Open garden cream teas, how much should I charge?

That sounds like a good idea Nashville. Solves the problem of handling money while serving food too.

Definitely up the price. It’s for a wonderful charity and they need all the help they can get. You are a truly wonderful to help them. Also put a box out for donations. Most people would happily put a few coins in.

I would say £5.

Brilliant idea Nashville charging 5pds a ticket for a cream tea....You should feel so proud of yourself SAGO doing all this for charity...Hope the sun shines...

Home made cake at garden centres etc is over £4 a slice currently. For an event such as yours I would willingly pay £5 for one scone and a cuppa, I would suggest you ask a couple of random neighbours what they would be prepared to pay too.

I wish you well in raising money for such a worthy cause and remember to have a tips jar handy, most people will make a generous donation.

Ainee To make 150 scones, 2 cakes and 60 Anzac biscuits is a bit more than I can manage on a Sunday morning!

We live in a conservation area comprising of 4 Avenues of Victorian and Edwardian houses, there are about 55 gardens open.
Many are doing plant sales, there are opera singers, mini railways,pottery sales and demonstrations and even African drummers!
We are a very creative community.
You buy a brochure for £3, this admits one person to each garden over 2 consecutive Sunday afternoons.
Last time we did it our garden raised £1400 over the 2 Sundays.
This year I have only committed to 1 Sunday.
There will be 7 of us operating the teas, we can seat around 28 people in the garden.
The last year we operated when we opened the gate at 1pm there was a queue.
It’s 4 hours of carnage but such fun…… apart from the nasty man that demanded a cheese sandwich and the weirdo that wandered into the house and started picking up photographs and ornaments.

Sago. We attended our local gardens open event last weekend.
Cakes were 1.75 - 2.50. Cream teas 4.50. Pot of tea 1.75.
If that’s any help. Have a good day.

Seems rather cheap to me,

I happily pay £5.50 for a fruit scone with jam and a pot of tea.

Other places sometimes charge more.

Up your prices .

Just wanted to say, if you do have a tips/donations jar, please make sure it's secured.
It seems cheap to me, but also like the idea of a "suggested donation".

What does it cost to privide two scones, butter, jam and cream, and a cup of tea or coffee? Price it all acurately, and don't forget to allow for the power that heats the oven. If you subtract the answer from what you are planning to charge, you will find out how much you are actually getting for the charity from each "customer".

What you spend on providing the food and drink is what you yourself have donated. If your prices are too low, you will have been the main donor. If they don't even cover your costs, then you would have made more for your charity by just handing over the money direct.

You have not mentioned what you charge for the entrance. We have donation boxes instead Of set prices and on average get £5 per head for the entrance and around £6 for refreshments, which is scone, tea cake, cake or flapjack and top up of drinks.It is. Surprising how many people are happy to pay more for Hospice which is a brilliant cause. Well done to you hope you have lots of helpers.

Go for a fiver. Even that seems very reasonable. Nobody wants change rattling around in their pocket.

Seabreeze’s price list seems about right to me.
Cakes need to be priced differently as a slice of a large cake like Victoria Sandwich needs to cost more than a small slice of a traybake. If you have fruit cake that costs more to make.
Most folks are happy to pay more for homemade scones and cakes.
Good luck and Well done Sago . May the sun shine on your garden on Sunday ☀️

Definitely too cheap. Think in terms of what the market will bear. I wd start at £4.50.

Recently in Cornwall a takeaway was charging, for a one scone cream tea the princely sum (not Duchy!) of £9 - laughs hysterically. Locally a 2 (humungous) scone cream tea in a beautiful tea garden costs £5.95. Suffice to say I saved my pennies and took him indoors out on returning home.
Whatever you decide to charge everyone knows costs are going through the roof, so take care not to make a loss. Hospice costs are rising too. This sounds like a lot of hard work well done!

Do you hold Food Safety Certification?

If not, you should not be selling food to the public and can be reported and ultimately fined.

Just saying...

Thank you Harmonypuss I don’t have a certificate.
However I’m still going to go ahead and make as much money as I can for a good cause.

Good luck sago and hope you make a good bit for your local hospice.

I’ve been to two local village garden openings this year and the charge for tea or coffee and cake was £5 at both, as well as £5 for the gardens, so I think you could easily charge that Sago, especially as it’s for such a good cause and you are using china and teapots, cafetières etc, which sounds lovely! I don’t know where you are but hope the suns shines for you all on Sunday.

Thanks Crazy H Here’s a photo of some muffins I made for the last one.
I can’t post a photo of the garden full of people just in case!
Our 7 year old granddaughter is coming for the weekend and is desperate to take the orders on a notepad…..this could be interesting?.
I will let you all know how we get on.

Out of interest (as mine has lapsed during covid), I’ve just googled whether you need a food hygiene certificate to sell cakes and apparently you don’t if you are selling them for charity. The muffins look scrumptious, you definitely need to charge more! Many moons ago, my daughters helped at our Flower Show teas and they were brilliant, I’m sure your granddaughter will be too! Good luck.

It sounds like you live in a fantastic community Sago. I'd be no guide on the prices I'm afraid but I wish you sunshine, nice friendly visitors and great success.

Have a nice day and raise lots of dosh.

Pricing depends on what you think the community can afford. The prices you've given seem very reasonable. Not sure if I am picking up correctly but is it two scones per person? If so price is vety cheap. Not sure most people would eat two scones. Good luck for your wonderful effort do hope the weather is good