Carb Loading at the Upscale Bake Sale
I love me a good bake sale. Don’t you think there should be more of them?
Today was the third annual Upscale Bake Sale to benefit the Calgary Inter-faith Food Bank as part of the CBC Suncor Food Bank Drive. Every December we gather – a few of the best bakers in Calgary and I, along with a slew of volunteers – in the lobby of the Suncor building for one lunch hour and sell as many baked goods as we can muster, with all – one hundred percent – of the proceeds going to benefit the food bank.
Aviv Fried of Sidewalk Citizen Bakery was there with loaves, scones and freshly sliced bread with jam – blackberry from Salt Spring and the Best Damn Jam from the winner of the Bowness jam-a-thon.
The awesome Jennifer from Brûlée Patisserie brought her pecan and cranberry sticky buns (my undoing), wee fruitcakes, Russian tea cakes, shortbread and other delights,
The also very amazing Tanya from Urban Baker brought stollen, loaves of bread – including her rosemary-apple-flax, and vanilla bean marshmallows, sponge toffee, cookies and more.
Pam from Decadent Desserts brought a flourless chocolate torte, a chocolate raspberry-filled yule log, espresso shortbread and the mother of all cookie trays…
… and Toni from Buttercream Bakeshoppe brought cupcakes. EVERYTHING was donated.
All brought far more than that, but there was so much I couldn’t possibly remember every variety of freshly baked goodie. I’m so grateful to all of them for their generosity, for donating not only fantastic, beautifully packaged baked goods, but their time to come down, set up, sell and chat with people. I baked cookies and cupcakes that met their disastrous demise immediately before the bake sale started. I don’t want to talk about it.
The tally just came in – we raised $3492.80 in an hour – which of course translates to $13,968 worth of food for the food bank, since they can turn ever dollar donated into $4 worth of food. Thanks to everyone who came down and helped out, chipped in or bought a sticky bun for a good cause!
It’s been a long day. CBC. Slowfood Calgary steering committee meeting. Bake sale. Work for this magazine, and this one. And some stuff for the new Swerve Calgary website that’s about to launch at the end of this week, and I can’t wait to show you. And then this one had a Christmas party at Rouge. Silver lining: I got to hang with one of my favourite people. Don’t you love clicking on things? Are you procrastinating, too?
Tomorrow I’m meeting with Bernard Callebaut – I can’t even link to his store anymore! – to get the scoop on his new chocolate line. I know the name already, but I’m not telling. Crazy, though, that he’ll be going up against the brand he built for 25 years this holiday season.
Getting punchy. Must away to bed, but wanted to tell you about the bake sale, and thank all the participants (amazing people, all of them) before weeks and months slipped by and I found myself reminiscing in a post about it on some day in February. You know it could happen.
December 07 2010 10:09 pm | eating out
Merry120 on 07 Dec 2010 at 11:28 pm #
I was so bummed that I couldn’t make it to the sale. All the items look amazing!
bellini on 08 Dec 2010 at 7:16 am #
Such a good cause Julie. Can’t wait to hear about Bernard. I lived in Calgary when he first started his shop there.
Robyn on 08 Dec 2010 at 9:13 am #
i LOVE a good bake sale, especially this time of year. we had one at work last week to benefit united way. i made mini peanut butter chocolate chip cheesecakes.
JulieVR on 08 Dec 2010 at 9:19 am #
Mini peanut butter chocolate chip cheesecakes!!! Hello!
Fiona on 08 Dec 2010 at 9:22 am #
That bake sale looks (and sounds) amazing. I’m sorry I missed it.
I’m excited to hear about the new BC line. That’s awesome. I love his chocolate.
wanda on 08 Dec 2010 at 12:31 pm #
Wow….that doesn’t even come close to any bake sale I’ve seen. Everything looks delectable!
Jennifer on 08 Dec 2010 at 9:01 pm #
So many delicious things, I rolled back to my desk. I learned my lesson last year – go early!!
Erica B. on 08 Dec 2010 at 11:30 pm #
OOoh pics like this make me sad we moved (the lack of traffic however….)
I’m baking for a charity bake sale at the girls’ school next week. What to make? I was going to make batches of Pioneer Woman’s Cinnamon Rolls since the recipe makes a ton. What sells well at bake sales??
JulieVR on 08 Dec 2010 at 11:44 pm #
Jen’s cinnamon buns always sell well!
Rebecca on 09 Dec 2010 at 8:48 am #
oh how i wish there were bake sales like this where i live. those bagged goodies appear divine. sometimes i see baked goods at our farmer’s market, but that’s open may-october. maybe i’ll have to organize a bake sale… thanks for providing excellent inspiration.
Tom on 10 Dec 2010 at 6:02 am #
Hey all…great software to store all of your recipes http://www.requiredsoftware.com/recipes
… Merry Christmas and a happy new year to everybody