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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Ahhhhh! Bloody cake sales!!!

122 replies

Fresta · 06/07/2016 18:16

AIBU to think these are such a stupid idea for raising money? DDs teacher is constantly requesting cakes to sell to raise money for X Y and Z and then they sell them for 20p each. I can't make them for 20p by the time I have trailed to the shops and bought the ingredients and then there's the time spent bloody making them! It would be so much easier and cost the same to just pay for whatever it is!

OP posts:
BalloonSlayer · 07/07/2016 17:10

Our school asks for cakes to be supplied, they then mix them up and the children can buy a paper plate of about six assorted cakes on the day.

I always get a box of shop bought ones (nice ones though, that I would like to eat!) and give those. I normally declare with a big grin as I hand them over: "I made these meself! And I made the box as well!" Grin

(DC1 has severe allergies and can't have anything from the cake stall. That is the real reason I can't be arsed - am not slogging to make stuff when he can't participate in the sale.)

Goingtobeawesome · 07/07/2016 17:14

"Cake sales only raise money if the cakes are sold for profit!"

Even if the cakes are sold for ten pence it's a profit given the school haven't paid for the cake ingredients..

Pico2 · 07/07/2016 17:16

If you do fancy baking but don't want the school to raise less than the cost of ingredients then I'd avoid anything chocolatey. Chocolate or cocoa add a lot to the cost of a cake.

I made a large batch of fairy cakes with icing and sweets. They were sold for 30p each. The profit margin was about 20p. So the school got about £15 on £5 of ingredients. But I do like baking. Otherwise I'd just offer the cash.

iMogster · 07/07/2016 17:22

ilove OMG you are totally right. I just looked at the box. I thought they were just rice. I have just looked at corn flakes and they have barley too. Thank you for pointing this out.

pearlylum · 07/07/2016 17:26

Poundland sell packs of 24 plain sponge cakes for £1.
A dob of icing and a jelly bean on top- job done.

pearlylum · 07/07/2016 17:29

I have been put off buying cakes at sales after one seller said to me

" I love baking scones- no matter how dirty my nails are they always come out lovely and clean after cutting out the dough"

Hmm
lordsteatime · 07/07/2016 17:45

I hated making cakes for my son to take to school and buy. But as he had many life threatening food allergies, this is what happened at every cake sale . I made them and gave him money to buy them back. Once he got to 8yrs old he refused as his class mates had realised that he only brought the cakes his mum made and kept separate for him.

Cake sales underscored the difference between him and his classmates and from then on he pretended he didnt have money and didnt want cake. When everyone around him brought them and ate them in front of him.
We cant as parents make everything better for our kids and I suppose he found a way around this exclusion, but its a shame that this is a constant part of his childhood and his life.

Pico2 · 07/07/2016 18:03

Pearlylum Shock that is revolting.

CarrieLouise25 · 07/07/2016 18:20

Yep, there is that to consider with home made cakes Pearly Smile

I was round my SIL's house whilst she was baking cakes for school. Her DD was helping. Her DD grabbed a handful of chocolate chips (meant for the cakes) and shoved them in her mouth. SIL made her spit them out.

Fine.

But then she put the spat out ones in the cake mixture.

Mmmmm.

I also knew a lady who baked cakes for a living, who allowed her cat to walk all over the kitchen surfaces where she was baking.

Kinda puts you off homemade cakes Grin

On a more positive note, the lolly thing worked really well here too. Every Friday in the Summer, not a lot of prep, good amount of profit.

FurryLittleTwerp · 07/07/2016 18:22

I once made flapjack for a school cake sale & when I went to collect the box at home time it was nowhere to be found. DS's teacher then blushingly appeared with it from the staffroom - the teachers liked it so much that they scoffed the lot!

I couldn't work out if they'd paid per slice, or just bloody eaten it!

Littlecaf · 07/07/2016 18:32

Isn't half of the point of cake sales to keep the effort cheap (on both time and ingredients) so that the kids can spend pocket money amounts on a treat? So if you overspend on ingredients then don't complain that your efforts are in vain when it's not the point of the cake sale.

Fairy cakes with a dolly mixture on top is the maximum required. Nobody in RL bats an eyelid if they are shop bought.

