Thursday, October 21, 2010

Beer and Bake Sales

Banging Chocolate Gingerbread Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

Whew  - last week was crazy, and now I'm still recovering.  We had A LOT of babies last week, maybe because of the Nor'easter that came in Friday.  I have still been cooking and baking, just have not had the time to write about said cooking and baking.

I do have a confession  - I have another obsession.  It's roller derby.  I'm completely in love with this sport and have played for about a year now.  One thing we've started doing at our games to make some extra money is hold a bake sale, which I organize and always bake for.

So this past weekend was the last bouting weekend of the season and we had 3 games to put together.  It was all amazing and I was psyched because our bake sale pulled in double what we normally make.  After helping organize bake sales at maybe 5 events in the past 10 months, I'm beginning to catch on to what people like to buy.

So I've compiled a list of how to hold a successful bake sale for an adult crowd (although there are inevitably kids at a roller derby bout, and they flock to the bake table).

1)  Have a lot of cupcakes for sale - these babies sell out like crazy.  And for some reason, having something on top like a gummy eyeball or a candy heart, makes them even more appealing.  So go crazy with the decoration.

2)  Sell lots of stuff with frosting - this always goes - no explanation needed.

Copious amounts of Cream Cheese Frosting

3)  Do not wrap your items in individual bags - they will be ignored and you will end up eating bite size vegan muffins (that are very delectable by the way) for breakfast all week.  My feeling about this is that people want homemade items and even if the individually wrapped goods are homemade, people subconsciously think that it isn't.

4)  If at all possible, serve beer or sell baked goods in the general vicinity of beer drinking.

5)  Brownies and chocolate chip cookies always sell.

6)  So do Black and White Cookies (frosting + unity = world peace)

World Peace on a tray

The Baking Midwife made Smitten Kitchen's Black and White Cookies and Gingerbread Bagel's Chocolate Gingerbread Bars 


Both frosted and both sold well.  The best compliment of the night was when this guy said my Chocolate Gingerbread Bars were banging (well there was an expletive on the front of that, but I think my mom reads this...).

5 comments:

  1. beer and baked goods is the best combo ever! congratulations on your banging gingerbread bars, they look great!

    -amanda@seegirlcook

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  2. Agreed. Frosting makes everything better.

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  3. Thanks Amanda - they're really easy to make. The B&W cookies are a little harder, and the consistency of the frosting has to be just right.

    Jill - I think I may actually encourage more frosted items next year, so we can sell more...I've already told people not to individually wrap anything.

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  4. that all looks extremely delicious! you could try selling frosting shots too. who doesn't want a little extra frosting? :)

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  5. Frosting shots is an awesome idea - we are definitely doing that next season!

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