of the ingredients. At our work events cakes are sold for about £1 each and even then the profit is pretty tight if you've used some expensive ingredients.

I will never do it again after I spent about £15 on all organic and fair trade ingredients for beautifully decorated fairy cakes

For them to sell every type of cake for 10p each

Just a total waste of time and money

I bake, and then buy my own cakes back.

There are some incredibly smug posters on this thread.

the "I am too (important) busy for the menial tasks" is a silly excuse. What do your kids eat at home? pills?

Here, have a . A shop-bought one.

When I didn't have a full-time job, I baked for the tea stall. Now that I have a full-time job, I buy cakes to donate to the tea stall. I do not feel even remotely remorseful about this. Are they as nice as homemade ones? Of course not. Are they better than nothing? Well, the children who gobble them up on tea stall days seem to think so.

I do sometimes manage to bake with the DC and we all enjoy it, but for us to find the time and energy to do this on a weeknight is a rare occurrence indeed.

There are other ways to get involved with your DC's school apart from baking. I could give up being a school governor and then all those extra hours I spend reading papers and attending meetings and doing governor training would be freed up for me to bake cakes in. But I'm happy with what I'm doing. Everyone does what they can when they can.

You posters who say you can't understand parents who don't have time to bake - I wonder how often your DC's dads whip up a batch of cakes for tea stall? And if not, I wonder why not?

Incidentally, I also have no qualms at all about the cakes being sold for less than I paid for them. Tea stall isn't just about making money; it's about parents and children coming together and making the school a strong community. The goodwill is even more important than the profit IMO.

I just find the bake sales silly, they either should start selling the cakes more expensive or stop wasting parents' time. Fine if you are at home bored and with enough money to waste, but what's the point of putting so many parents to work for such a negligible outcome?

I would much rather send DS to school with the money I would have spent in the ingredients (and spare the school population from enduring the results of my rubish baking skills).

DS's new school PTA asks for a small monthly donation (if you wish, any amount ok), which apparently makes a few thousands pounds more a year than a school fair and the yearly income of cupcake sales put together.

Have suggested this to parents at our school. They're not biting.

Three cheers to multivac ( I hear you!!! )

In my favourtist school there are a mix of shop-brought and home-cooked. There is definite smugness to the home cooked. Allergies and others prefer shop brought (personally, I love shoving a wrapper at some precious vegetarian and inviting them to "check for yourself so you are comfortable" while their kid drools over something obviously gorgeous, which might possibly have seen a peanut)

The cake bake sales last about 30 - 45 mins, everything is sold v cheap (typically 10 - 20p) and they raise hundreds, so it's definitely worth it for the school.

Would it not raise more money if the parents who buy the shop bought cakes, gave the money directly to the school, rather than wasting money buying cakes and reselling them at school for 20p?

If you don't bake regularly, then baking tends to involve digging around in cupboards trying to find tins and scales, looking for ingredients then realizing you are lacking something critical and having to run out to the shops for it.... Then there is all the cleaning up to do. I think bake sales are nice for those who actually enjoy baking, but schools should also include a "just give cash instead" option as well. It's not like bake sales are a terribly efficient way to make money.

How many schools that have cake sales/bake sales as fundraisers also police the packed meals of pupils day to day?

Baking is a hugely inefficient fundraiser if you look at cost of donation/money in. But it is one of the more popular ones. No one is charging back ingredients, fuel and time. Or dental bills.

Just make a batch of chocolate crackles and sprinkle edible glitter on top.

Costs hardly anything. Takes 15 mins. Kids LOVE them.

You're welcome.

I have decided to adopt a middle ground. I buy Sainsbury's plain cakes @ 12 for £1 and then put icing and decorations on so they look more homemade. I then save all my homebaked lovely cakes for me!! .

Sorry to be clanging chimes of doom but I love being able to buy a shop bought cake at these things.

I have a huge allergy to citrus fruit and pineapple. Quite easy to deal with day to day (it's not like being allergic to nuts of being unable to eat flour or anything). You would be amazed at the number of people who just chuck a bit of fruit juice into a cake though! So lovely as they all look and taste, it's not worth the risk for me.

And buying them is surely better than not joining in at all?

I work full time and have 3 kids. I hate baking so if one of the kids really wants to bake I will do it so we can spend the time together but if they arent interested then I certainly cant be arsed and
will buy them.

The people who "can't find an hour to bake with their child", are the people who work full time and are out of the house 7.30 am to 6pm. Who spend evenings juggling homework,music practise, reading, groceries, laundry, cleaning, cooking meals, banking, lifts to evening activities and the multitude of other tasks that come with running a house and raising children. Then spend the weekends facilitating swimming lessons, football fixtures, more homework, birthday parties etc. Parents who might get a window of free time to themselves for an hour on a Sunday.