What works well for bake sales? :O

[misleading space shibe]

I have run bake sales in the past for this same club, and I do have the stats for them; but I'm always looking for new ideas. biggrin And possibly some tips.
(Also, I'm in college.)

If you've run bake sales, what sold really well?
My only option to bring cupcakes is me getting a cupcake case, isn't it? >_>

If you haven't run bake sales, what would you expect to see at a bake sale? What wouldn't you expect to see, and you'd be really happy to see and would totally buy? (For reference, our prices are normally 75 cents to $1)

For a normal-sized cupcake, what would you be willing to pay?

GLUTEN-FREE OPTIONS: If you have to follow a gluten-free diet, what would you like? I've seen a few things here & there that I'm totally capable of making, but there's no point if no one's gonna buy it. I'd prefer to be able to make it from scratch. The mixes at the store seem pretty pricey for something there's a small market for, but there is a market for.

My bake sale experience here:

We did pretty well and generally made around at least $50ish per bake sale, which is kinda...low. I'm at a commuter school, so it's a bit hard sometimes.
Aside from that, the one things that sold amazingly ALWAYS
ALWAYSSSSS
were cupcakes.
Provided they were "normal" cupcakes. My red velvet cupcakes sold like a dream. biggrin
Cookies usually sold, but that always varied. I plan on making peanut butter cookies and double chocolate cookies, to help with "I WANT PB" or "I WANT CHOCOLATE" people. >_>

[this rainbow lover]

Brownies. Last time I walked past a college bake sale, the brownies were the lowest. And I bought the three that were left, and they were perfect <3

[MarigoldMari]

Rice Krispies squares are easy to make (and cheap to make) and you can make them really colorful and appealing to the eye with rainbow sprinkles in the mix. If you dip them in chocolate that's even cooler.

You can also make cake pops with less batter than a normal cupcake, fancy them up with pretty frostings/chocolate dip and sell them for more than a cupcake and the "so unique, wow, I never had one of those before/I love those!" factor could sell you a lot more. If you're making chocolate cake ones, you can crush Oreos and put them into the cake batter before baking so that when people bite into them they've got that extra dark chocolate crunch.

You can also make your own chocolates pretty easily by buying a metal mold sheet that you can use over and over again. Bonus: you can make them into chocolate lollipops that people will buy due to the "wow, I never see those" factor.

Make cookies and press mini Reese's cups into the centers for those people with the PB jones. It works.

Dip Oreo cookies in chocolate that hardens into a shell to make chocolate dipped Oreos. Talk about cheap to make and seller. Two for a dollar and you've got a success. You can fancy them up with chocolate or rainbow sprinkles sprinkled on top of the chocolate while its hardening.

A lot of this requires you to melt your own chocolate. Its really easy to do.

[misleading space shibe]

MarigoldMari

Rice Krispies squares are easy to make (and cheap to make) and you can make them really colorful and appealing to the eye with rainbow sprinkles in the mix. If you dip them in chocolate that's even cooler.

You can also make cake pops with less batter than a normal cupcake, fancy them up with pretty frostings/chocolate dip and sell them for more than a cupcake and the "so unique, wow, I never had one of those before/I love those!" factor could sell you a lot more. If you're making chocolate cake ones, you can crush Oreos and put them into the cake batter before baking so that when people bite into them they've got that extra dark chocolate crunch.

You can also make your own chocolates pretty easily by buying a metal mold sheet that you can use over and over again. Bonus: you can make them into chocolate lollipops that people will buy due to the "wow, I never see those" factor.

Make cookies and press mini Reese's cups into the centers for those people with the PB jones. It works.

Dip Oreo cookies in chocolate that hardens into a shell to make chocolate dipped Oreos. Talk about cheap to make and seller. Two for a dollar and you've got a success. You can fancy them up with chocolate or rainbow sprinkles sprinkled on top of the chocolate while its hardening.

A lot of this requires you to melt your own chocolate. Its really easy to do.

emotion_kirakira These were fantastic suggestions! biggrin I'll throw the easier ones at the other club members.
Thank you for reminding me about cake pops. I've seen other clubs do them. And these are farrr easier to transport than actual cupcakes. I don't really want to invest in a cupcake carrier. .______.

[MarigoldMari]

Magical Miss Alice Jae

MarigoldMari

Rice Krispies squares are easy to make (and cheap to make) and you can make them really colorful and appealing to the eye with rainbow sprinkles in the mix. If you dip them in chocolate that's even cooler.

You can also make cake pops with less batter than a normal cupcake, fancy them up with pretty frostings/chocolate dip and sell them for more than a cupcake and the "so unique, wow, I never had one of those before/I love those!" factor could sell you a lot more. If you're making chocolate cake ones, you can crush Oreos and put them into the cake batter before baking so that when people bite into them they've got that extra dark chocolate crunch.

