Timely thread - I just turned on Mumsnet for a quick break in an evening spent totting up the accounts for the PSA (I'm the Treasurer). Our cake sales have raised nearly £2,000 this year, which the school will be able to spend on IT equipment, books, or just to give the children a treat at Christmas.
We have one every Friday, each class takes it in turn. I usually bake something when it's our turn - mostly because I enjoy baking - but I've got the measure of these things now. I KNOW they're only going to charge 20p, so I adjust the amount of effort I make accordingly. Usually it's just a basic sponge, cut into small squares, covered with bought icing and whichever sprinkles take DD's fancy. Takes me no more than 10 minutes effort (plus extra for baking time). Most other people buy their cakes, and that's fine too.
It's a little Friday afternoon routine that the children enjoy. It won't do them any harm if it's part of a balanced diet. More than 20p and people wouldn't buy them. The simple things sell quickest. If it was a "savoury sale", we wouldn't sell anything at all!
toria - your cupcake is awesome, but it would be totally the wrong kind of thing for the kind of bake sale we have - not that it wouldn't be enormously appreciated. But if we priced it at what it was worth, it just wouldn't sell. Wrong audience.
I think it's a bit of a silly thing to get annoyed about tbh. If you don't want to do it, don't. If you've made the mistake of going to a lot of expense and effort and didn't think it was worth it, don't do it again. But don't expect the school/ PSA to change a successful fundraising strategy because you would rather do something different.
There ARE more adventurous/ imaginative ways of raising money, but they take time and effort to arrange. Cake sales are easy to arrange, simple for people to participate in and raise a lot of money. Nothing else hits the spot in quite the same way.