To find complicated cake recipes unnecessary, especially for a school cake sale

[Vickisuli]

We had cake sales at both schools today. I did my usual and baked a massive batch of basic sponge cakes and then put some garish halloween themed icing on top, nothing massively complicated but just fun pumpkin shapes, strips of white icing to make mummies etc. It took me a little while doing the icing but I quite enjoy it and the kids LOVED them.

At said cake sale I find the usual selection of similar to mine, a fair few chocolate crispie cakes with halloween sweeties on etc but also some (to my mind) weirdly complicated cakes eg medjool date brownies. One of the mums told me she'd tried out a new recipe which involved cream cheese icing and realised it couldn't be left out so had had to bring them down at the last minute. Another one had made salted caramel brownies. They are bloody lovely but they cost an absolute fortune to make (I know because she gave me the recipe a while back) and are very labour intensive as you have to make the salted caramel separately first. When I said to her, "They're lovely but they're way too good for a cake sale, I'd only make them as a treat", she replied "They're the only thing I know how to cook".

How can this possibly be true? And why do people do such expensive/complicated recipes for cakes which are going to be eaten by kids? I have tried many cake recipes in my time and the vast majority (salted caramel brownies are an exception) are a lot of effort for a cake which is pretty blah. I tend to just use a basic sponge recipe and tweak it. I made cakes for DH's work, and just to make it a bit more interesting and less kiddy, I added cinnamon and mixed spice to my basic sponge. He had people asking for the recipe.... I was like, it's just a normal sponge cake with some spices thrown in. I bet if I googled cinnamon cake I'd find some super complicated recipe involving expensive ingredients which probably wouldn't taste any better than mine.

Seriously, I really don't get why people bother with cake recipes most of the time. Just use eggs, flour, butter, sugar and whisk it all up. It takes about 10 minutes and makes delicious cakes. And primary school children only care about the icing anyway.

I thought red velvet cake was made with beetroot?

I made expensive coconut and cherry cakes for bake sale at nursery last year - it was my first so I was just trying to make something good. They sold them for 30p each, I must have spent 4 times that making them. The best sellers were shop bought cookies with smarties on top, and rice crispy cakes. I'm going simple next time.

We have a simple cake sale in school on the last Friday of every month ( no parents just kids) the most popular cakes with my class of 4/5 year old were rice krispie cakes and rocky road. Above the beautifully decorated Halloween cupcakes.

One parent sent in a tray of oreo rocky road for staff..... Wow.. Made the day a lot easier!

I don't get how salted caramel brownies can cost an absolute fortune to make....salted caramel is simply salt, sugar, butter and maybe a bit of cream surely you have salt, sugar butter in the house anyway. For the actual brownies you can use supermarket basic chocolate bars. If i'm making any kind of chocolate cake I use this instead of Green and Blacks or more expensive brands.

I'm sure everyone's contributions are welcome but at a bake sale i'm more inclined to buy the more professional looking cakes where people have spent a bit of time with the icing and presentation than the plain bakes or chocolate rice krispie things. I don't know if this make me a cake snob though.

Mmmmmmm cake

Yanbu op but I also love the complicated efforts.

People have different approaches to life, including cake baking. It's what keeps things interesting.

"How can you do a red velvet cake with a basic sponge mix? Surely it's the reaction between the bicarbonate and the vinegar which makes it red?"

Oh, you sweet naive thing, you!

Missing the point slightly, but please could someone link to the 6 4 4 2 recipe mentioned?

Perhaps they are creative so like trying new things. Perhaps they are keen bakers and enjoy the process. Perhaps they find sponges boring. So YABU.

My dcs will buy the sponge cakes with garish icing, I will not! I will only buy something that looks interesting and the salted caramel brownies sound very interesting, a ginger cake sounds interesting but sponge cake and icing no way!
I often bake something at the request of the dcs or for scouts I make rocky road as I know the leaders are crazy about it and the adults always donate more than the ticket price. And at scouts the kids are selling their own cakes which really makes people try harder and the variety and quality is fantastic!

Some people like any opportunity to try out a new recipe for fun or out of curiosity.

Some people do the inevitable quickie rice crispy cake etc.

Some people can't bake or don't have time so they send in a tenner instead.

All perfectly valid. We all contribute in our own ways.

We do a lot of cake sales at work and I've noticed recently that the cakes that are too fancy - the ones people really take a lot of time with - don't sell as well as the ones that look properly 'homemade'. I have no idea why!

Lemon drizzle is always the first to go. Then anything chocolate.

If everyone brought in sponge cakes, it'd be a dull as bake sale.

I never choose sponge anyway - aside from not being able to make them, I would never choose sponge over other more interesting offerings. The proceeds of the sale may be for the kids, but the is bought and paid for by the adults.

I would also love to know why salted caramel brownies cost a fortune.

OP, how utterly daft. Why on earth do you care what anyone else does? Maybe they find your sponge cakes dull and unimaginative.

I bake for what I laughingly call my living. I often practice on school cake stalls. It's great getting instant feedback! A child once handed me a slice of courgette and lime cake with one tiny bite taken out and said "I've had enough, thank you"

Once I did the wifely thing and sent DH in with my, frankly, amazeballs carrot cake. Sure enough, he had a load of people asking for the recipe. It's just what people do when you send baked goods into work.

This is the first time I've heard an op accused of stealth boasting and being judgey about cakes!

Sorry op, I couldn't get past the salted caramel brownies. Mmmmmmm...... [drool] YABU to suggest denying others the opportunity to try these.

Some people just enjoy making special or complicated recipes, why does it matter ? I enjoy baking, none of my family eat cakes and I try not to weight problem so trying out a new recipe and then donating the cake gives me a lot of pleasure.

I suspect everybody was raving over the salted caramel brownies and OP is hence this thread!

How can you do a red velvet cake with a basic sponge mix? Surely it's the reaction between the bicarbonate and the vinegar which makes it red?

That affects texture, not colour. You need to add a lot of liquid red food colouring for the colour.

I don't get the deal with salted caramel either. It tastes rank to me!

And why do people do such expensive/complicated recipes for cakes which are going to be eaten by kids?

YABU for this alone, kids aren't 2nd class citizens and enjoy food, why feed them shit?

I love baking. It gives me something to do, a semi complicated recipe is fun as well as the "ooh, will it rise? Will it look OK? Is it edible?" I don't get out much I rarely eat what I bake, my dh doesnt either, i love that others enjoy what I bake. Complicated, fussy recipe and all

People do it because they enjoy it.

Is that wrong?