You can also make your own chocolates pretty easily by buying a metal mold sheet that you can use over and over again. Bonus: you can make them into chocolate lollipops that people will buy due to the "wow, I never see those" factor.

Make cookies and press mini Reese's cups into the centers for those people with the PB jones. It works.

Dip Oreo cookies in chocolate that hardens into a shell to make chocolate dipped Oreos. Talk about cheap to make and seller. Two for a dollar and you've got a success. You can fancy them up with chocolate or rainbow sprinkles sprinkled on top of the chocolate while its hardening.

A lot of this requires you to melt your own chocolate. Its really easy to do.

emotion_kirakira These were fantastic suggestions! biggrin I'll throw the easier ones at the other club members.
Thank you for reminding me about cake pops. I've seen other clubs do them. And these are farrr easier to transport than actual cupcakes. I don't really want to invest in a cupcake carrier. .______.

Yay biggrin ! Oh, and if you are doing the Rice Krispies treats squares, remember that Rice Krispies also comes in a chocolate version, so you can also make chocolate ones. For those, if you put in chocolate sprinkles that adds a nice varying chocolate taste that is pleasing.

[Tropicalkiwi1104]

i remember puppy chow used to sell like hot cakes back in my high school bake sale
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Puppy-Chow/

[misleading space shibe]

Tropicalkiwi1104

i remember puppy chow used to sell like hot cakes back in my high school bake sale
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Puppy-Chow/

Oh my god, I forgot about this too. D:
My high school's department for...family consumer science?? (I don't actually know what it's called anymore) would hold a bake sales twice a year and puppy chow would sell like hot cakes.

...despite my vast knowledge of baking, I fail hard at making it. I'll throw the recipe at another member.

[Izzy815]

Weed brownies wink

[Blue Eyed Wallflower]

No-bake cookies! Sounds like the opposite of what you want, but they are tasty and easy to make.

[misleading space shibe]

Blue Eyed Wallflower

No-bake cookies! Sounds like the opposite of what you want, but they are tasty and easy to make.

Any specific ones come to mind?
I know of them, but I never really made any? I'm not sure of what kinds would be particularly good for a bake sale.
The ones I've had before unfortunately weren't very pretty either. v___v; They were good, but not pretty.

(a thing with my bake sales is we're very heavy on presentation.)

[StrawI3erry]

Well this recipe requires baking in the oven but I guess it is more of a healthy option. It's not exactly gluten free but you can use whole wheat flour for oatmeal raisin cookies and add in vegetable oil and apple juice.

And for my bake sale experience I usually bake a cheesecake but they are both quick and easy dishes.

[misleading space shibe]

StrawI3erry

Well this recipe requires baking in the oven but I guess it is more of a healthy option. It's not exactly gluten free but you can use whole wheat flour for oatmeal raisin cookies and add in vegetable oil and apple juice.

And for my bake sale experience I usually bake a cheesecake but they are both quick and easy dishes.

I should have mentioned this earlier; we can't do cheesecakes unfortunately.
our food must be able to be okay at room temperature for the amount of time we're there.

[Suukie1963]

Cake pops work well, they are easy but a bit time consuming, depending on how much effort you want to put into the finished product, but they sell really well if you have them decorated fancy. Another thing that works really well is rice crispy treats that you have on a stick and dipped in chocolate coating. Those sell really well.

[StrawI3erry]

Magical Miss Alice Jae

StrawI3erry

Well this recipe requires baking in the oven but I guess it is more of a healthy option. It's not exactly gluten free but you can use whole wheat flour for oatmeal raisin cookies and add in vegetable oil and apple juice.

And for my bake sale experience I usually bake a cheesecake but they are both quick and easy dishes.

I should have mentioned this earlier; we can't do cheesecakes unfortunately.
our food must be able to be okay at room temperature for the amount of time we're there.

Oh okay, then I guess the oatmeal raisin cookies will do or you can make macarons. I always use Beth's (on youtube) recipe for macarons. Here's the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ636Y8N6E8

[misleading space shibe]

Suukie1963

Cake pops work well, they are easy but a bit time consuming, depending on how much effort you want to put into the finished product, but they sell really well if you have them decorated fancy. Another thing that works really well is rice crispy treats that you have on a stick and dipped in chocolate coating. Those sell really well.

ooh, thanks for the rice krispie pop idea :O
We've sold rice krispies before, but last i checked, they never sold that well, despite being pretty nicely packaged.

Do you happen to know long the rice krispies would last?
Either we would make it from scratch, or just buy them...they'd be likely to last about 2 days if packaged, yes? I'm worried that for our first bake sale, we won't have enough members to contribute, but we need to have a big first impression with our new logo & what-not. (We've done really well as a club with presentation, but our branding is different now)