Bake sale in San Francisco!

The bake sale in San Francisco was a huge success and we ended up raising over $3000! Thank you to everyone who showed up to support us and Share our Strength. It was also a great opportunity to meet a group of lovely women who organized and ran the event. I had a shift later in the day and got to interact with a couple lovely ladies. Always a pleasure.

While preparing for the bake sale, I wanted to make sure that whatever I made was aesthetically pleasing and appealing to the eye in addition to being tasty and adventurous. My gut feeling was to stay away from traditional baked goods like chocolate chip cookies and brownies, but turns out they are huge sellers at a bake sale! I did however make these delicious spicy chocolate chip cookies from a recipe my sister gave me, and those stood out to me, by far.

For the aesthetically pleasing, I was set on making assorted cupcakes. I had initially wanted to make them all vegan, but I didn't necessarily have the time to figure out the conversion of ingredients. I have an excellent book dedicated to cupcakes and I had tried some of the recipes before so I decided to go with what I knew. In retrospect though, I do think assorted vegan cucpakes may have been more of a crowd pleaser. O well, they did turn out really beautiful in those pretty pink boxes.

Speaking of the pretty pink boxes, a big thank you to Kara's cupcakes in Palo Alto for letting me purchase these boxes for a super low price. You see, I had been roaming all around town looking for the perfect box for my mini-cupcakes. I went to Michaels, William's Sonoma and Sur La Table and while they had some options for regular-sized cupcakes, none of them had mini-cupcake holders. I was ABOUT to leave dejectedly(I figured I'd have to make the boxes myself somehow) when I saw Kara's cupcakes and decided to ask them. They were so gracious and kind, and I ended up buying 10 boxes for 50c each. Not shabby at all, and I'm sure it would have been more expensive had I purchased them at one of the above mentioned stores. Needless to say, I was mighty pleased with the results of that excursion.

I'm not posting all my recipes, but here are my favorites:

Spicy chocolate chip cookies(sister's recipe)

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsweetened Mexican cocoa powder (or substitute by adding 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon to unsweetened cocoa powder)

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

6 tablespoons sweet butter, at room temperature

  1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tbsp chocolate chips

  ground black pepper

cayenne/chili powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg white

Directions

1. Mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Mix thoroughly and set aside. Combine the sugars in a small bowl and mix well. 

2. In a medium mixing bowl, using a hand mixer, beat the butter  until creamy. Add the sugar mixture, cinnamon, peppers, and vanilla. Beat on high about 1 minute. Beat in the egg white. Add the flour mixture, beating on the lowest speed, and add in the chocolate chips at the very end. 

3. Form it into a neat log with your hands. Refrigerate for about an hour.

4. Cut the log into quarter-inch discs and place on cookie sheet. Bake for about 13 minutes at 350 F. 

Assorted cupcakes

Mocha Cupcakes (adapted from http://www.lovintheoven.com/2009/04/mocha-cupcakes-with-kahlua-cream-cheese.html)
Ingredients
2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
1 cup yogurt
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
5 1/2 rounded tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup water
4 tablespoons espresso powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract


Directions
1. Preheat over to 350 degrees F. Insert liners into a cupcake pan.

2. Beat the sugar, butter, and eggs until fluffy and mix in the yogurt. 

3. Mix together the flour, baking soda, cocoa, and salt in a separate bowl.

4. Combine the water, coffee and vanilla. Alternate adding the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar/sour cream mixture with the coffee mixture and mix thoroughly.

5. Fill the cupcake liners three-quarters full. Bake for 20-25 minutes 

Kahlua Frosting
5 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
2.5 tablespoons Kahlua
16 ounces powdered sugar

1. Cream together cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Mix in Kahlua, and powdered sugar. Apply to cupcakes.

Coconut cupcakes (adapted from http://asweetfantasy.blogspot.com/2008/06/coconut-cupcakes.html)
Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup yogurt
1 cup shredded coconut


Cream Cheese Icing
8 ounces cream cheese, cold
4 ounces butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar


1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

2. Beat together the oil, sugar and eggs until thick and smooth. Beat in vanilla. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; add to the liquid mixture and beat until smooth. Beat in yogurt and add the coconut. Bake for 22 minutes. 

3. For the icing, beat together cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add the vanilla extract; then confectioners sugar. Beat in some milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, if icing is too thick.

Packaging and pictures!

My favorite part was packaging the goods. I also loved how the assorted cupcakes looked in the pink boxes. I also made vegan banana bread, butterfly lemon cupcakes and mint-basil cupcakes. I'm so glad I was able to partake in the event! What a great baking treat!