FRC We are just cheap in these parts, I guess!

dawnnys

Well-known member
Harvest bazaar/bake salers beware! It's so frustrating dealing with bake sales, I have to vent. I am taking a break from working at a bake sale where the nicely packaged homemade blueberry muffins (not mini, but large, not huge) are priced at 2 for a quarter, and they are not moving! A beautiful pumpkin pie is just sitting there with a price tag of $5 too. Coconut cupcakes are all lined up in a box as nicely as when they arrived. I didn't make either - my checkerboard cake went quickly, luckily.

I still think the wisest thing I ever contributed was Glad Wrap, however... it just doesn't pay most times. Arrrggghh, bah humbug. Maybe everyone is on a diet.

 
Those items must cost more just to make them. That means that...

Not only is the baker donating the difference but also the time & effort. Better just to have that person donate the cash & save everyone the trouble of even holding a bake sale.
Otherwise, charge more!

 
WOW - That's terrible. But things times are tough all over. My stepdaughter's husband's computer

place in Texas shut down with a weeks notice. The company is moving to China. (There aught to be a law against this.) Our bazaar is next Saturday (Halloween). I'll let you know how we make out. Our bake goods are mostly European pastries. For instance, last year we sold butter kipfils two for a dollar. They are pricey to make and they went like hot cakes. I'll let you know how we do this year. Muffins at Pastry shops hereare selling for 80 cents for smaller ones and $1.00 plus for large one. (Wind.Ont.Can)

 
I'm sorry you had such a bad time, who knows what makes a sale at a bake sale. What

is a checkerboard cake?

 
I ran inro the same thing with the Basket raffle at work

(run by Cystic Fibrosis employees so our company legal department can't get their knickers all twisted up.)

Raffle tickets cost $1 a piece and a paper bag is placed in front of each basket or gift offering. My baskets each cost me at least $60 in supplies and I make/donate four of them. Last year I noticed there were only about 10 tickets in my paper bag right before the drawing. So I asked the CF folks if I should even bother making baskets? Or should I just cut them a check for $250?

She said they prefer baskets because they draw foot traffic and attention during the 2-day raffle. With 150 baskets and corporate gift card donations, CF raised over $8,000.

So while my 4 baskets may have only raised $50-$60 for CF, the number of opportunites to win "something" increased. So more raffle tickets are bought.

 
Not just bake sales...

I run into that same thing when I do craft shows.
I would be rich if I had a dime for each person who picks up a piece I made (pottery) and makes saucer-eyes at the price.

I frequently hear "I could buy that at WalMart for $5".

I just shrug.

 
We just returned from the Texas Clay Festival in Gruene (pronounced, "Green".

I must say, the prices were high, but folks were buying! Maybe because the location is very "artsy", the prices weren't surprises. The place was mobbed and the restaurants were full to a one hour wait. Only there for the pottery, we went on out to the Outlet Mall at San Marcos, which was mobbed as well! Money is being spent in Texas, I just don't know where folks are getting it!!!

I should check out the bake sale prices. Just for the sake of comparison!

 
And you can't even tell it's a checkerboard cake until you cut into it! Did people know what it was?

 
Hi Kendall. A checkerboard cake is a 3-layer cake that is baked in

pans where you add a divider thingie before you pour the batter(s) in. The first layer is orange-chocolate-orange, and the second is chocolate-orange-chocolate; the third layer is a repeat of the first. So when you cut into it, you get alternating colors of cake.

It's hard to explain, but easy to do with the right equipment.

 
Me too - I had a little sign on it with a cartoon of a checkboard cake

and a title "Chocolate-Orange Checkerboard Cake". I thought about slicing it, and selling it by the piece (I've heard that you can get more than selling it whole, too) but I couldn't bear to cut into it after I made it. Good thing because the woman who bought it got it because she needed a cake to take to a party that night. She was thrilled. (And it sold for $5.)

 
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