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)

Actually there are two sorts. The non-toxic stuff goes straight through in all it's spanglyness, but the edible stuff is broken down by the body. I was just being daft!r

I have just been to find the recipe for the coloured sugar. It basically says to add 4 drops of food colouring to 3 tablespoons of caster sugar, mix well then spread on a plate to dry. The recipe says to then make some biscuits, brush the tops with egg white and sprinkle the sugar on before cooking. I'm sure you could use it straight onto pre-iced cakes though. As the sgar dires out realy well. Although I would imagine the icing would need to be nearly dry so the colour doesn't leech out of the sugar.

Time to do a bit of experimenting?!?

DEFINITELY time for a bit of experimenting. I will let you know!

(still amazed about the spangles....)

TheChewyToffeeMum I made the lovely microwave tablet and it's great.
It's not hardened as much as I thought it would though, where might have I gone wrong, or is it normally quite soft?

Schroeder - maybe try cooking it a wee bit longer to get it harder. I prefer a softer tablet myself but it should be easy enough to get the texture you want.

Thanks I'll try that.

Although dd said she likes it softer; thought it was 'perfect' high praise indeed

Does banana cake sesll well? It's one of my faves

i'm in highschool and I can tell you k=now that the bake that always sells well at my school is the bakewell tart. just make sure you say it contains almonds xx