Bake sale impaired

[Cusina]

The old fashioned bake sale is a vanishing thing, I know, gone the way of home-made halloween treats. However, I have one to contribute to today for my son's pre-school.

I seem to have some sort of mental blockage. Usually I can come up with something, but I'm out of ideas. I read through this amazing brownie thread and there are some excellent recipes in there, but I'm hesitating. $10 worth of ingredients seems like far too much as I know they will sell them for much less than that. And I can't bring myself to use crappy chocolate and crisco. Hershy heresy.

Any ideas? What do you make if asked to contribute something to sell? I'll resort to rice krispy treats topped with ganache (and valentine sprinkles) if all else fails, but I thought you all might have better ideas. It would be nice if the recipe were simple enough to have my pre-schooler help with the making too.

[Viola da gamba]

It's boring, I know, but peanut butter chocolate chip cookies always seem to sell. Particularly if you're generous with the chocolate chips.

If you're worried about peanut butter allergies, I've also made chocolate chip (or smartie - if you want more colour) shortbread and it seemed to sell.

[daniellewiley]

You need to make it today, or tonight? I have a great, easy recipe for a bar cookie called Pierres. The recipe is from my Grandma Ana, and they are these little cakes topped with chocolate chips and powdered sugar. Definitely easy enough for a preschooler to help with. But, the recipe is at home, and I won't be there till later tonight.

Could you do some sort of mandelbread? I make one with brickel (toffee chips) instead of chocolate chips that is wonderful. I think something with chocolate, though, would sell better.

[therese]

Cupcakes pretty much fly off the bakesale table. Yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting are the big winners around here.

Easy to make, and easy to handle (bake them in the little pleated cups, of course). Your pre-schooler can definitely help with this project.

[Cusina]

Please do post that recipe Danielle. Even if I don't use it today, I'll give it a try in the future.

Chocolate peanut butter is a good idea. Maybe these would work? link!

I wish there were a picture. I'm not sure how visually appealing they would be.

[daniellewiley]

I thought of another idea after seeing the cupcake post.

What about cupcakes baked in ice cream cones? I always bake them for my daughter's birthday party at preschool, and everyone loves them (even the teachers). You can use any cake recipe and decorate them to look like ice cream cones with a little cherry on the top, or those Valentine's sprinkles.

I'll post the Pierres recipe tonight. Please PM me a reminder if I forget. I'm forgetting a lot lately.

[highchef]

Sounds like it's not the baking required, you're just bored with the same ol same ol. Tomorrow is Fat Tuesday, A king cake would be appropriate and they're not difficult to do. If you want to get into it, get a good potica recipe and shape and sugar to make it a king cake. don't forget the bean/baby. King cake can be as good or as bad as you make the effort for it to be. If kids are eating it, I'd just make a big cinnamon bread roll, but if adults are tempted to lay out some cash, do it up right with the potica recipe...mine is from McCall's cooking school and it's great!

[Lone Star]

These always sell out at bake sales:

Rice Krispie Peanut Butter Treats

1 cup Karo

1 cup sugar

1 cup peanut butter

Heat in saucepan til bubbles surface.

Pour a box of Rice Krispies into a large bowl, and pour peanut butter mixture over and mix (careful - its hot!). Pat into pan with buttered hands. Cut into squares when cool.

[Rachel Perlow]

What about chocolate chip cookies? That's bake sale standard, I thought.

[Cusina]

Thanks for all the ideas.

Rachel, yes, the standard is chocolate chip cookies and rice krispy bars and there are always lots there. I feel like some variety would be a good thing. Perhaps highchef is right too, I'm bored with the usual and was curious what the eGullet style bake sale table would hold.

I like the cupcakes in ice cream molds idea... but worry that they will be too fragile for the sale. Hmm. Maybe peanut butter cup cookies in mini muffin pans.

[NulloModo]

A nice spice cake could be fun, or even better yet a jamaican black rum cake. Heck, anything soaked in liquor is bound to be a hot item.

[therese]

A nice spice cake could be fun, or even better yet a jamaican black rum cake.  Heck, anything soaked in liquor is bound to be a hot item.

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Heh. It's pre-school. But then, come to think of it, these kids don't actually have any money of their own, so it'll be the parents doing the buying.

In which case maybe they'd do better to just set up a bar. They couldn't actually sell drinks, of course, but they could charge admission to a gallery showing of sorts and give the drinks away.

[NulloModo]

Oh whoops, somehow missed the pre-school comment. Oh well, a black rum cake made with rum flavoring instead of rum could still be very good.

[CompassRose]

I will only add from sad experience that unless your proposed customers are a far cry from the usual bake-sale lot, you may find your unusual, not immediately recognisable items will be scorned in favour of the easily-identifiable chocolate chip cookies and Rice Krispie Treats. That strange-lookin' stuff might have something weird in it! Something funny-tasting!

If you want to do something a little out of the ordinary, use the offerings of your local Starbucks equivalent as a guide; I usually have success (after my initial non-successes) with more unusual types of squares cut large and individually wrapped.

[Cusina]

heh, I'll bet a fair number of those pre-school mommies could use a little rum soaked something! However, I think I'm better off avoiding the front page of my small town newspaper and skipping the alcohol soaked baked goods.

Starbucks look alikes are a good idea... think I have the recipe for those cranberry bliss bars around here somewhere. Thanks for that idea.

I ended up using the chocolate peanut butter idea. Mini-muffin cup peanut butter cookies, with a mini peanut butter cup heart pressed into the top of each one after it had cooled for a minute or two. They're cute and obviously "normal", I hope. CompassRose hit it on the head. It's not the baking that is the issue, it's coming up with something that would tempt your average YMCA visitor to pick up and take home. Hopefully they'll sell well.

