planning a successful cupcake bake sale

After more than a few requests, here is Saucy's how-to list for hosting a big 'ol cupcake sale. The key to planning a successful event is... planning. And more planning.

Step One: Pick your day and then advertise it

Saucy picks her day carefully. She needs a place to sell (a craft fair, a community event, a local mall) and there might be some paperwork to do. Make sure you have your plan in writing. Saucy picks a day that she knows won't interfere with any other big school or community activity and when she knows the Cheerios will be available to help for the days leading up to the sale as well.

As soon as you have your date set, get it announced in as many community newsletters and on as many calendars as possible. As the event draws nearer, create a Facebook event and contact local media outlets.

Step Two: Gathering your supplies as inexpensively as possible

Start clipping and picking coupons as soon as you can for all of the items you will need. Saucy uses her basic altered cupcake box mix recipe and her own buttercream recipe so she knows what she has to buy. She stocks up as much as she can on cake mixes, icing sugar and margarine - when the price is low, it's time to load up.

Saucy has a cupboard in the basement stocked with Cheerio baking supplies.

Saucy waits until the week of the sale to buy perishable items like eggs, cream and butter. She gets these items at the wholesale club.

You'll also need to decide pretty early on in the planning process how many of each flavour you are planning to make... and what flavours. Saucy thinks that having lots of flavours available is not only pretty impressive, it makes for good sales. Customers are more inclined to buy six or twelve assorted cupcakes if they have a nice selection to choose from. If you only offer two or three flavours, you might only sell singles or just a few at a time.

Saucy figures that by hosting a big cupcake bake sale, she's taking most of the responsibility off the parent group who might otherwise be asked to do all of the baking and then donate it. It's better to give the kids a hand in helping plan what flavours they'd like to see and then have a sign up sheet for each one of them to bring a topping ingredient.

Parents would way rather stop at the store and pick up a box of animal crackers for a bake sale anyway.

Step Three: Plan your cupcake transportation and storage method

This part is key... how will you transport your finished cupcakes to the sale site? Saucy has the best little system worked out, and she's going to share it with you.

Yes, free. Just ask the produce guy at your local grocer or wholesale club. They're probably trashing them or recycling them anyway. Nobody else wants them because they're too shallow to hold very much. Make sure the ones you get are clean (with no dripped berry juice or squashed pepper inside) and stackable. They have to be stackable, having those little interlocking tabs on the sides. This will prevent the boxes from sinking into each other and your cupcakes won't get squished.

These produce trays are typically very sturdy. The ones Saucy gets hold about 50 cupcakes each. (Oh, and heads up, if you stack them more than two or three high, it can get pretty heavy to lift. The stacking tabs are handiest for getting the trays into the car compactly over to the bake sale, but make sure you only carry two or three at a time).

You'll also need giant plastic bags to wrap the boxes. Shhhh... Saucy also gets these for free. She asks for them at the bottle recycling depot when she organizes Cheerio bottle drives. They have giant, clear, new bags for sorting bottles. They do the trick for sorting cupcakes too. We'll get to that later.

You'll also need to make provision for having packaging for your creations at POS (that's point of sale). You can ask at a local bakery - although they might not be keen on the idea of selling packaging for a bake sale because bake sales = competition. You can check your local wholesale club, Saucy has used takeout containers for salads and they work just fine.

If you want to look pro, you can order actual cupcake packaging online. Check your local yellow pages under "retail packaging" or "bakery supply" and you might find something appropriate. Try not to spend more than fifty cents per container. You don't want to cut into your cupcake bottom-line.

Step Four: Make a schedule and stick to it

Saucy finds that a cupcake sale takes four days of work to be successful.

On this night, Saucy has about six girls over. The first two girls measure the sugar, butter and shortening for the buttercream. The other four work in pairs at the stand mixer, beating buttercream and listening to loud, offensive music. Hey, they're teenagers. And it's not too offensive for Saucy's tender ears.

