It’s that time of year again – School Fair!  This begs the question: “What-to-make-that-kids-will-want-to-buy?”. It has to be cheap for two reasons;

1. It’s a donation – you don’t get costs refunded
2. Children have about two pounds to stretch around the entire fair

 

I decided to do something different to the usual fairy cakes and hit upon the idea of fudge in two flavours – “Chocolate” and “Vanilla & Raisin”.

Fudge is sweet (so kids will love it) and simple to make, the ingredients are cheap and I thought I could package it up to look appealing.

This is the Chocolate…

and this is the Vanilla.

Mmmmm, delicious!

Here’s what I did:

Ingredients: –

397g can condensed milk

150ml single cream

450g demerara sugar

115g butter

1. Melt all the ingredients in a large, non-stick pan over a low heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
2. Bring to the boil then simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring continuously and scraping the base of the pan.
3. Continue until a sugar thermometer reads 118°C – this is vital, or the fudge won’t set.
4. Transfer to a mixer and beat until very thick and only just beginning to set.
5. Pour into a 20cm square tin, lined with baking parchment, and leave to set before cutting into squares.

 

For chocolate, add two tablespoons of cocoa powder at step 4.

For vanilla (and raisins) add one teaspoon of vanilla extract (and two tablespoons of chopped raisins) at step 4.

I found some small cellophane bags here www.wrappingsandbows.co.uk

I designed some simple labels to attach to each bag with the price clearly stated.

Pricing is tricky but, as this was my donation, I just added up the cost of the ingredients and packaging and divided it roughly between the number of bags created. I put two squares of each flavour in each bag and made twenty-eight bags, plus plenty of offcuts which could be bagged up and sold off cheaper (if you haven’t already succumbed to temptation and eaten them as you go along!).

I think they look quite saleable, don’t you?

Here they are all lined up in bread baskets, ready to go.

So there you have it – handmade fudge, simple but perfect idea for school or village fairs!