What are your top tips for the school cake sale? Tell Flora for the chance to win a £200 John Lewis voucher. NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

With school starting up again and cake sales coming up, Flora would love to hear about Mumsnetters' tips for the school cake sale.

Here's what Flora have to say: “We know that the school cake sale can sometimes be a battleground but Flora is here to offer a helping hand. Baking with Flora Buttery couldn’t be simpler- just 5 ingredients and 15 minutes is all it takes. All it takes is a bowl and spoon! You can even get the kids to help for easy peasy baking fun and tasty sell out cakes every time!”

So, what are your top tips for the school cake sale? Do you have any simple fail-safe cake recipes which you know will sell well? Do you like to bake with your DCs? Perhaps you prefer to buy cakes? Are there any cake sale favourites which have surprised you?

Do you have any tips for navigating cake stand politics? What are the pricing policies in place at your DCs' school? What tips do you have for getting as many parents involved as possible?

Whatever your top tips are, Flora would love to hear about it.

Everyone who posts on this thread will be entered into a prize draw where one winner will receive a £200 John Lewis voucher.

Please note your comments may be included on Flora's social media channels, and possibly elsewhere, so please only post if you're comfortable with this.

Thanks and good luck,
MNHQ

I think any cake sell include nuts need to display on so everyone aware of it. Flapjack is so yummy as it is simple and tasty :P

Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate - the more of it, the better.

My son has just started school so I'm watching this with interest! My experience of the nursery and nct cake sales doesn't come close to what I've heard of the school cake sales where they raise £900! I make something which isn't meant to look perfect, that way if it goes a little wrong I won't end up wasting it or looking silly.
I often make a chocolate biscuit cake, crushed up rich tea fingers, melted butter, cherries and raisins mixed into melted chocolate and put in a cake tin to chill overnight. Decorate with cherries on the top. I also make banana bread and use several recipes, mainly found on Mumsnet. Last time I had to make a cake for the NCT sale I had some Flora to review for Mumsnet and I have to say I'm converted now - it's much, much easier to mix than normal butter in a block which I used to use. I also often make chocolate cookies which always seem to go down well and are a little different. Obviously not everyone wants to buy fairy cakes although that's what I always choose for myself. I always use the best eggs I can buy, flora buttery and then chocolate whichever brand is on special offer. Regarding pricing I bought back my own cake from the last nursery sale to please my husband and it was £7! I would expect to pay 50p for a fairy cake and up to £1.50 for a slice of nice looking Victoria sponge.

Rice crispy treats - quick, cheap easy & always a crowd pleaser. I put multicoloured mini marshmallows on top and the kids like it.

Watch how much you spend on the making the cakes. When you add it up. it would be cheaper to give them £5, as the cost of making the cakes is more than they sell them for

tray bakes are quite good and easy and all you need to do is sprinkle some sweets or melted choco on the top and can get alot of portions from the one tray bake cake :)

colorful icing does the trick usually

I agree that mini cupcakes are good. A good chance to get DD involved in baking and quick and easy to make. It would probably be cheaper to just give the cost of the ingredients to the school, but the baking is far more fun

Rice crispy or cornflake chocolate cakes with sprinkles or marshmallows, individual brownies are good to

Has to be brownies, not the nearly raw modern version, but the crip topped, moist centred old school version. Otherwise marble cake in one of those ring shaped tins, sliced up. Kids loved multicloured cake, you can marble whichever colours you fancy!

I make vanilla cupcakes, having seen the prices they sell for I don't use expensive ingredients ie basic range flour, chocolate. I decorate with melted chocolate, brightly coloured icing sugar with sweets on top. The brightly coloured decorated versions tend to sell well.

Make a big tray bake that you been cut into kiddy size pieces. Our make something a bit different for the adults - I recently made some cinnamon buns and they went down well.

My top 10 tips that really work to maximise profit are:-

1.Avoid selling big cakes, instead slice these and charge an amount per slice, you will make much more money this way than trying to sell as one big cake.

1. Make a variety of cupcakes, small bakes and always include chocolate bakes!
2. Make loaf cakes as these can easily be sliced.
3. Choose easy recipes so that you can make more.
4. Think what children like, the addition of sprinkles, little sweets, character toppers will attract those little tasters!
5. Display cupcakes on cake stands, which you can quickly re-fill.
6. Have plenty of bags at your disposal so that people can take any cakes home.
7. Provide paper plates/paper serviettes for 'eating in'.
8. Always consider display. Put doilies on plates, display at different levels and label cakes with both prices and what they are.

10. Offer taster samples e.g. of certain cakes such as Lemon Drizzle....you will sell more slices once people realise how delicious the cake is.

I usually go with a tray bake to be cost effective - flapjack or biscuit base then top with caramel & chocolate on top then finish with mini smarties/jelly beans/sparkly star sprinkles

The kids like to feel they are getting more so you can cut it up into bite size squares and put into clear bags and charge 50p instead of a bigger chunk for 20p to raise more for the school

Agreed with chocolate brownies.. mmmm :) Nicely decorated cupcakes and chocolate cornflake cakes always used to be popular too :D

Make cherry cakes, kids love them. Just make sure you flour the cherries before missing them into the batter so they don't sink.

Make your cakes unique, don't do what everyone else is doing.

Use real organic butter rather than flora. Healthier and tastier.

Keep it simple - it doesn't have to be elaborate. Everyone loves crispy buns!

Charge more than 20p, people will pay more for home made cakes

make small cakes, that are bite size so can be eaten with one bite. cheap and fast

One idea I have is to make batches of sandwich cakes in different flavours, and decorated.
Once done cut each one into 4, then place 4 different flavours onto one paper plate, making 4 flavoured sandwich cakes.
This means that the 'buyers' get more choice, and time is saved by wondering what to buy, and they are all wrapped up ready to go

1. Assess how much time you have:-

• no time? Buy cakes from supermarket e.g a sponge cake and cut it up and box it in your own Tupperware/ buy plain fairy cakes and ice them yourself.
• limited time? This is where your fail safe box of cake mix comes in handy.
• some time? Bake chocolate brownies/fairy cakes from scratch. Use the best quality products your budget allows (e.g flora buttery, free range eggs) and never deviate from the recipe when it comes to measurements.

Make a gluten-free option...these are big sellers in my area!

make white rice crispy cakes with marshmallow and cover in edible glitter. Irresistible and easy!