Please help me with my first ever bake sale. (I can't bake!)

[mameulah]

Nothing I bake ever turns out tasting delicious. And I mean nothing.

I am now a Mummy and would LOVE to get confident at producing delicious goodies for Toddler groups etc. And in two weeks our community group is having a bake sale. Please, please help...

What can I bake that looks reasonably impressive but isn't too tricky. (The bit that always goes wrong is the oven part. It is either raw or burnt.)

How much do you bake?

How do you best package it?

And do you price it or do the people that are in charge?

tia

Buy Mary berry - I've always turned out something easily from there and I was a lousy baker!

Easiest is prob little fairy cakes nicely decorated as the mix is a doddle.

Bbc good food has some simple recipes too - maybe some rocky road/fridge cake would be good as it's yum.

I find this really straightforward and the icing hides a multitude of sins, it looks amazing and tastes amazing too. Slices really well so good for a bakesale. www.stylist.co.uk/life/recipes/chocolate-guinness-cake

Alternatively a no bake option,

www.nigella.com/recipes/view/malteser-traybake-393

Go to shop, buy cupcakes, put in large biscuit tin, give it in. They will price it.

Make something that doesn't need baking but setting in the fridge. Tbh kids don't like fancy schmanzy stuff, they want food colouring and lots of it

A lemon drizzle cake always goes down a storm-- a superior kind of bake you see

Ok I will not refer to THAT thread...

Seriously, chat to the people running it they have probably run one before and will know what sells.

Rachel Allen cakes are fab... Lemon and poppyseed is a doddle because it is made in one bowl with yoghurt I think to make it fluffy.

Or... buy a Betty Crocker choc fudge cake mix complete with icing... It goes down a term at the DCs school and makes a good profit if sold by the slice. Irresistible to mums and children alike!

Malteaser tray bake works fab in this situation and has the added benefit of being no bake. Malteaser I often double it and make it quite thick.

Have you got oven themometer?
maybe your oven needs checking first in case it overheats or under heats (as you say cake is either raw or burned)

Flapjacks.

Melt 300g butter (salted is nicest)
Then add 4 tablespoons of golden syrup and 1 can of condensed milk and boil for a minute.
Mix in 500g oats.
Bake at 160 degrees for about 15 minutes.

Chocolate can be drizzled on the top, add cranberries and white chocolate, or just eat them plain. They're fab and you can't go wrong.

Buy plain fairy cakes.
Make or buy icing and colour it nicely.
Spread on cakes and the go completely mad adding dolly mixtures, jelly tots, sprinkles and then a few more.

nigellas fairy cake recipe is good(in domestic goddess book) as you pop everything in food processor and then blitz and she then describes how to slather on the icing to cover imperfections! also a hit in our house is waitrose chocolate fridge cake (easily found via Google) it has sultanas and apricots, so probably counts as two of your five a day!! hopefully

Buy them from the shop. I spent ages slaving over cakes for my first bake sale, when I got there I noticed most people had just bought cheap cup cakes. So thats what I do now.

Don't buy cupcakes, honestly once you know how to, they are so easy to make. Just use a standard victoria sponge recipe - weigh 2 large eggs (room temp) in their shells and weigh out the same amount of room temp butter, sr flour and caster sugar.
You can put it all in a bowl together and mix like mad (pref with an electric mixer if you have one) until it's fluffy and smooth.
Add 1 tsp of vanilla extract (NOT essence) per 100g you've weighed out (for two eggs, should be around 120g so 1 tsp is fine) and a tsp of baking powder.
Spoon into cake cases, don't fill more than 1/2 full.
Bake in the oven at 150 degrees until they spring back when you touch the top. DON'T open the oven before 20 mins in.

This will give you lovely cupcakes, I promise.

I would actually not do cupcakes. They can be fiddly to fill without dripping on the sides of the case and looking messy. A big tin cake (once the tin is lined) is much neater. It sounds like your oven is having some temperature issues tho. Or possibly if you keep opening it to check on the cake you will have problems.

This recipe (for a raspberry crumble traybake) is v quick and easy. You can buy tin foil tray bake tins from sainsburys now, and leave it for the stall organisers. I've used frozen raspberries when I've cooked it, and not defrosted them. It is forgiving of being overcooked:

allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/24726/raspberry-crumble-squares.aspx

This lemon drizzle cake is super easy and I've made it oh, at least 30 times, without a problem. Needs a food processor. Again, an easy cheat is to get a pack of loaf tin liners so less faffing about getting it in and out of the tin.

allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/24726/raspberry-crumble-squares.aspx

Failing that, some form of fridge cake/tiffin which included some combination of dried fruit/nuts/marshmallows/biscuits/malteasers/glacé cherries bound together with a chocolate butter combination is v easy and a good seller.