Does anyone here sell at fairs and festivals? How do you merchandise your items? Do you discount your cakes and such? Any tips would be appreciated

Love Taylor too !!! he is in the house next week--definitely ...

No I don't sell, sorry, got carried away when I saw your photo..

Lovin' the photo of Taylor! He is the best.

anyway, I don't sell at fairs and stuff, but I think entering the fair comps are fun. Contact your local fair reps. They can assist you with the ins and outs of this.

J

Hi puppylove,

I do sel at fairs and festivals. Well i do all my shopping, and then i calculate how much i will sell my slices for as here we sell like that.

every thing has to be packaged in small plastic container withplastic covers.

The cost of the slices is priced by what type of cake it is, and you have to make like atleast a 30% on you cost.

Hope this helps.

Good luck

I have helped with a friends chocolate fountain and it was a little strange at first but it worked out well, I didn't see any other stands like that there so you may feel out of sorts.

You might get some of those 4" round and square pans, I know some hobby stores sell them for a little cheaper than other places and create some small decorations, Also since it is a fair you might set up a small area if you have the room so that kids can create there own cupcakes or cupcake sized cakes, you can have some sugar items and let them pick out three or four of them and make there own design with them or even make little sugar (flat) people let them pick out some clothes and hair items. This might pull some more birthday cake customers. Also if you have the room I would make one or two dummy cakes showing off your wedding talents to pull weddings or if you do not either some pictures in the background or a nice portfolio, I would do the portfolio no matter what (after we did the fair her business just boomed, just make sure that you dont advertise too far from where you can work). I would think the more professional you make it the better, offer a basic list of options without price and if they ask have a one with some prices laminated with you (but make sure to state on the price sheet that the price is not set or can change depending on cake difficulty). I get a little carried away with ideas so this may bee a little over the top and I am by no means an expert but this is what I think would work out.

the slices thing might be cheeper, sorry they posted while I was writing out my jumbles thoughts.

As far as the cakes and cookies for sale, is there a clever way to merchandise or do you just line up your trays on the tables? I was thinking of making a few styrofoam/fondant wedding cakes and birthday cakes for display. and placing them on the outer corners of my tables, well secured so that wind and elbows arent moving them. I want to start a portfolio, however all my pics are saved to a computer that is in storage in NJ. I have biz cards and a price list in a binder, but I just dont feel like that is enough for presentation. Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

How much room do you have, I know that sometimes the stalls can be small? I would try to use foil wrapped pans if you are going to do cookies and tilt them a bit so that people can see them from a distance. If you do a large cake I would have another pan for slices in the clear package. I would also display the fake cakes in a plastic display case to be safe, it looks professional and you don't have people putting there fingers on it. As for set up maybe something like this???

For the portfolio you might make a sketch of ideas, some close ups of smaller things you can make and a few large picture of whole cakes. Light sketches done in color pencils looks nice.

Wow, yukisaru, thanks for the ideas and the sketch! I think I am going to have to do some heavy duty planning out by next weekendas far as the visual aspects are concerned.

I have a visual mind, I am sorry it gets carried away I hope my ideas help. Good luck with your fair, post some pictures hear when it is over

Last minute nerves are kicking in and I have visions of buttercream melting all over my cake boxes because it is going to be 90 degrees Saturday and Sunday! What can I do to keep my items fresh and un-scorched? I have a canopy with sides to block the sun, but I am so afraid the heat is going to kill my items.

... And in Dallas you have that ever so wonderful humidity (I grew up there)

I am not sure but maybe you can partially freeze about half of them before hand and get a bunch of cheep ice chest put a layer of ice on the bottom and than set the cakes on top of that and keep the lids on till you need them. I would also recommend some fans. (the fans will draw people to your stand to keep cool, at least I know it would bring me, but it will also help keep you and the cakes cool) You might consider also bringing bottle water to sell if you can, maybe those little bottles that you can sell cheep they will pull people out of the heat to you and most people only want a gulp of water at a time. You might keep a few small fans on the ground under the table with the cakes to keep sunlight off and to keep the ice if you use it from melting. I also would if you use the ice put ice in the bottom and then take a large plastic bag, one that when open covers the entire top of the ice chest to prevent melting ice from getting to the cakes. I do not know enough to give you too many more ideas but maybe this will help. I know have difficult of a task you have ahead of you since I remember all those hot days with only hot wind blasting at you. If you have the funds and think you can pull it off one of those cheaper box air conditioners they sell at Wal-Mart and Kmart would be ideal since they can get sooo cold you can have one of them blast cold air from above you if you have access to electricity. If you get one of those I know you will be popular. This is all I can think of now if anything else comes to mind I will post it.

I realize I should have said dry ice sorry, Let us know how the fair went.