Littlecaf · 07/07/2016 18:33

This thread is also making me hungry for cake. Cake

SlipperyLizard · 07/07/2016 18:37

I had the same with an NCT cake sale - the recipe I used costed the recipe at 53p per slice. NCT then sold them for 50p. People would easily pay £1. I told them I wouldn't bake again if they didn't increase prices - I don't have oodles of time to make a charity/school etc less than the cost of ingredients.

Same thing happens at school now, it is ridiculous how little business sense is applied in the running of what should be an operation to maximise profits, not sell cheap cakes!

Rant over.

Floggingmolly · 07/07/2016 18:38

I assumed the point was fundraising; not providing cheap treats for the kids? I suppose it's a bit like the charity shop conundrum.
Is their main purpose to raise money for the charity or to provide a range of cheap goods for those on low incomes (or is that just a useful by product?)

Pico2 · 07/07/2016 18:44

Well that might be the end of me buying cakes made by other people at home. These stories are disgusting.

pearlylum · 07/07/2016 18:52

pico I don't think these are unusual stories unfortunately.
I had a dear friend who was close to being a hoarder. A lovely person but her kitchen was foul. She loved helping others and baking and always made loads of stuff for her kids local school fairs. She had one filthy cloth that I saw her use to wipe up toddler pee from her kitchen carpet, then dry a mixing bowl with it. I struggled to drink a cup of coffee at her house and would always offer to make it so I could fish a cup out of the dank greasy water in her sink and give it a wash before I used it.
I don't buy stuff from cake sales;.

Sara107 · 07/07/2016 19:16

I started off making stuff for the bakesales that we would eat at home, made nicely with butter, good quality chocolate etc. Then realised that a) they are sold for less than the ingredients cost (or given away at the end) and b) having handed over your delicious offering you then have to buy someone else's perhaps not so nice baking! So now I make cheap and cheerful ones with margarine ( or don't bother). I do think there is a slight disconnect though between the school healthy eating policies and the use of cake sales to raise money. Either eating confectionary is ok or it's not, you can't really say that it's not ok but we'll happily allow it if it raises us some cash. That is really a case of having your cake and eating it.....

Goingtobeawesome · 07/07/2016 19:23

Why is everyone missing the point? It doesn't matter if it cost you 53p per slice and was sold for 50p. The school gets the 50ps profit, it doesn't matter to you what they sell for. You aren't getting the money. You've already forked out for no return.

Floggingmolly · 07/07/2016 19:27

We're not missing the point. The point is; we could donate the money directly, without spending an evening in the kitchen or increasing Mr. Sainsbury's profits.

Goingtobeawesome · 07/07/2016 19:31

Well obviously but people are complaining they cost so much to make and are sold for less but the school is making total profit so why does it matter

GeorgeTheThird · 07/07/2016 19:32

We're not missing the point. The main beneficiary (of OUR money) is the supermarket, not the school.

GeorgeTheThird · 07/07/2016 19:35

To hammer it home. Ingredients cost me £5. School sells for £2.50. Who's the main beneficiary?

Goingtobeawesome · 07/07/2016 20:04

Obviously he shop benefits but so does the school which is the whole point. The school just think it is more fun to have a cake sake than ask parents to send in money

Boolovessulley · 07/07/2016 20:08

I was asked to bake for a school competition.
I spent hours on my cake and it cost a fortune.
I won the competition but when asked to do it again refused on the basis that the school did not charge enough to cover the costs and time involved.
Yes the school made a profit from selling my cake as I donated it free but they charged too low a price on my mind and I won't be doing it again so they have lost out on the long run.

ohtheholidays · 07/07/2016 20:36

Our school usually charges 50p+ per cake.They usually only ask for cakes now if it's for a School fete for them to sell on the cake stall.
So only twice a year I think that's a much better idea.
The older DC school sometimes have a cake sale for Macmillan or a charity that some of the children have suggested.They usually sell they're cakes for £1 each.

I made loads a few weeks ago and they sold them all within an hour of the fete starting.I think the cake stall alone took a couple of hundred pounds for the school,it's being spent on play equipment for all the children.