to not bake cakes for the school to sell for less than the ingredients cost me?

[ANTagony]

This am took DS1 to school teacher stopped me in corridor and said would I mind baking some cakes to be sold for children in need to the staff on Friday. She particularly requested Chelsea buns (I've made them and lots of other cakes for the school before). I have a lot on this week but said I'm sure I could rustle up something. Rearranged my week to fit in an extra batch of baking (already baking for PTA meeting Friday morning). Collected DS1 from school to be handed a notice saying cakes would be on sale in aid of children in need on Friday and would be a flat rate 10p each. I can't buy the ingredients for 10p each. I'm a single parent I have a younger son to and money is really tight. I don't object to helping out where I can but they are asking me to bake cakes which would cost over £1 in the local bakers,give them for free and then feel good about themselves (the teachers) for donating 10p to charity in return for something they couldn't get for any where near that in the shops. I feel really taken advantage of. I'd rather just give the ingredients money to children in need, then they'd win (make more money than if the school charge 10p per cake) and I'd save myself a lot of effort. Is this mad should I just wind my neck in.

YANBU This used to really annoy me at DDs school. Even worse anything not sold within the first half hour was then reduced to 5p a cake!! Cue all the old timer Mummies rushing to the cake stall. I agree, buy the Tesco value fairy cakes and stick a bit of icing on them. Same result for the charity and a lot less effort for you.

We're having homemade cakes tomorrow at work for children in need and most people give £1 a slice! (they are much much nicer than bought ones and it means the bakers' time has been recognised, by the charity getting a decent amount of money)

I start with a basic dough mix:

1 sachet dried yeast
500g bread flour
1 tbsp sugar
25g butter
2 tbsp milk powder
0.5 tbsp salt
300ml of liquid consisting of 1 egg in measuring jug made up to 300ml with tepid water.

once proven the dough is rolled out into a large rectangle, coated in about 25g more of melted butter, generously sprinkled with soft brown sugar, lightly covered in all spice and cinnamon, then covered in sultanas.

Roll up cut and squash the buns on a tray leave to rise.

Bake for about 10 mins at 210ish.

Coat in a thick icing and top with a cherry.

Makes about 12 large buns.

thank you very very much for sharing. Guess what I'm doing this evening?

YANBU And I like your style BoffinMum ! Very good.

The whole cake thing is tiresome imo but I 'spect I'll be pelted with old cakes for saying so.

You are definitely not being unreasonable to be upset with this. A friend and I had a similar experience when we spent 6 weeks hand making wire and bead decorations - she donated all the beads from her own supplies. We (well, she, in particular) made some lovely decorations, which we priced at between £1 and £2.50 - the most expensive ones had swarovski crystals on them - and almost none sold. It seemed to us that the parents who came to the bazaar expected not to have to pay more than about 10p for anything.

I didn't do any more work for the PTA - I'd rather donate money than see my hard work treated as basically valueless.

ANT, I think you are being totally reasonable. I have seriously considered approaching the Head Teacher about setting up a direct debit to the school for say a tenner a month and they can reclaim my tax as well. They would get more, I would spend less. And I wouldn't waste time working for a net loss. I've even thought of suggesting we communicate this option to all the parents and set something up on the website where they could set up the direct debits. Very little effort.

Although I keep signing up for class rep so I'm not doing very well at reducing my workload.

Are you sure the cakes are only to be sold to the teachers. I mean how many cakes are they expecting to eat? Plus all the teachers at our school tend to be on diets and not wanting to eat lots and lots of cake. Maybe you misunderstood and the cakes are going to be sold to the children and staff.

Our school sells cakes for 10p each too on these occasions, I never send any cakes in. But I am very good at buying cake. It's an equally important contribution, I feel.

I find this sort of thing very frustrating, and just don't join in really. I give my cash direct, gift-aided if possible, and rarely join in the 'double-whammy' fundraising operations: unless I think there is 'genuine fun' involved.

So for the school Christmas fayre we always donate bags of funsize chocs that they use as prizes on the games stall, and then contribute by spending lots of cash. But I don't make/bake things any more.