It's a buttercream production line. The girls that know how to do it can whip up tons of the the fluffiest, nicest buttercream in just a couple of hours. Have a bunch of clean ice cream pails with airtight lids and fill them up. Store the buttercream in a very cool place, making sure that you warm it to room temperature on baking day.

And, as in all things Cheerio-related, nobody leaves until the space is cleaned up. Saucy is nobody's maid.

This is a good job for the younger or more inexperienced kids. Have a whole bunch of little mixing and sorting bowls handy. On this night, the girls open packages and count mini Oreos, cut the mint wafers into triangles, carefully cut the Hershey bars into squares, take the cellophane wrappers off candy canes, and do all the fiddly little things that will take time away from major production later. A few of them make the hamburger cookies if we're using them at this sale.

Saucy also has a couple of kids get the cash float ready at this point. They should count the money and make sure there is enough change (small bills and coins). This might be a good night to make posters, if you haven't done so already.

This is also a good time to have the kids prep for recycling. An event like this can generate a lot of trash. Saucy brings a recycling bin right into the kitchen and everyone opens the cake mixes and flatten the boxes then and there. (Use a marker to label the bags of mix so you remember what flavour they are). The margarine squares get taken out of the box and all necessary items get put out on the counters at the ready. Saucy also pulls out her "working" kitchen towels and rags. She doesn't use the pretty new tea towels at a time like this!

Everything is set up and ready for cupcake baking!

The frosting is made, the toppings are prepped and now comes the rest of it... time to make the cupcakes! Depending on how many you want to make, you will need to allow the better part of a whole day to this event. Saucy tries to schedule cupcake sales the day after a school holiday. That way, her minions can work all day getting ready... and cleaning up!

Speaking of cleaning up, now is the time to put a large trash bin somewhere central. Everyone has to keep the work area tidy! Some girls are in charge of garbage, recovery of leftover toppings (back into the packages for another sale) and wiping counters.

Saucy is fortunate to have two ovens to work with. Even if you don't you can still crank out plenty of cupcakes in a few hours. As they come out of the oven, place them directly in those stackable cardboard trays for cooling. You can also decorate them right in the trays - how handy! All of your flavours will be in one spot this way. You can put a couple of kids on task with each cooled tray, just teach one of them how to operate the piping bag and the other kid can do the sprinkling and finishing with the toppings.

Here are some efficiency tips:

Bake the same flavour at the same time. You'll need plenty of vanilla, chocolate and other flavours. Bake all the vanilla first followed by all the chocolate and then all the other flavours... you won't be stopping between flavours to wash your bowls.

Decorate using your vanilla buttercream first. After all the vanilla is piped, you can start tinting and flavouring the remaining frosting.

Put all of your prepared toppings in a central location, organized and ready. Your decorators can locate what they need, as they need it.

Use disposable piping bags. It's not super environmentally friendly but if you plan right you'll only need five or six of the large ones. When the deed is done, cut them open to reclaim your decorating tip and pop it in the dishwasher, throwing the bag in the trash.

Put someone in charge of sorting and counting the finished cupcakes. Saucy does this to control the inventory and ensure that all the flavours planned for get completed. It's a good little numeracy skill for someone, too.

When the cupcakes are all finished and stacked in their trays, bag two trays into one giant clean plastic bag and tie it shut. Through the plastic, you can still stack the trays nice and high for transport to your bake sale. If it's cool outside, the vehicle gets stacked and loaded the night before. In the morning, Saucy just has to grab her keys and she's off!

The girls have been told what to wear and how to wear their hair. Saucy doesn't let them wear too much jewelry.

Game on.

The girls are scheduled in shifts to ensure there's enough help - especially at the start of the sale which tends to be the busiest. Allow plenty of help for set up and tear down. You might want to put one of them solely in control of the cash box so the kids handling food don't handle money.

You will also see that for a very large sale, Saucy doesn't bother taking out cake platters and cupcake stands. She can get more cupcakes on display just lining them up on a plastic draped table.

Now, just sell the cupcakes and remember to say thank you to the customers! And at the end of the day, count your money!

If you play your cards right, you won't even have any leftovers. Any other questions? Ask away.