Whether you’re holding your Big Bake in a playground, parish hall or your patio, a community bake sale is a great way to spread awareness of The Charity. As well as raising lots of dough for families affected by a brain tumour.
To help make sure you’re ready to crumble, here are our top 10 tips for boosting your flour power.
1. Find the perfect place and time
Holding your a community bake sale could mean anything from Viennese Whirls in a village hall to Bakewell Tarts in your back garden. So, your first big decision is simply picking a venue.
Choosing the right date and time can also make a big difference. Holding your Big Bake at the weekend or in the evening is a great way to attract lots of people to your event because they won’t be at work. However, you might want to pick a weekday if your venue is in a prime location to capitalise on the lunchtime rush hour.
You might even be able to piggyback on another event that’s happening September. For example, a school fayre, a village fete or even just something special that’s planned at your local pub.
2. Doughnut underestimate the power of teamwork
No matter how much you love baking, The Big Bake is even sweeter when you work as a team.
Trying to manage every element of your community bake sale can be extremely overwhelming. Especially if you’re also taking sole responsibility for baking up a storm for all your guests. That’s why we recommend asking your friends, family, colleagues and classmates to help you
Your loved ones will likely relish the opportunity to use their skills and experience to support you, whether they’re whipping up a show-stopping centrepiece or helping spread the word about your event.
3. Get organised!
Once you’ve assembled your team, it’s time to get organised!
A good first step is making a list of everyone who’s helping with the baking and what they’ll be making. This will help you avoid ending up with a cacophony of cupcakes but not a solitary sausage roll.
Another great way to start getting organised is making a list of every job that need to be done – from planning and putting the word out to plating up and paying in your fundraising. You can then ask for volunteers to help with specific tasks so that you aren’t overwhelmed.
4. Ask local businesses to participate
As cynical as it sounds, businesses are always looking for some good press! So it never hurts to ask local businesses if they’d be able to sponsor your Big Bake.
Supermarkets and bakeries might be happy to donate items you can sell at your Big Bake. If you’re holding a raffle, you could also ask businesses who don’t stock baked treats to donate prizes.
5. Spread the word
If you want to raise lots of dough, you’ll need to get lots of people to your event!
To help with this, make sure you check out our Big Bake 2023 downloadable resources. You can download our media guide, invitations and and a posters you can print and personalise. Local businesses might be happy to put posters up and you can also ask local community groups if they’d be able to help you promote your event.
We know that not everybody uses social media but creating a Facebook event is a really simple first step in spreading the word. Facebook events are really easy to share using WhatsApp, texts, email and other social media platforms. Plus, if you roughly know how many people to expect, you know how many cakes you’ll need.
6. Prepare for takeaways
Some people won’t be able to resist devouring their baked treats on the spot,! However, you’ll need to think carefully about people who’ll want to take their treats home with them.
Having takeaway boxes available could be the difference between selling someone a slice of cake or convincing them to take the entire thing home to share with their loved ones.
7. C.R.E.A.M. cakes
The Big Bake is a fun event to enjoy with your community, but it’s important to remember that it’s also about raising lots of dough to support people affected by a brain tumour. This means you’ll need to think ahead about how you want to deal with money.
If you’re planning on accepting cash donations, you can send them us by bank transfer, a debit or credit card payment on our website or by sending us a cheque. But you’ll want to make sure you’ve got plenty of change on-hand.
Alternatively, it’s now easier than ever to go cashless.
8. Set up a JustGiving page
It only takes a couple of minutes to set up a JustGiving page for your Big Bake and there are so many benefits to doing this.
Any donations you receive are sent to us automatically, so you don’t need to worry about sending us anything after the event. Plus, if you go cashless, you don’t have to deal with the hassle of running out of change or handling money. JustGiving also makes it really easy to thank people who donate and update them after the event.
You can even create a personalised QR code so that people can donate using their phone’s camera. All you need to do is go to your JustGiving page and add “/qrcode” to the end of the URL and hit enter. Your QR code will appear for you download by right-clicking the image and saving it your device.
For example, our fundraising page is justgiving.com/thebraintumourcharity. So we’d add /qrcode to the end to make justgiving.com/thebraintumourcharity/qrcode.
You can then print this out and have it available at your Big Bake to make it easier for your guests to donate.
9. Think outside the box
Sweet treats always go down well but it’s always good to have some savoury snacks and drinks available.
It’s also a good idea to think carefully about the different dietary requirements that people have – vegan, dairy free, gluten free and nut allergies are just a few.
You could even go a step further and include some baked goodies people can buy for their pets!
There are also lots of fun ways you can boost your fundraising on the day, from sweepstakes and raffles to competitions and bake offs. If you’re a little stuck for inspiration, make you sure you check out our resources on our website.
10. Safety first!
Make sure that all your bakes have clear warnings about any allergens they contains. This is especially importanty if they have any traces of nuts. If you ask all your bakers to send you the recipes they’re using, you’ll find it easier to track which labels you’ll need to create.
You should also make sure you’ve got plenty of tongs and cake slicers to serve up your tasty treats – you could even get some food-safe, disposable gloves for handling the goods!
Finally, wherever you decide to hold your Big Bake, it’s important that you understand where the fire exits are and what you should do in the event of an emergency. If possible, you should have a first aider present at your community bake sale. At the very least, you need to understand who is responsible for first aid at the venue.
Are you ready to crumble?
Have we inspired you to don your apron, raise up your rolling pin and get baking for a cure?
Sign up to host a Big Bake this September and join our mouth-watering movement for change.