School fete bestseller...

THIRZAH

I make tray bakes . Mary Berry's book of cakes has some good ones and a chapter on making cakes for fetes etc.I usually do a couple of fruit loaves too.They are fairly solid so people can carry them home easily. Iced cakes can be difficult to transport safely.

We have problems with pricing too. The President of our WI likes people to price cakes before they bring them to the fete but then you can end up with a small cake priced at £2 and an enormous one priced at £1.50!

I was really pleased this week though. I'd made some blackcurrant jam with fruit from the freezer for a cake stall. A woman I know bought a jar. She actually came into the shop where I work to ask if I had any more as it was so nice!

MATH

This having to stop selling HM cakes is stupid. Who will buy a shop-bought cake from a fete, they could get the same thing at tesco! It's the fact no-one has time to bake that attracts them to cake stalls.

We have a cake stall at our church Christmas Fayre and it can sell £200-300 pounds worth of cakes in pre-orders alone and then an additional £200 worth of cake on the day. The stall is only open for 30 mins or so before all the cakes have gone and it has to close.

llac

Tablet- but maybe this is just a scottish thing!- always sells well . I'm sure the folk in Asda think my family must have very sweet tooths when I load up for a tablet making session. Next two weekends require vast quantities so I'll be getting funny looks again!!

dannahaz

daysieblue wrote: »

I understand this frustration. The school that I'm on the PA for has now decided that we can no longer allow HM cakes due to H&S, food hygiene, allergy concerns and healthy school status. So if we want to maintain our cake stall we have to ask parents to supply shop bought cakes. So what do we do, under charge and make the donating parent resentful because they're donation just became worth-less? Over charge and have a resentful purchaser who knows they can get the cake at the Tesco down the road for a pound cheaper, or charge the same, which seems to make no sense!

Grrr !! :mad:

SAsk the PA how many poisonings have happened as a result of people eating HM cakes from a cake stall?

Pathetic!

dlb

We have a homemade cake stall, and as Maths said it is sold out within half hour, we got round the H+S issue by asking parents to put a sticker on item stating ingredents ans who made it.
The school cook always cooks loads of school pudding type items too, the chewy biscuits ,flapjack and they always sell out first.

beemuzed

daysieblue wrote: »

I understand this frustration. The school that I'm on the PA for has now decided that we can no longer allow HM cakes due to H&S, food hygiene, allergy concerns and healthy school status. So if we want to maintain our cake stall we have to ask parents to supply shop bought cakes. So what do we do, under charge and make the donating parent resentful because they're donation just became worth-less? Over charge and have a resentful purchaser who knows they can get the cake at the Tesco down the road for a pound cheaper, or charge the same, which seems to make no sense!

Grrr !! :mad:

Yes, well, I am aware that I should be telling my PTA this - but I decided that it was H&S being too OTT for their own good. Therefore I waved the bit of paper around at a meeting and have now safely filed it away, never to be seen again! Must admit we do have an anti-nut policy as we have a child with very bad nut allergy, but again, for cake sales, so long as cakes with nuts are wrapped and stay that way on school premises, we allow them. Parents moaned at first about the nut ban in packed lunches - but as they know the child they are sympathetic - after all, could so easily be theirs! What they sometimes don't realise is that the ban applies to staff too, which for veggies amongst us is also a sacrifice! But where would we be if we really banned all home-made cakes at sales? It's always the stall to clear first!

spiddy100

I am about to embark on baking for my DS1's preschool fair - my first ever PTA experience

I'm making a chocolatey tray bake and a banana cake with cream cheese icing. Just wondered how people normally wrap the cakes for the stall? I thought I would divide the tray bake into portions and wrap each in some cellophane I've got, but wasn't sure about the banana one. Do people buy a whole cake or a chunk? Would a freezer bag cut it or should it be wrapped in something more decorative? How to stop the icing sticking to the wrapper?

daysieblue

dannahaz wrote: »

SAsk the PA how many poisonings have happened as a result of people eating HM cakes from a cake stall?

Pathetic!

I know!!! I'm actually on the PA, and the Head was at the last meeting, and it has come directly from him!!!! The meeting's at my house next time, so whilst on home territory I might just print this thread out and get them all to have a look! Last year we had a mum make a really delicious cake. She's really crafty so she wrapped it in greasproof paper, then in brown paper with string and twigs and stuff, and it looked great too. One cake she wrapped in cellophane and a parent paid £10 for it!!!! We only charged £5, but she gave us a tenner and wouldn't take the change! (Not very MSE, I know!)

I think we are as a society becoming too scared of things going wrong, and far too easy to blame someone else. Like someone said if it's wrapped and has a list of ingredients, what's the problem?

db xx

Aril

The HM cakes on our cake stall always go first. Our only stipulation is that they are nut free as the school operates a nut free policy [one of the pupils is allergic]. At the Christmas Bazaar I donated one of those famous weetabix cakes [it means I can just whip one out of the freezer] and it sold!! Didn't hear of anyone dropping dead so assume they must have survived my baking. Usually it's chocolate crunchies because they're quick and the small person forgets to tell me until the night before that cakes are required:rolleyes:
Aril

Mado

llac wrote: »

Tablet- but maybe this is just a scottish thing!- always sells well . I'm sure the folk in Asda think my family must have very sweet tooths when I load up for a tablet making session. Next two weekends require vast quantities so I'll be getting funny looks again!!

Sorry... I don't know what tablet is. Recipe anywhere?:D