And the best selling item at any school fair/ bake sale is...

[worriermum]

...the humble cupcake. Well-iced, preferably wtih the help of lots of toxic food colourings and sprinkles. And if you want to make absolutely sure that your dc has the most popular stall with the fastest-selling goods then stick a smartie on the top of all that icing and food colouring.

Yes, worriermum has done the research for you and after countless tedious school fairs and many hours spent making fussy goods for the fair, she can confirm the latest reserach findings. It seems no one can resist the plain but delicious cupcake...icing sugar and sponge cake win every time. (we ignore the bake-from-a-box brigade who give cupcakes a bad name..smug alpha-mummy baker emoticon needed here)

mamachris check out this site - we have been been going here (Moffat) since we were tiny girls and it's still the best sweet shop ever - and you can buy online!

Moffat Toffee Shop

Anyone got a good recipe for Rocky Road please

The one that I do for school fete's etc. is peanut butter bicuits. I spotted it on a friends FB page and have been doing them ever since. Popular with my brood and everyone else as well.

6oz of caster sugar
70z of peanut butter (I buy the cheapest in the shop)
1 egg
1 tsp of baking powder

whizz sugar and peanut butter together in processor quickly.Then quickly whizz in egg and BP. Roll in to balls and flatten and place on grease proof paper on a baking tray. Put in an oven on 180 deg C for 12-15 minutes.

Gluten free,dairy free, done in 20 minutes and fool proof. Depending on how big you make them depends how many you get but average about 20-24 per batch. Put them in celophane bags (use bags for card makers from Wilkos) with a little bit of ribbon tied round with a little tag for fete's etc. Usually put around 4-5 a bag.

Gingerbread men recipe PLEASE. And very explicit instructions for how to decorate? Does one ice the buggers?

Also, Gregor how does on swirl two icing colours together? And Create, icing is the easiest part of the job: mix together butter and icing sugar and slather on..even I can do it!

Gingerbread men recipe PLEASE. And very explicit instructions for how to decorate? Does one ice the buggers?

Also, Gregor how does on swirl two icing colours together? And Create, icing is the easiest part of the job: mix together butter and icing sugar and slather on..even I can do it!

vintage I don't know whether to thank you or not... mail order tablet will ruin me. off to try them right now

gingerbread men

ice with a funny face and a bow tie or button or hair or a tutu or whatever takes your fancy.

Ranty no flour in your PB biscuits? I am puzzled as to how the mixture is stiff enough to roll into balls?

"family cakes" - i.e. ones you can take home and pretend you made yourself - seem to go down best at DC's school - victoria sandwich, chocolate version
of same, lemon drizzle.

really pretty cupcakes sell - but there are always loads of mediocre cup cakes left over at the end.

Mars Bar krispie cake goes well too, but everyone seems to do brownies and since they are one of the most expensive things to make I tend to avoid them.

I always made rice crispie cakes and they always sold quickly.

I make the peanut butter biscuits too, without even the baking powder. :) We called them One One One cookies when I was small- One cup of peanut butter, One cup of sugar, One egg. :)

These recipes sound good!

And I love frraaaawwwwwsting! :o

I made cake pops last time and they all went in 20 minutes. I made pink ones and blue ones with decorations - white choc stars, edible glitter etc.

At ours it is most definitely the fairy cakes (none of this american "cup cake" rubbish ) with the most neon icing & the largest amount of sweets that go first too. The ones I made with bright green icing, green edible glitter & sprinkles + smarties didn't look particularly classy, but they flew out the door

However I would love to learn how to bake decent gingerbread men. Mine always end up spreading out all over when I bake them & you can barely tell they are man shaped . Please fantastic gingerbread man bakers, please please please tell me whatI'm going wrong

If you're doing family cakes then, after all my Mum's constant experimenting, I should tell you that the most popular at any WI sale is..

Coffee and Walnut

the only problem with both coffee and walnut cake and peanut butter biscuits is that quite a lot of sales (IME) have 'no nuts' rules - it's worth checking before you bake.

Tyzer, no flour needed at all. Takes 20 minutes to make beginning to end. Tastes fantastic when warm.

If any of you tablet lovers are in the south west, they sell it here

Although they call it fudge. At least they used to.

Call ahead maybe if you're travelling all the way from London to buy it

Rocky road to die for.

I make this a lot for fayres and also when invited around to people's houses for dinner.... Always goes down well. I add glace cherries and sultanas to mine too.

Chocolate chip cookies always go down well. You can sprinkle edible glitter on them for added bling.

I don't make the sickly looking kiddy type cakes because my children don't like them either. I usually do date cake or chocolate cake cut into generous sized squares. They always sell out fast.

spongecakes and cupcakes are definitely the best but im very partial to choc chip cookies too.

noting recipes.

Cookies made with this recipe go down well at school events:

100g/4oz plain flour
50g/2oz cornflour
50g/2oz caster sugar
100g/4oz butter or margarine.

Preheat oven to 180c/170c(fan)/350F, GM4
Tip flour & corn flour into a bowl. Add sugar and butter and rub together to form breadcrumbs with your fingertips. Squeeze together to form a ball. Roll out to approx 3mm thick. Cut out, chill for 5mins, bake for 10-15mins until golden. Cool on tray for 5 mins and transfer to wire rack.

I use it for making Pudsey biscuits during Children in Need week.

There is one secret to making DC want your cakes - edible glitter.

I make my cupcakes by weighing a egg with the shell on, weigh out same amount butter, caster sugar, flour. Cream butter and sugar until very pale, whack in other stuff with splish of vanilla extract and teaspoon of milk. 10-12 mins in the oven and always moist!

I just up the number of eggs for more cupcakes or to make a sponge.

To trump a cupcake - the current fad of whoopie pies:

100g/4oz Butter or Margarine
100g/4oz Caster sugar
2 Eggs
4 tbsp Cocoa Powder
225g/8oz Self Raising Flour
½ teasp salt
1 teasp Vanilla extract
120ml/4fl.oz. Milk

chuck all into a bowl, mix. Dollop straight onto baking paper on a tray leaving lots of room between dollops (flatten them/tidy them abit to make them look nice). Cook at 180c for about 15 minutes. Let them cool then sandwich buttercream between two halves(put more around the edges than in the middle to make it look squidgy but not too sickly then) and decorate on top like you would a cupcake. Last lot of kids I tried these on loved them!

Smartie cookies - gone in seconds

Cupcakes go quick here too but I hate all that icing so make them as fairy cakes with just a blob in the middle.

Gingerbread men I decorate with a couple of eyes and a smile piped on and then jelly tot buttons.

Oh and popcorn in cups or little bags.

Have been baking cakes for school for over 10 years.
I can't stand the name CUP CAKES
It's fairy cakes for the lord's sake. And actually very popular at school sales when you make them as fairy cakes without masses of the US style sickly icing.
2 egg batter makes 12 cakes in a muffin tin, or 18 in a bun tin.
8oz's or 250 g icing sugar + the juice of a lemon for the icing then colour, decorate as you please.
Sugarcraft colour is the best.

The one's I made at christmas for the christmas fair, 12 with green icing and 12 with red + little snowmen on them sold like hot cakes.

The absolute best seller are chocolate cornflake cakes. Really low faff to make as well. Nigel Slater's recipe is the best.