Strut Your Mutt Bake Sale 2016

This October I will be participating in Best Friends Animal Society’s Strut Your Mutt in St. Louis. I am once again walking for team Partners 4 Pets, a local no-kill animal rescue that pulls dogs and cats from kill shelters and animal control facilities. Since my last bake sale was a great success, I knew I wanted to have another one to help me reach my $1,000 fundraising goal.

This year I had my bake sale at a new local dog bakery, Whisker Bones Supply Co, which is conveniently located right across the street from the city’s farmers market. Unfortunately, the first couple of hours the skies looked very ominous (even though it ended up only sprinkling and for a few minutes). Those are the same hours the market usually has the most traffic.

The owners of the store said they did half as much business as usual for a Saturday. So while I still think I couldn’t ask for a better location, you just can’t account for the weather!

Still, between sales and donations I raised $300 for Partners 4 Pets. And each sale is a learning experience! For example, my high dollar items like pans of cinnamon rolls, as well as $1 items like puppy chow and Rice Crispy Treats sold well. But my mid-priced cupcakes at $3 barely moved.

I had a lot more $1 items this year which may have been a mistake. Last year I think the only $1 item I offered were the Rice Crispy Treats, if you wanted anything fancier you had to pay up!

Here’s a look at my full menu with links to the recipes where available:

• Pioneer Woman Cinnamon Rolls – I sold these for $6 per pan and sold all but one.
• Mini Pumpkin Bread (with the brown butter maple icing from this recipe) – sold for $5 each, I sold all but one.
• Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Banana Bread – also $5, and like last year I sold out of this one!

• Cookies and Cream Cupcakes – Devil’s food cake and Wilton buttercream recipes with crushed Oreos.
• Scooby Snack/Funfetti Cupcakes – Funfetti cake with Wilton buttercream, sprinkles and a Scooby Snack (graham cracker treat – this caused a lot of confusion since we were outside a dog bakery!)
• Brownie Cookie Sandwiches with fluffy peanut butter buttercream – priced at $3, these were a hit again this year
• Gooey Butter Cookies – super simple to make and a favorite with adults and kids. I priced them at $2 for 2.
• Cotton Candy Cones – another simple idea that looked gorgeous packaged up and was a hit with kids. I sold them for $1 a piece.

• Rice Crispy Treats – we all know the recipe for these right? I threw sprinkles on top for pizazz. $1.
• Peanut Butter Rice Crispy Treats – they say chocolate and peanut butter are popular bake sale choices, and it’s true. These sold 2-to-1 against the regular rice crispy treats. Also, did anyone else know PB Rice Crispies don’t have marshmallows in them? Mind blown.

• Oreo Pops – I had a lot of these left over, but I think that may be due to a package of Oreos making so many pops. My BFF made these for me and dipped the whole package. They display beautifully (I wrapped a block of floral foam in dog wrapping paper), and priced at $1 each it’s a great turnaround on the cost of ingredients.
• S’mores, salted caramel and pumpkin spice Puppy Chow – Puppy Chow as in the sweet treat made from Chex Mix and (usually) peanut butter and melted chocolate. Another friend provided these for me so I don’t have the exact recipes available, but I’m sure Pinterest can help you out. These were great sellers at $1 per small bag, especially the pumpkin spice.

• Funfetti Donuts – in theory the baked donuts were a great idea because my bake sale was in the morning. In hindsight, it wasn’t the best idea. I realized after I made them that I couldn’t charge more than $1 a piece for a donut, and that wasn’t a great investment of time and ingredients.
• Pumpkin Donuts with Maple Glaze – same as above, although these sold better despite not being nearly as cute. My glaze soaked in instead of sitting on top in a nice pattern.

Another benefit of the farmer’s market location is that it’s a popular spot for people to shop with their dogs! So we met lots of pups, including a spunky little pug puppy.

While it wasn’t as wildly successful as I had hoped, $300 is nothing to sniff at. And like I said, every sale is a learning experience and I’ll be in better shape for next time. If you’d like to help me get to my Strut Your Mutt fundraising goal of $1,000 you can donate here as well as join a walk in your city (or a virtual walk if you’re not near one of the 9 host cities).