Bake Sale Report

Hallelujah - camera cord has arrived so I can get back to blogging! It's high time for a bake sale report.

It was a grand success! A little crazy, a little stressful, but a screaming success. Friday, the day before, everybody dropped their goodies off at my house, and amongst all the boxes (we'd been in the house 6 days), a kingly mound of sweets developed on the dining table. Around 8pm my friend Lori came by and we hunkered down to a night of Diet Dr. Pepper, cellophane and ribbon. I printed off return-address size labels for each item, telling name and price, and we individually wrapped several hundred goodies in bags, plus about a dozen loaves.

The next morning I took my baskets, boxes, table cloths, aprons (I'd gone a little project-nuts one day and made iron-on "Carlin Hall" aprons for the Bake Sale workers), and lists and headed to the school. We set up a U-shape under a tent, with goodies on 2 tables, pizza on the third, and coolers of drinks and ice pops on the ground nearby. Someone dug out foamboard posters from the school attic and we hung them up - open for business!
Luckily the weather was perfect! Partly sunny, in the 80's - warm but not too hot. We ordered pizza from Domino's and sold it by the slice, made a killer profit on the water and sodas, and raked it in on the goodies. The other two workers and I were hopping the whole 3 hours of the fair, and I only ever stepped away to call for more pizza or run over to bid at the silent auction. Ed and the girls passed by once in awhile on their way to or from games, and for the occasional treat. By 4 o'clock the fair was over, everything was cleaned up, I was sweaty and had a killer headache, only realizing then that I was probably hungry and dehydrated.
Overall the fair made a record profit, about $2500, and the bake sale make about $400. I've got big plans for next year, like ordering more pizza (we kept running out) and charging more for it (at $1 a slice we only made $1 profit per pizza), rallying more help with the packaging (it took two of us almost three hours), and buying less water (I bought five cases from Costco and only used one.)

But what we really care about is what I made:

Cookies: Lime Meltaways, Chocolate Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies, Molasses Gingersnaps, Peanut Butter Cookies, Mint Surprise Cookies

Bread: Chocolate Zucchini Bread, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread (from a Trader Joe's mix)

Cake: Lethal Peppermint Chocolate Cake

Visit The Virtual Goody Plate over the next week or so to get the recipes I haven't posted yet.

As a side note, the twin-sized quilt my Mom made for the silent auction brought in $150, and we're already planning for next year's. My cookie-of-the-month offering only brought in a disappointing $25 but I scored winning this awesome herb pot for my deck - chives, parsley, rosemary, basil, mint, thyme and oregano, and no work on my part!

Bake Sale Survey Results

Serious thanks to everyone that took my bake sale survey. Unless you signed your name I don't know who took it so general thanks to all 47 people who responded.

In case you are curious, or might be in charge of your own bake sale someday, here are the results:

1. What are you most likely to buy at a bake sale?

Questions 2 through 5 addressed how to price various items; I asked what you would expect to pay for each. Wide range of responses; very interesting. Here are the results:

Cookies (1 large, 2 medium or 4 small) - 55% responded $1

Single slice/bar/square treat - Tie at 38% between 75 cents and $1

Whole loaf of bread - Range $2.50 to $12, Average $4.86 so I'll probably go $5. Most indicated that it would depend somewhat on size and that they would pay more for something "special."

Whole cake or pie - Range $2 to $20, Average $8.46. Some said they would pay more for a cake than a pie, but as you see above only 3% said they would actually buy a whole cake; 11% said they would buy a pie. There's going to be a cake walk at the fun fair where we're having the bake sale so people wanting a cake would probably go for that instead. Someone also said they would pay more for a berry pie than another kind.

The last two questions were open-ended: What is your favorite thing to get at a bake sale and any additional comments. These answers ranged all over the board. Some detested Rice Krispy Treats; others would die for them. Some wanted baklava, others a good chocolate chip cookie. Many claimed they would buy something that's too difficult or complicated to make themselves. The Fun Fair and Bake Sale are on June 6; I will be in the middle of, or just recovering from, a move so I will not be making a lot of complicated goodies - mostly cookies and breads from me, but this was great information for me to pass on to the other parents.

Don'ts
Flat cookies, stale RK treats, poorly decorated cupcakes, oily brownies

Do's
Yeast bread, scones, almond croissant, HUGE cookies, sweet bread, ooey gooey RK treat, killer cherry pie, homemade bread, fudge, baklava, cleverly decorated cookies, brownies with nuts, pie tarts, chocolate-dipped pretzel sticks, soft pretzels, chocolate zucchini bread, anything chocolate, mint frosted brownies, chocolate-caramel-peanut concoctions, black-and-white cookies, pumpkin bread with crystallized ginger, pie, super cupcake, good chocolate chip cookies, whole wheat bread, blondies, oatmeal chocolate chip muffins, zucchini bread, pies with sugar on top, anything with cream cheese or honey butter

One of the most surprising things I found was that some people would expect higher prices at a bake sale, it being a fundraiser and people being generous, and others would expect lower prices at a bake sale - "good price for a good cause," kind of like getting good deals at a yard sale. I created this survey in the hope of neither underpricing nor overpricing our products, but in general I agree with the first sentiment. The whole point of a fundraiser is to raise money, so as a customer I would shell out a dollar or two more than at the bakery.

But I also wholeheartedly agree with the comments that addressed product quality; attractive, fresh, homemade treats should sell themselves at higher prices than re-pacakged Chips Ahoy cookies or oily brownies straight from the mix. I won't have total control over this; every family will be contributing items for the sale, but I am going to share the survey results with everyone and encourage quality over quantity. I'm also going to package and label all the items myself so they are uniform - clear cellophane tied with a ribbon and a computer-printed label and price on each. Someone also mentioned the workers should wear disposable gloves. I hadn't thought of that since all the food will be packaged but I agree it's a good idea; if nothing else it looks good!

Thank you to everyone for all your input!