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

Looks are everything - so make simple cheap fairy cakes, then cover in water icing and throw sweets at them. If you are organised, you can theme the sweets - eggs/flowers in spring, teeth near halloween, stars near xmas. Or just use whatever is in the cupboard/on offer. If they look like they've been made by the target age group, they seem to sell well.

Do actually take them into school, or your own kids end up eating them them for pudding (yes, I'm bitter).

Key to success: Bright coloured icing and sweets, it has to stand out. Colour is important. Kids love love love bright blue icing (even if mums don't!)

Stick to baking the basics

Don't worry about others judging you - just have fun with your child baking something together - the more home-made cakes and biscuits look, the more appealing they are to me at least.

Combine cakes with prizes! Cupcakes/fairy cakes with a yellow (or smiley face or whatever) sticker on the bottom win a small prize (or win £1 - & don't have too many!). Or every cake has a sticker underneath & green stickers win a sweet (or fancy sticker) & yellow stickers something bigger. You'll sell loads. Beyond that, top with popular kids sweets (maltesers, buttons, dolly mixtures etc) or seasonal cake toppings.

Mars bar rice crispy slices, can add sparkle sugar too.

traybake - the recipe i use it can be made, iced and decorated within an hour

basic sponge, with lots of icing and great sprinkles/sweets on top - i buy the rectangle foil trays when i see them going cheap, so easy to make in them and transport - then they can either sell as one cake or slice it up for individual pieces/or even slice up to sell with tea/coffee

Buy supermarket own brand undecorated cupcakes and decorate them yourselves. Cuts out half the mess and hassle!

Whatever you bake cover it with some fun icing! I make butter cream (marg/butter & icing sugar) you can add in food colouring or chuck sparkles on the top! A lovely friend buys her cupcakes from the shops and just ices them ;D

Vanilla fairy cakes with white icing and Smarties on the top!

MAKE LOTS GIANT CUP CAKES SELL BY THE SLICE LOOK SO PRETTY ON ANY CAKE STAND

Simplicity is best as there are lots of kids out there who like the basics - simple fairy cakes with fairly plain icing and a giant chocolate button on top is always always always a winner.

Rainbow sprinkles hide a multitude of sins, and can make the ugliest cakes look edible! I always keep a supply in the cupboard!

Dispense with the usual niceties, take the own-brand route for ingredients and send items in a box you don't want back.
Aim for garish, lurid decoration with high icing:cake ratio.
This is not the time for understated elegance or top patisserie skills

Make fairy cakes , ice them and top with a lollipop pushed into the cake.

My children's school only allows prebaked cakes purchased from shops - no homemade stuff. They cite health and safety reasons for the decision, ie hygiene and allergy advice.

I always found that the more icing the better. It could look like a dogs dinner but baked goods piled high with mountains of icing sell fast. Even better if the icing is a garish colour and covered in sprinkles.

I used to get my kids to ice the cakes.

Crispie cakes for me too, but if not cupcakes - I like the butterfly ones.

its not a competition who can make the best cakes!!! have a go and you'll be surprised how well they turn out ! im not the best cake maker but mine looked and tasted great and the kids loved the fact d joined in

We are just getting into baking and have found that making chocolate brownies is really quick and straightforward and easy to divide up for a bake sale. We modified Nigella's recipe slightly to fit our tin and it was fine. The tin has to be well greased or alternatively use a foil one to aid removal.
If it is for school fair it is nice to produce something home-made but agree if it is for children to bring money and buy at break-time they do seem to love sweet decorations and so buying supermarket fairy cakes to decorate at home is a good way to go.

I Think rather then lots of large cakes children love smaller cakes could be muffins or just iced bun type cakes cupcakes great with some themes like halloween or christmas also they like the rice krispy type ones

I love reading through all of these tips! They are so funny. I have yet to participate in any kind of bake sale as a parent as my son is not in school yet. When the time comes, I'm sure I will ask my sister for that no bake cookies recipe she has as they require minimal effort but are really tasty!

I do remember liking rice crispie cakes and gingerbread men at my bake sales when I was a kid! I would only buy cakes from my friends, though, as I liked them and trusted their cakes more than other peoples!

I haven't baked in a long time. Nor do I own any baking equipment YET. (One day!) I also have a small kitchen living in a flat. So, if I had to contribute for a bake sale tomorrow, I would probably nip to the closest shop, take them out of the wrapping, warm up, put a few smears on flour on my face and clothes and pretend I had been slaving away all day on them! ;)

I too haven't had the chance to send anything in as my son only started reception last week.

I'd keep any offerings simple - vanilla fairy cakes, chocolate fairy cakes and tray bakes like chocolate concrete. I would probably use ready made icing courtesy of Aunt Bessie and I've got the stamps for use with ready to roll icing - to add something a little different on top (flowers, stars and butterflies.)

I'd use colorful fairy cake cases, label up the ingredients and send things in tubs I don't want back.

In our school the home made stuff sells like....well, hot cakes, and the store bought stuff does not go down well. Anyone who was concerned about the hygiene side wouldn't want to buy the Mr Kiplings after they'd been unpacked and put on plates by the grubby-mitted helpers either.

I try to go for less messy stuff, water icing rather than butter icing, and be aware of the weather, our school fair is inevitably held outside in 29 degree heat. Also if people are buying stuff to take home for tea then they want something transportable.

Nigella's Coca Cola fairy cakes with Coca Cola icing are pretty foolproof and go down well (but see my last top tip at the bottom). If there's going to be a decent number of toddlers and twitchy mums there then I sometimes do Annabel Karmel's oat and raisin cookies, which are nutritionally worthy(ish), not messy, don't melt in the heat, suitable for even tiny PFB toddlers, and incredibly easy to make.

Final top tip is to buy in the cheapest possible ingredients so you are spared the depressing "I should have just slung them a fiver" thought when your pecan and Montezuma clusters are sold for 5p a pop. Sainsburys Basics flour at 55p a kilo, and own brand Cola at half the price of Coke are a good start, and I always keep a stock of Lidl's astonishingly cheap dark chocolate, which makes the economics of the exercise much more logical (they also do very cheap porridge oats). I personally wouldn't compromise on free range eggs though.

Individual small cakes (preferably not baked -crispy cakes are ideal) and definitely "attractive" (I.e. Bright/sparkly) decoration on the top. Petit four cases are a good idea, ad tiny cakes still sell and it is easier and quicker to make them. This is especially so for actual 'cupcakes'.