The Bake Sale: Cupcakes

And so begins the final chapter of the bake sale saga. We've already covered the loaves and cookies. Now on to the star of the show - the cupcakes!

The original plan was to make chocolate/chocolate, vanilla/vanilla, and coconut lime. All three are tried and true recipes for me so I figured the whole thing would be a breeze. Then I started thinking. This is a problem I have. I think, and I think, and I think some more. Before you know it, I'm totally off my original course. A co-worker, and fellow cupcake connoisseur, (hi Caitlyn!) suggested that I switch up the frostings I was already making in order to create some more variety. The result of this genius idea (that never even crossed my mind) was the addition of chocolate/vanilla and vanilla/chocolate to the mix. At this point I had five distinct cupcake/frosting combinations and thought that was plenty. 

The chocolate and vanilla cupcakes were my go-to recipes. Martha's chocolate buttermilk and Paula Deen's 1-2-3-4 cake. The frostings were the decadent chocolate concoction from the Cupcake Camp award winners and a vanilla bean icing sugar and butter frosting from Martha's cupcake book. Mmm...

Chocolate/chocolate

Chocolate/vanilla

Vanilla/vanilla (you can see the vanilla seeds!)

Vanilla/chocolate

The coconut lime cupcakes have been described here before. They are the same ones I used for the fun Peeps cupcakes I made at Easter using the great recipe from the Coconut & Lime blog. I also discovered they were a judges favorite at Cupcake Camp Ottawa when I read judge Lynne Frappier's post on the event. Totally off topic but, if you enjoy this blog at all, you should also check out hers!

Coconut, lime, and buttermilk

Now, at this point, you'd think I would have left well enough alone. I'd been baking for over five hours. I had about 100 good looking cupcakes ready to go. I was ready to crawl into my bed. But no. I had a brainstorm. "There's leftover rhubarb in the fridge. I have a block of cream cheese. Why not make those delicious rhubarb cupcakes again and top them with cream cheese icing?" So I did. And they were amazing. By far my favorite cupcake of the day. Martha's rhubarb recipe topped with some random standard cream cheese icing recipe I pulled up on the internet. 

And this brings us to the end of my tale of the front stoop bake sale. It was a lot of work for decent reward. I had fun, which is probably the most important thing. I had lots of friend stop by and keep me company through the day. Would I do it again? That I'm not so sure about but never say never!


Now that I've finished baking because I have to what would you like to see me feature on the blog?

Lots of Loaves

I've been a bad blogger. I posted last week about the big bake sale I prepped for and pulled off and promised to post more about what I made, and I haven't yet. But here I am! Last week was absolutely insane and I just wasn't able to get it done. Hopefully I didn't keep you waiting too long. 

Let's start off with the loaves. When I decided on this whole bake sale endeavor I was only planning on making cupcakes. Then I remembered this thing was going to start off early in the morning and maybe it would be a good idea to add some sort of baked good that was a little more breakfasty. Hence, the addition of the loaves.

The first recipe that came to mind was another one that I used to make for my roommates in Australia, Burt Wolf's banana bread. My decision was made for me when my coworker, Karen, offered me some bananas from the stash in her freezer. I thought about branching out and trying a new recipe instead of my tried and true. It just felt a little boring. I checked out a bunch of blogs and all of my cookbooks but, after a very thorough search I decided to go with what I knew instead. I probably hadn't made the recipe in at least seven or eight years but a recipe stays the same, right? I doubled the recipe to suit the number of bananas I had and added chocolate chips to half. I'm wild and crazy, I know. Breakfast doesn't have to be totally healthy, right?

Before

After

They look like they turned out pretty well. I have to be honest though, I never actually tried them, so I have absolutely no idea what they tasted like! No complaints from the customers though so I'm hoping for the best.

A couple of days after the banana donation, Karen brought me a big bunch of rhubarb from her garden. We'd been talking about my love of it for weeks and I was pretty excited when it was finally ready to eat. Since I had more ingredients, I decided to make another loaf. Why not? I decided to try out a Canadian Living recipe for rhubarb loaf. Three factors played into that decision - 1. it used buttermilk and I had lots to use up, 2. it didn't call for butter and I was afraid I wasn't going to have enough, and 3. it made two loaves which meant I could take one in to work and share it. 

Before - I forgot to take a picture of the after

These I did taste and they were delicious. Moist and tasty. I will most definitely be using this recipe again. Minimal ingredients for maximum results. The only change I made was to the topping. I threw in some oats and 1/4 cup of flour to make it a little more crunchy and to make it go a little further. 

I think the loaves were a good decision. They were pretty popular and the first things to go. If I ever do this again, I'll be sure to make more!

Bake Sale

How was your weekend? In a word, mine was busy. This past Saturday was the second annual Hintonburg Neighborhood Garage Sale. When I heard about the sale I somehow had the brilliant idea to join in the festivities with a sale of my own...a bake sale. I welcomed the opportunity to make some extra money and figured it was a good time to get out, enjoy the weather, and get to know some of my neighbors. 

Can I interest you in a cupcake?

Some people were super keen on the whole thing. A few of my neighbors asked if this was going to be a regular occurrence. A surprising number of them thought I was just hanging out selling my wares for the heck of it and had no idea about the event going on. While I'm keen to put some cash in my pocket, even I'm not shameless enough to just randomly set up shop on the sidewalk! A few other people were not so keen on my endeavor. One couple asked which charity the proceeds were going towards and, when I said "none", they rolled their eyes with a disgusted "oh" and walked away. While I can appreciate their asking, I figured I had as much right to sell my product and profit from it as any of the people down the street trying to ditch their old coat hangers and VHS tapes.

In preparation, I spent a lot of last week in the kitchen. Since I made so many different things I'll be sharing what I made with you over the next week or two. In the meantime I just wanted to give you a taste of what I've been up to. 

Ever wonder what 10 dozen cupcakes looks like?

My humble little stand

All in all, I'd say the whole thing was a success, thanks in large part to my friends and co-workers who stopped by to keep me company and support the cause. While I may not choose to spend another 6 hours baking cupcakes any time soon, I think the effort was worth it. 

Did you do anything different this weekend?