My mom was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, and since October is Breast Cancer Awareness month I decided to sell cupcakes at work and donate the proceeds to Breast Cancer Care.

It has all been agreed at work, I just need to write a "bulletin" which will be published to all the staff where I work.

This is what I have written so far. I don't want to make a fool of myself in front of all my colleagues so any input would be appreciated.

Also I'm not really happy with the descriptions of the cupcakes so any ideas would be great.



"October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. One in every nine women in the UK will develop breast cancer at some point in her life - more than 45,000 cases are diagnosed each year. Men can also develop this cancer. Help me help Breast Cancer Care by holding a bake sale.

On October 14th and 15th, I will be selling cupcakes in aid of the charity Breast Cancer Care. I will be situated in the Chapel between 12:30 and 13:30, I will also be in HB1-6 Gate between 16:00 and 18:00.

I am selling them at £1.50 each, 6 for £7.50 which comes in a decorative box and 12 for £12 (box also included for transporting).

The cakes will come in the following flavours:

Chocolate Mud Cupcakes with Marshmallow Frosting

Banoffee Cupcakes A chocolate and banana cupcake with toffee filling and toffee Italian Meringue Buttercream

Ferrero Rocher A hazelnut and chocolate chunk cupcake with nutella filling and vanilla Italian Meringue Buttercream

Passionfruit Cupcake A vanilla cupcake with Homemade Passionfruit curd filling and vanilla Italian Meringue Buttercream

Raspberry Cupcake A vanilla cupcake with Homemade Raspberry jam filling and vanilla Italian Meringue Buttercream

Lemon Cupcake A tangy lemon cupcake with a lemon drizzle and lemon Italian Meringue Buttercream

The boxes of 6 will have one of each flavour and the boxes of 12 will have 2 of each flavour.

Raffle Tickets can be purchased through (insert name) and will cost 50p each or a strip of 5 for £2.

The prizes are as follows

1st A Custom Made Celebration Cake.

(A minimum of 2 Months notice required. Cake will be the equivalent of an 8 round or square cake. Extra costs may be incurred dependant on design and extra decorations.)

2nd Box of 12 Cupcakes

3rd Box of 6 Cupcakes

4th, 5th and 6th will receive 1 Cupcake in your choice of flavour.

Here are pictures of a few of the cakes I have made, more can be seen on my Facebook page..... "

As I haven't done anything like this before I didn't know how many cupcakes I should bake. Theres probably about 800 members of staff where I work, but it is shift work as it's a Prison and the "cake culture" is different to the US. In the UK, they are far less willing to spend $ on cake.

Also is 6 too many flavours? I feel it could be, but wouldn't know which to cut, all of them have had such rave reviews. I'm starting the baking and freezing tomorrow.

Any and all opinions are welcomed and encouraged, thanks for taking the time to read!

I think it sounds great...I just want to wish you the best of luck and tell you how much I admire you for doing this.......

Make your general info in bigger type than the descriptions. You could leave out the descriptions and list the flavors. People tend to not read a notice that has too much wording. Make a big heading like... Cupcakes for Breast Cancer. Avoid writing anything in all upper case, as it is harder to read. Instead use bold face. The line "Help me help breast...", ... is that referring to your bake sale? If it is, you can leave it out. If you want others to bring things, explain. Also, is the raffle separate or are you entering everyone who purchases cupcakes? I used to have a little advertising /marketing agency and these are just a few tips to make the notice easier to read.

Good on you!! All the best to you and heres hoping you raise a heap for such a great cause.

I would look at reducing the flavours, purely to reduce the amount of work for you. I would keep a chocolate and fruit and the banoffee one - I do like the sound of the lemon cupcake. If the people at your work are a little cake resistant best to limit their choices, those three flavours will have something covered for everyone.

Perhaps make your bulletin a little less wordy (not being overly critical) - make it easy for people to read in a quick glance, use some bullet points: i.e

Cupcakes 1.50 each
Box of six 7.50
Box of 12 ....

Boxes are a pre-packaged and include all varieties.

