AHi!

This week I got a booth at a local Festival that will have 10,000 expected attendees. I want to showcase my unique cake flavors by doing cupcakes. It's a two day festival, and the local towns popular bakery is currently out of business... So other than other craft vendors there selling homemade goods I will be the only.

There will be the regular fair food with fried Oreos and such. My real question is, what should I plan for?? Also, does presentation sell better? Like, have nice cake boxes for individual cupcakes or bags?

Thanks for any help you can give! I've never done this before!

I can only answer as a consumer who just went to a craft fair last weekend and bought the biggest, yummiest, caramel apple I've ever seen :) I realize it was an apple and not a cupcake, but what caught my eye was how it looked - they were lined up on a table with simple cards that described the flavor, i.e, Toffee Crunch, Apple Crisp, White Chocolate Chunk, M&M, etc. Scrap concentrating on fancy cake boxes and make your cupcakes look to die for. People SEE what they eat first, so something that LOOKS delicious is going to sell. Even if you make one of each flavor as a sample to showcase and have the real ones in the back, fair goers need to see the product first.

Good luck!

AHow many cupcakes are you planning on baking? You probably would need at least 3,000-5,000 for those two days, assuming not everyone will buy some. You may want to think about selling minis. I did around 200 regular cupcakes just a few weeks ago and I worked on them for 2 days. I do also work full time and have an 11 month old, so 200 could easily be done in one uninterrupted day.

I'm sure you will be starting ahead, but make sure you hit them with some simple syrup because cupcakes dry out within a few days! If they look beautiful, you want to make sure they taste great too!

I wouldn't worry about fancy packaging for fair goers. They are there to eat and have fun and won't care if you put your cupcakes in boxes, bags or just give them a napkin (which is all I would provide for a fair). Don't spend a lot of money on packaging that will on,y end up in the trash right next to your booth or trampled on the ground. It's not cheap!

I would make sure they look really nice and like Rica827's idea about a sample cupcake in each flavor sitting out to draw them in. I would make some individual cupcake stands out of cute plates and candlesticks for the display. Pinterest has great ideas!

Thank you, both! This is so helpful!!!!!!!!!!!

You're welcome! 

OH! I'm baking about 300 minis today for a bridal fair tomorrow. I am using Wilton pans - the dark coated ones. I turned my oven down to 325 and baked for 10 minutes. They are perfect! Not dry at all.