[momlovestocook]

I second the cupcakes in ice cream cones. I've made them and they are not delicate. I just cooked them in muffin tins to keep them from tipping over. One way to transport is to cut holes in the bottom of shoe boxes and pop the cupcakes in there. I know it's not "baking" but kids love gummy things on bamboo sticks. The cost is fairly low and people will pay a dollar for one at the local farmer's market. You can even take that idea and scale it down to top the cupcakes. Put a couple of gummy candies on tooth picks and stick them on top on the cupcakes.

I made a couple brownie pizzas for my dd's end of school bbq in June. You can also make the pizza using cookie dough.

Sandra

[Rachel Perlow]

Might I suggest that anything with peanuts in them be individually wrapped? If there's a chance of contaminating a non-peanut item, they may have to be tossed, in this day and age of so many kids being deathly allergic.

[snowangel]

Another idea. Those peanut butter cookies with a Hershey kiss on them. Easy for a child to help with. They sell.

The gourmet stuff doesn't sell at these things. It's a kid yanking on mom going "buy this, buy this." Trust me.

[patti]

Kids want their parents to buy cookies, but us parents don't mind buying generous slices of layer cake, like coconut with lemon filling, or chocolate chocolate chocolate.

[lcdm]

What about some kind of bar cookies? I usually see some kind of bar cookie with the chocolate chips and coconut on top. Maybe some lemon squares? If you make cupcakes after you frost you could add crushed oreo cookie crumbs (dirt) and top with a gummy worm. Brownies, choc chip cookies, rice crispie treats (with m&m's) and fudge are also a big hit.

[andiesenji]

For future reference:

As a veteran of hundreds of bake sales for the kid's schools, raising money for band uniforms, game trips and everything else you can imagine, I can tell you that the #1 biggest seller was chocolate chip cookies, the Toll House variety, no nuts!

Because of the problem with peanut allergies, the instructions specified nothing with peanuts. Other nuts were okay as long as the things were labeled.

Since so many people made the choc chip cookies, I always made something different.

The #2 biggest sellers were Banana Walnut or Banana Pecan muffins and I usually made 6 dozen, wrapped them individually and they always sold out early.

The #3 sellers were cinnamon rolls, without icing, usually with a cinnamon/sugar sprinkle on top and again, individually wrapped, except some people baked them in round cake pans and those were sold entire as pull-aparts.

The slowest things to go were the whole cakes, especially those with icing so you couldn't see what was in them.

Slices of Bundt cakes, individually wrapped, sold well, particularly the dark chocolate ones.

The small square tea cakes with strusel topping also were good sellers. I made them in regular cupcake liners, just reshaped to fit the square tins.

The things have to be readily identifiable and recognizable to the buyers. Anything that looks unusual or too covered, was ignored. However there are exceptions and you can create customers by offering samples.

One year I made 10 loaves of "Monkey Bread" in regular disposable aluminum loaf pans.

I took one apart and cut it into bite size pieces and offered them as samples.

One lady bought 1 loaf, then came back half an hour later and bought the last 2.

The next bake sale I made 20 and people were buying them 2 at a time.

(I did not pay for all the ingredients myself, some of the moms who did not bake or had jobs that prevented them from doing so, bought the ingredients and I did the baking, lest you think that I was being super generous - this simply insured that we had enough stuff to make the sales worthwhile.)

[Marlene]

If this is for children, you may want to make sure whatever you make is nut free. Or atr least check on nut allergies. I always made cupcakes for my son's pre school. Decorated wih lots of sprinkles and fun stuff for the little ones.

[cakewalk]

One year I made 10 loaves of "Monkey Bread" in regular disposable aluminum loaf pans.

I took one apart and cut it into bite size pieces and offered them as samples.

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What is monkey bread? Do you have a recipe you're willing to share?

We're planning a bake sale as part of a fundraiser in my synagogue this summer, so I've been avidly reading this thread for ideas. Many thanks.

[Cusina]

I did wrap the little PB cookie things separately (6 per small plate) and labeled them very clearly as "Peanut Butter Blossoms". Just in case. I definitely don't want to trigger any allergies.

Thanks for all the responses! You guys are full of good ideas.

[andiesenji]

One year I made 10 loaves of "Monkey Bread" in regular disposable aluminum loaf pans.

I took one apart and cut it into bite size pieces and offered them as samples.

←

What is monkey bread? Do you have a recipe you're willing to share?

We're planning a bake sale as part of a fundraiser in my synagogue this summer, so I've been avidly reading this thread for ideas. Many thanks.

←

Monkey bread is simply made from a light bread dough, I usually use a brioche dough, that is separated after the initial rise, into small pieces, (I squeeze it between my palm and base of my thumb in my left hand so a golf-ball-sized bit oozes out) twist or pinch the place where they pull away from the dough mass. Then each piece is dipped into melted butter and packed into a loaf or ring pan until the pan is 2/3 full.

Then the top is brushed with more melted butter and it is baked.

If I want is a little sweet, after dipping in the melted butter, each piece is rolled in a mixture of cinnamon/sugar and then packed in the pan.

This comes out like a pull-apart loaf, with each, very rich morsel separating from the main part of the loaf and is usually eaten this way instead of being sliced.

Any type of bread dough can be used and is vastly improved by the application of melted butter.

Here is a recipe on the web:

Monkey bread

Edited February 8, 2005 by andiesenji (log)