Cheap popular bakes for a bake sale??

[FusionChefGeoff]

in your experience what sells well but can be made relatively cheaply?? Butter is soooo expensive these days - can I make a buttercream but with a rapeseed spread?? My brownies recipe bankrupts me every time so if anyone has a cheap and cheerful option?? DD made some lovely cookies at the weekend but they also used a lot of butter…

Flapjacks cheap oats but do they sell??? Kids like the heavy icing usually I think??!

help me lovely bakers!!

Chocolate crispies are very popular at ours. Tbh anything chocolate and anything that is single portion sizes, eg cupcakes.

I just melt chocolate (200g per 12 crispies) and pour in cheap cornflakes. Total cost less then 2 quid.

I'm finding more and more that the individually wrapped shop bought cakes sell best. Or Cookies.

Depression cake.... no eggs, butter. Put your money into the frosting.

https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/chocolate-coconut-slice/cec8f686-3efd-4511-8d5c-cf56bfbd7f36

This is extremely simple and cheap to make. Best bit is if you use margarine then it’s vegan, egg and dairy free.

Of course! I’d completely forgotten about chocolate crispies / cornflakes this is a great idea

Oooh and I like the weetabix idea - there’s a theme here! Is the coconut optional @applegingermintdo you think as that could put some people off?

I’ve never made it without coconut but you could try using rolled oats maybe? I’d blitz in the food processor very briefly if they’re jumbo oats. You would likely need to add a little bit of water to the mixture as it needs to come together rather than crumbly.

It’s an extremely old fashioned housewife recipe for Australians, the kind of thing your granny would whip up, so thrifty to make.

250g block of Sainsburys / Tesco butter is £2. I’d use that rather than any rapseed oil substitute.

For cupcakes you could use 125g for 10 large cupcakes - and 125 g for some butter icing. And stick some other sort of decoration on top (smarties, dolly mix, strawberry, malteaser… whatever!). I don’t find that butter is over the top expensive unless it’s branded.

A really easy/simple rocky road. Never followed a recipe, just mix equal parts butter (just get the shop value one, they aren’t that much) with melted milk choc (again, shops own brand) and mix in some mini marshmallows and bashed up crunchie bars. Leave in the fridge to set, then cut into slices. It’s so yummy!

Lidl, then get the kids to hit them before packaging.

Game changer was allocating to DH.

But it's a bake sale? You're not going to lose the money selling by the slice. Just buy the butter!

Use stork for cakes 🍰 especially a bake sale. Just make a tray bake of a sponge cake and cover with icing and sprinkles it’s called a School cake I think

Look for a sponge recipe made with oil instead of butter.

I make this regularly, it's really nice!

I'd Just go with the butter. Its £2. Id avoid chocolate as that's expensive at the moment. There's always a ridiculous amount of cakes at these things, so just take 6 cakes, it's enough, even if only half the parents donate.

The most popular & easiest bake I do is a Biscoff Cake - only 4 ingredients.
1 jar of Biscoff, baking powder, eggs & Biscoff biscuits to Decorate. That’s it!
https://claytonscookbook.com/3-ingredient-biscoff-cake/

And this is a great vegan brownie recipe that everyone loves:
https://www.janespatisserie.com/2019/01/12/vegan-brownies/

I have a lovely choc cake recipe using marg. Decorate with blue, silver and white snow flakes and you have Elsa cakes. Sell out if infant school! Otherwise a choc fudge icing with cream, sugar and cheap plain choc. Just make a large rectangle cake and ice the top as a tray bake.

Good food have a basic muffins recipe that uses oil and no butter. You can also make carrot cake with oil.

Vanilla sponge traybake with water icing and sprinkles. Cut into squares and call it school cake.

Do you know anyone with a pear or apple tree to get free fruit or old bananas in your house? Apple or pear pie, slice, banana bread etc?

These do have butter but a vegetable substitute might work too.
-https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/jam-drops/5191d331-0df9-4312-9cd0-5c1e188989b8?r=baking/mkm05mdk I've made these with strawberry, raspberry and also lemon curd in the centre
-https://bakeplaysmile.com/chocolate-hedgehog-slice-no-bake/ Remove the nuts to save money and allergies
-https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/raspberry-jam-coconut-slice/93504c61-43a9-4692-b57b-eb95171bff24

Or no butter
-https://kitchenbyannak.com/recipe/homemade-toasted-coconut-marshmallows/
-https://inquiringchef.com/easy-vanilla-snack-cake/
-https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/easy_chocolate_cake_31070
-https://thebigmansworld.com/3-ingredient-fudge/

My muffin recipes don't use butter. I have recipes for most flavours which I can pull out if you want.

Flapjacks do use butter but aren't super expensive and are jolly easy.

I have a recipe for chocolate cake that doesn't use butter (rapeseed oil and some golden syrup instead). My buttercream recipe only uses 2 oz butter to 8 oz sugar and I think 1 oz cocoa. But obviously if you need to buy a tin of cocoa and a tin of golden syrup and won't use the rest of them that does not act as a cheap recipe!

Basic decent brownies with no butter in, they also happen to be vegan unless you find it easier to swap milk for the soy milk in the recipe:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/chocolatebrownies_83803

It’s a tad dry so I personally like to add an egg as well, or you can add a smidge more milk. If you want to make them feel fancier you can add something like dried cranberries (£1.25 at Aldi at the moment) or frozen berries which will thaw as you cook it and add extra moistness.

Banana bread is another good one for cheapness, a couple of brown bananas and you’re in business and you can make it with oil easily. Fancy it up with icing sugar and/or sprinkles or a sliced slightly fresher banana that you lay on top or just sprinkle the top with coarse sugar before it goes in the oven, will look pretty when done.

I made about 40 chocolate crispy cakes with mini marshmallows and sprinkles on top and they all went!! Thanks I love all these ideas so will be baking more in the future