Baking Projects

Bake Sale for Japan…This Time With Photos!

April 9, 2011

As Maggie pointed out on her blog Flour Child, the Bake for Japan sale raised more than $120K and they’re still getting donations! All proceeds went to Peace Winds, an organization that helps bring relief to those suffering around the world and all of your donations went to the Japan branch. We raised $2,500 at the Akasha bake sale which helped bring Los Angeles’ total to $15, 484. The Los Angeles group was organized by Breanne Varela, the incredible pastry chef at Tavern (their macarons are truly incredible) and the national event by the awesome chef Samin Nostrat.

It was such a pleasure hanging out with bakers and other foodie types all day including Yuko of Hummingbird Catering, Karen, and Craig. Thank you Akasha for your hospitality and Cody for the double latte! I really needed it after getting only 3 hours of sleep the night before.

For the event, I made: chocolate macarons with peanut butter centers, dark chocolate truffles with peanut butter centers and dark chocolate truffles with chocolate caramel centers that were topped with sea salt. I have two more batches of sifted flour left that I can make more macarons from, so I’ll have to find a fun event to make those for. Like, a Tuesday.

The fun began midday Thursday when I ran out during lunch to get all of my ingredients. Then, Friday, after a quick jaunt to a friend’s party for an after work Pina Colada to celebrate what felt like summer winds coming in, I settled in to the kitchen. Given the lack of sleep I don’t remember the process exactly, but I think I have (finally?) learned my lesson that baking always takes longer than I think it will. Because, there is not just the baking, but the prepping and the presentation and all the other little things that add up to me running out the door at the last moment…and getting three hours of sleep. Next time, I will either need an assistant or to do less…anyone want to volunteer?

P.S. Thank you to Kate for doing the dishes. Next time, you might get roped into assisting. ::wink::