10p per cake is taking the mick...so, I can understand you feeling resentful.
In that case, it would indeed make more sense to just let everyone donate the money they would have spend on the ingredients, etc....would raise probably more that way....

im amazed they have said 10p - can you ask them if that is still the case? suggest 50p? i am sure that is no problem for anyone

im amazed they have said 10p - can you ask them if that is still the case? suggest 50p? i am sure that is no problem for anyone

Do the teachers also make them?

I think 30p per cake would be cheap (still) but more charitable.

I would resent spending time and spending money when I feel like it hasnt gone towards charity, you may as well have just donated the cost of the ingredients to charity. They are mean to sell them at 10p.

There's a super TA at work who gets up at 5 every morning and makes cakes that she sells in the staffroom to raise money for charity - they are truly delicious and they sell for 50p a slice. I think that's more than fair; traybakes from the canteen cost staff 76p and they're not nearly as nice! And she still managed to raise over £400 last term, so you can see the price doesn't put anyone off.

10p is way, way too cheap.

Oh good I'm not getting out of perspective in my sitting at home with no adults to reason with. If they charged 20p or more I'd be happy - its a return on effort and still cheaper than the shops. The teachers buying them thing is they want the Chelsea buns for the teachers lounge but the cakes are to be sold at 10p so I very much doubt the teachers would pay more. I'm also heavily involved in the PTA (chair this year) and in just 3 weeks we have our annual holy fair where we always ask for cakes. The school is desperately short of funds better at spending than raising and this has been sprung upon us as a last minute thought and I fear that people will now make for this resent the cost the cakes have been sold at and refuse to bake for the holy fair.

I guess I need to be diplomatic in my response to this and bake something so that no kids go without if they have their 10p burning a whole in their pocket but somehow need to explain the cost of things in the real world to the teachers who have set the priceing.

Thank you so much for your opinions and suggestions still smiling at the thought of buying value buns and icing them - might just do that.

No I completely agree. HOme made cakes always go first, for a reason. They should be sold for more. If they're going to undervalue your time, effort and expense by selling them for ten p, then just donate a box of tesco value stodge next time.

Never had Chelsea buns but recipe looks yummy! definitely going to cath up on tasting good English stuff.

ANTagony

Why don't you present the teacher who asked you for the Chelsea Buns with a little calculation showing how the donation of buns she requested actually destroys value?

Cost of flour £0.00
Cost of fruit £0.00
Cost of sugar £0.00
Cost of yeast £0.00
Cost of fat £0.00
Cost of electricity £0.00
Your time @ £0.00 / hour x X £0.00
__

Total cost of making buns £0.00

• proceeds of bun sale £0.00

__

Cost of exercise + £0.00

eekamoose, how is the OP donating to charity by buying the ingredients? Surely she's just making a donation to Tesco?

YANBU at all. The teachers seem v stingy. Tell them to make their own flippin cakes.

I actually find it hugely worrying that teachers cannot understand the basic economics of this kind of exercise and are encouraging children to participate in massive value destruction exercises.

YANBU. 10p is stupidly cheap. They deserve to only get plain digestives at that price.

I cook a lot for the Village Fete and monthly cake stalls at school and this same issue drives me insane. They always sell the cakes for less than the cost of ingredients let alone my time etc. I made 36 large chocolate cakes (all iced and decorated) for the village fair. They sold them for £1 each and the entire stall was stripped bare within 45 mins of the fair starting. What a waste of time and effort for £36.00!

The teachers should be ashamed of themselves - we all know Chelsea buns take abit of work and can't be knocked up for 10p a go! Would deffo tell them to sell them at least 50p a go - if not more. Yes you've agreed to effectively donate the ingredients and your time free but that should result in enough benefit to make it all worthwhile and make you willing to continue to do it. if they won't then either stop or go down the shop bought route.

We've brought this up before (against all my inclinations I am a preschool committee member so have occasional involvement in fundraising). Some parents feel short of money and prefer to donate a cake than to give money in other ways. So the school and preschool do keep doing these cake sales with 10p cakes. I suppose if people really do want to contribute in this way (though it's utterly dumb and timewasting and moneywasting and also insulting IMO in terms of assuming we're all SAHMs with lots of time to bake) then they can, but you don't have to feel obliged to join in.

I avoid cake making but I wholeheartedly support the Serving Alcoholic Refreshments at School and Preschool Events type of fundraising. They can make much more money just serving glasses of wine to parents trapped at sports day etc.