You are fantastic and I wish you all the best!!!!

p.s. sorry no idea how many to make. Could you maybe get people to pre-order the boxed sets to give you an idea?

Thanks all, yes that is what I meant DSmo.

I'm going to do what you suggested Sweetooth and cut it down to 3. Do you think Banoffee, Lemon and the Ferrero Roche one would be okay? The nut one is the favourite amongst testers, the banoffee is my favourite and the lemon is the favourite when its fruit. I feel I should have a plain one, like plain chocolate or plain vanilla.

Aahh decisions!

The raffle is going to be a separate thing where they buy tickets to be entered.

I love lemon cupcakes and the banoffee one sounds good. Is your purpose for doing this purely to raise money or to hopefully also raise your profile as a cupcake maker? I only ask because if it is just for fundraising then I would probably go with a plain chocolate, if it's to get some future business as well then go with the Ferrero one ... it sounds divine!!

I think it sounds great just the way you wrote it, and i think its quite good of you to do this. My prayers for your mum. God Bless.

Your cakes sound delicious and are for a great cause. We are doing the same thing at my workplace but just home-baking, probably not as fancy as yours.

About your notice... it was a bit wordy but looks like your taking a bit out if you've cut down your flavours. Also I'm not sure if its just the type of people I work with (!) but I think we would struggle to sell a cupcake for £1.50. I'm sure they will look great though so will entice people to buy.

Good Luck, hope you sell and raise loads.

Pamela

It may be too late to comments on the flavors but 6 sounds like a lot of work for you. I think all of them sound so delicious - I don't know which I would suggest you leave out.
I mostly wanted to wish you good luck and I hope you make a lot of money - it is a great cause!

Thanks everyone for your help. I cut the flavours down to 4, as I'm trying to show what I can do so that in the future people might order from me. I also cut the wording down and I think it is better now.

Re: Selling them at £1.50... my thinking is people usually sponsor walks or parachute jumps or other activities and usually put £2 so if people question the price I can just explain they're supporting a charity AND getting something in return so £1.50 is a bargain IMO!

This is the copy I sent to the Govenor's at work in case anyone is interested.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. One in every nine women in the UK will develop breast cancer at some point in her life - more than 45,000 cases are diagnosed each year. Men can also develop this cancer.

On October 14th and 15th, I will be selling cupcakes in aid of the charity Breast Cancer Care. I will be situated in the Chapel between 12:30 and 13:30; I will also be in HB1-6 Gate between 16:00 and 18:00.

The prices are as follows:

£1.50 each
Box of 6 for £7.50
Box of 12 for £12

The cakes will come in the following flavours:

Chocolate Mud Cupcake
Banoffee Cupcake
Ferrero Rocher Cupcake
Lemon Cupcake

The boxes of 6 and 12 are pre-boxed with a variety of the flavours.

Raffle Tickets can be purchased through (name) (usually found lurking in HB1-6 Gate), and will cost 50p each or a strip of 5 for £2.

So that everyone has an opportunity to purchase raffle tickets, the draw will be held on Tuesday November 2nd.

The prizes are as follows

1st A Custom Made Celebration Cake.
(A minimum of 2 Months notice required. Cake will be the equivalent of an 8 round or square cake. Extra costs may be incurred dependant on design and extra decorations.)

2nd Box of 12 Cupcakes

3rd Box of 6 Cupcakes

4th, 5th and 6th will receive 1 Cupcake in your choice of flavour.

Here are pictures of a few of the cakes I have created; more can be seen on my Facebook page.

Sounds brilliant ... and divine, I'm hungry now. All the best and fingers crossed your make a fortune!!

Just a quick update... it went a little too well!!

I sold out today so I am postponing tomorrow's sale until next week. My mom is on holiday and comes home on Sunday so I'll have another pair of hands at least ^_^

I sold between 250 - 280 cupcakes... too many to count!! And made over £300 and got my first cupcake wedding cake order.

It was a lot of work and a lot of stress and nerves but I got it done in the end...

Round 2 to follow!!

im glad it went so well!

Yeah!!! Well done, you should feel very proud of yourself.

Thanks for the update. I am glad it was a success!