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AIBU?

To not volunteer for the PTA cake stall again this term, seeing as how they'll no longer accept shop-bought products?

125 replies

LittleBella · 12/09/2008 22:20

When I took a whole load of shop-bought little fairy cakes, doughnuts and muffins in from Morrisons today, the school secretary said: "oh we can't accept those, we can only accept home-baked stuff now. It's the law".

Seeing as how this sort of cake has been the norm on the cake stall for the last 5 years (it's been about half and half home baked and shop bought), either the govt must have sneaked in a new law over the summer while the rest of parliament was in recess, or the school are hardened law-breakers. The stall is on Fridays, so baking would have to happen on Thursdays and that is football and dancing day, so no chance.

Am I supposed to distress the farking things a la I don't know how she does it?

OP posts:

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WideWebWitch · 13/09/2008 12:35

Abbafan, not all of us have GOT 15 minutes frankly.

Mercy · 13/09/2008 12:37

Why are you shocked?

Ime it's the adults who want to buy the homemade stuff, children usually don't care. They just wolf everything down.

falcon · 13/09/2008 12:37

It's a cake for heaven's sake! It's not as though she was trying to donate a tub of anthrax.

AbbaFan · 13/09/2008 12:37

Well you have 15 minutes to post on here

BreeVanderCampLGJ · 13/09/2008 12:38

WWW

Walk away.

falcon · 13/09/2008 12:38

What on earth is an LDC?

AbbaFan · 13/09/2008 12:40

Lemon Drizzle Cake.

I just think either make something or don't bother. Not everyone needs to contribute cakes anyway. Just donate old toys or something else.

falcon · 13/09/2008 12:41

You can make a LDC in 15 minutes? Including gathering ingredients, weighing them, creaming and mixing,baking it and clear up?

heronsfly · 13/09/2008 12:42

I always send in shop bought cakes,none of you would want to eat anything i had baked.
But I should get a good mummy sticker,because our school has also banned any home made cakes

WideWebWitch · 13/09/2008 12:44

I probably should walk away!

But my take on this is that the whole cake baking stuff is a complete waste of time: once you factor in the ingredients time etc cake sales make less than tuppence hapenny profit. Also feel that making parents bake cakes is like the band playing while the Titanic went down: completely pointless and ineffective. If a PTA wants to raise serious money it needs to do better than a poxy cake stall.

lulumama · 13/09/2008 12:45

last time i home baked something, i ended up in casualty.

surely shop bought is actually better as it will have been made hygieneically and it will have allergy information on it

WideWebWitch · 13/09/2008 12:46

And I still think that since we're not in the 50s and most people WORK OTH that PTAs ought to offer a 'get out of PTA activities free' card. You donate, without having to bake cakes or similarly waste your precious time, the PTA gets some cash, it's a win/win.

I am a woman on the edge today though so probably not entirely reasonable.

Mercy · 13/09/2008 12:47

www, that's very true! - but children generally like cake sales, and it's easy to organise. It also makes the PTA visible if that makes sense.

AbbaFan · 13/09/2008 12:49

It's not just about time though. Those shop cakes are full of rubbish. DS wanted one of those shop things for his B-day (Nintendo DS cake from Tesco's) and it had about 45 different ingredients! Half of which I could not read.

PP on MN are always talking about how Fruit Shoots / Greggs etc are SO bad for children. So why would you want your kids buying these rubbish cakes?

SmugColditz · 13/09/2008 12:50

I'm [shocked] that anyone cares so much about home made cake.

You can't taste the sweat you know. At least, you shouldn't be able to....

I made squillins and squillions of tiny fairy cakes, I wish I hadn't bothered, and next time I am going to buy plain fairy cakes and blob icing on them.

Blu · 13/09/2008 12:51

In Reception DS was crushed in the rampage for dodgy home-made fairy cakes! He was waiting ptiently at the front of the table with his money while the volunteers took money from parents reaching over him - eventually the crowd surged and he was pinned with his neck against the edge of the table, gagging!

You see, it's the event that has added community value!

Soapbox · 13/09/2008 12:53

Our school stopped the cake sales because it felt it was giving an inconsistent message to the children about healthy eating.

Eat healthily then have a blow out at the cake sale on your way out

Part of the problem was that there were just way too many cakes (too many cooks and all that) so they used to sell them for pennies - children who took in 20p would end up with a bag of 5+ cakes.

As WWW says, the cost of baking the cakes was far, far in excess of the money raised. It was turning into nothing more than making work for idle hands

Blu · 13/09/2008 12:53

WideWebWitch · 13/09/2008 12:53

Oh I know children like them. I don't know why I'm making such a big case for banning cake sales, I don't feel THAT strongly about them! Although PTAs who demand this that and the other and moan because it's always the same people (it always is, noone else cares), piss me off.

I very rarely buy cakes from shops because they're full of crap and I agree, I can whip up a batch of fairy cakes in about 10 mins, not inc cooking and icing.

But I don't want to. So I don't! And they do in some way seem to epitomise for me the idea of making parents do pointless and time consuming things and assuming they have the TIME and inclination to do these things

SmugColditz · 13/09/2008 12:54

And "people on mumsnet" are not a homogenous lump. We are all different people with different likes, dislikes, beliefs and motivations.

Children like cake stalls and children don't care. I have never seen a grown adult eating fairy cakes anyway.

My son has shop bought lurid blue or red birthday cake of his choosing. I always offer to make one (as actually I can bake to a reasonable standard) and as he grows older and Kungfu Panda Power Rangers is less appealing, he may take me up on this, but for now he prefers the packaging

falcon · 13/09/2008 12:54

Cakes by their very nature are not the healthiest of goods, they are intended as a treat and therefore do not always have to be made from organic handpicked agreed to be harvested wheat.

Now if one was eating them on a regular basis I might be concerned, but I'm sure the school won't be littered with the bodies of dead tots who unknowingly bit into a shop bought cake that they believed to be homemade.

Twiglett · 13/09/2008 12:54

LOL Blu .. It's the way you tell 'em

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WideWebWitch · 13/09/2008 12:55

I helped at one at ds's school (I was pregnant with dd and not working) and watching the sugar rush was quite terrifying and amusing.

Blu · 13/09/2008 12:55

WideWebWitch · 13/09/2008 12:56

And lol at whoever said further down "that's why I don't do it, it's not just about cakes"

Quite agree with making work for idle hands Soapbox!

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