Moms: Please don’t bake for the Cake Walk!

Aunt Bea and Martha Stewart need to turn off their ovens and hold onto their baking mitts!

We’ve heard for several years that schools don’t want moms baking for class parties or for birthdays, but now I’ve heard of a school that doesn’t want the parents to bake for the cake walk! They just want you to buy it at the grocery store and hand it over. I don’t think you’re even supposed to repackage it to look festive.

Isn’t the point of cake walks and bake sales to get a really yummy, gooey dessert that only can be made at home? Also it’s a heck of a lot cheaper for me to buy ingredients and make 24 cupcakes to donate than to buy them.

I guess they want labeled store-bought goodies to protect themselves from lawsuits about food allergies. But I also think it’s about hygiene. But really, are the lazy or gross parents going to cook for the cake walk?

If your school will let you actually bake for the cake walk and bake sale, The Cake Mix Doctor, one of my favorite easy cookbooks, offers these tips for more successful fund raising:

• Loaves sell. Assign 4,5 even 10 loaves. It’s easy to double or triple the recipe.
• Rewrap the items with pretty clear cellophane paper and bags.
• Use a large enough label to include name of food, ingredient and cooking instructions.
• Coffee cakes sell the best.
• Offer a selection of small cakes or cupcakes for those who just want a little.
• Sell something to sip with the baked goods.

Will your school let you send in home baked goods for parties, birthdays, cake walks, bake sales? Do you think it’s an over-reaction to concerns about allergies to want only prepackaged goods? What about the hygiene issue? Are you freaked out about your kids eating items made by other parents?