How To: do a Cake Sale for Kids

I just thought about starting a once-a-week How To series. There are plenty things I don't know how to do, and plenty others like me that can do with some help. Starting with the kids at my school.

Last week, the incoming senior year held their first fundraising cake sale for the primary school. They aren't my register class so I wasn't involved in the planning. I was, however, involved in the transporting of cakes and students to our satellite campus, and it was right then that I knew things were not going to go as well as they could have.

With respect to them (they were full of enthusiasm and seemingly well prepared) they had no idea how to cater to a 4-8 year old market, and arrived there with large cakes and other baked goods, only one of which cost less than R10 per unit. What made matters worse was that these kids, the ones buying, had been told they wouldn't need more than R10.

And right there How to do a Cake Sale for Kids was born.

People think that in order to make money on cake sales, you have to have huge, expensive cakes. Wrong. The trick is to have a lot, of easily (home) made and inexpensive treats, that can be sold for R5 or less.

For example:

Racing Cars can easily be made using finger biscuits decorated with sweets and icing. Kids love character themed things, and enjoy taking apart and eating all the different bits.

Cupcakes should be smaller in size, and simple in flavour. Stick to chocolate and vanilla both for the cake itself and the icing. Kids are not interested in red velvet and carrot options, and usually don't eat a full sized cupcake anyway.

Tea Cups are always a hit. You can make them using cones, marshmallows and plain biscuits. You stick the parts together with icing, and decorate them for effect. If you're feeling fancy you can even add some surprise treats inside.

Who knew Iced Biscuits could be so yummy? Plain biscuits can be transformed with just a little icing and creativity. You can create expressive faces, bugs and insects, or even just create patterns. It's dead easy and super cheap to make.

Jelly Cups whether you make them in fruit-peel shells or serve them in a small container, are a regular favourite. Make different colours, or mix them into a rainbow effect. And you can have them plain, topped with custard, or filled with more hidden treats.

Marshmallow Pops are simply regular marshmallows on a stick. Dip them in chocolate and add some colour and sparkles, and you're good to go.

Mini Cookies can be served a hundred ways. You can decorate them with icing, sprinkles, chocolate and more, separately or together. You can choose to infuse them with chocolate chips or mini sweets, or oats and tasty nuts (watch out for allergies here) or even different essence and flavours to enhance the taste. The best part is you can do them in different shapes too, which kids will absolutely love!

Fudge is also popular and relatively easy to make at home. Kids love them, and they can be sold in smaller portion sizes to cater for smaller kids.

If you must buy go for things that can be bought in bulk, are fairly small and not too expensive so that you don't have to make your selling price too high. Things like small boxes of sweets, chocolate fingers, ice bites, lollipops or ice cream suckers are guaranteed to sell well - and can be kept for future sales.


The class' efforts were not in vain that day. They were creative in the way they made small serving sizes and managed to sell nearly all of what they had, with every little customer having something to show for their money. They did admit, however, they they had not really thought about how different catering for kids could be, and are considering a few of the above ideas for their next sale.

So there you have it: how to do a cake sale for kids. Happy Baking! Happy selling!