Vegan Bake Sale for Haiti - Pics!!

Yesterday was our local Bake Sale for Haiti, and we raised a grand total of $1869.33 for "Partners in Health"!!! Huge thanks to everyone who baked and all those who bought baked goodies. We even had a few unexpected baked good deliveries, which was so awesome. Plus, special thanks to the Santa Cruz Sentinel for helping us by getting an article in the paper yesterday morning, and to Bookshop Santa Cruz for letting us be located out in front of their store... complete with an emergency plan in case of rain!

Here's our table, getting all set up and squared away...

I did a LOT of baking for the sale... and thoroughly enjoyed myself. As I told Mr. Vegan Eats & Treats, I think you can tell you really enjoy something if you do it ALL DAY LONG, and feel great at the end of the day. Here's what I made...

Cinnamon Rolls!! My maiden voyage. (I used the recipe from Vegan Brunch) Actually my first batch didn't get a great rise, so I did a 2nd batch, which resulted in these beauties. They were the first thing to sell out. Next time we do a bake sale, I will remember this and make more of them. The upside of this bake sale activity was raising so much money for an important cause, and having a great time with my culinary pals. Potential downside of this bake sale was learning that it's really not so hard to make an entire batch of cinnamon rolls after all. DANGER!

A batch of Pumpkin Bran Muffins, also from Vegan Brunch... for the healthy-minded who wanted a little extra fiber and veggie nutrients with their sweetie experience.

BROWNIES. Yes, a bake sale is not a bake sale without brownies. I made a triple batch of my go-to recipe from "Joy of Vegan Baking." No oil, 10 minutes to assemble... such a forgiving and totally delicious recipe.

Lemon Bars! From Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. After the cinnamon rolls, these were second in line to sell out. So pretty and cheery with that bright yellow!

Gluten Free Brownie Bites from Babycakes. You can't tell, but these are mini, in mini-cupcake holders, complete with mini-chips. I really wanted to have something there for my GF friends. I know what a bummer it is to look at a big display of baked goods and feel left out!

MittenMachen's Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. Amazing! I hadn't made this recipe before, but I know MM doesn't mess around with low standards, so I had total faith in this recipe. Totally delicious.

A big batch of the always-amazing Glazed Gingerbread Tiles, which I also made for our recent Holiday Cookie Exchange Party.

Citrus Glitters, with lemon, lime, and orange zest. OMZ!!! These were SO GOOD. I had a general policy of not snacking on the goodies I made for this sale (both to maximize fund-raising potential, and because I made so much stuff)... but luckily there was a little runt piece of cookie dough left, so I made one mini citrus glitter cookie to sample. Mmmm. I remembered someone who had been a tester for Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar saying that this was one of her favorite recipes from the book. I'll definitely make these again!

"You Got Peanut Butter in My Chocolate" Cookies, from Vive Le Vegan.

Sohpia's beautiful cupcakes!! She did Banana, Chocolate, and Carrot Cake cuppers, with raspberry, chocolate, and cream cheese (vegan, of course!) frosting. And the flavors were mixed around, so you could get banana with chocolate frosting or with cream cheeze... and so on. They were beautiful and sparkly, and they looked so cute on the little cake stand.

Sophia's Chocolate-Almond Biscotti. Mmmm.

Here's the spread. I feel like sort of a louse, because I got distracted with sales and didn't finish getting close ups of the goodies other bakers made:

Nikki made some crazy good chocolate truffles with coconut & lime. Half were coated with lime zest & the other half with coconut. More than one person bought one, tasted it, and then bought a lot more. They were great!

Melissa made Lemon Poppyseed Shortbreads, Chocolate-chocolate-almond Cookies, and Date Bars. We tried for a more glorious name than Date Bars, but then we decided Date Bars was plenty appealing, and since they had no trouble selling, apparently we were right!

Plus, our friends who just showed up - I think it was Bethany who brought a TON of brownie cupcakes, Vivian who brought Coconut Lemon Cupcakes, and Jocelyn who brought vanilla cake with cherry frosting with chocolate truffle shavings on top.

People were so great - very enthusiastic about vegan baked goodies, and generous for the people of Haiti. We did some asking around before the sale, and decided to sell everything by donation. Some folks could only pay a dollar or even $.50 for something, but others were able to pay $20 for a couple of cupcakes. It was a great way to do the "sale," because we were able to raise more for Partners in Health than if we had just done "cookies for $2, cupcakes for $3," or whatever. Plus, there was something for everyone, which felt nice.

We had many happy customers, but a few of the kiddos were EXTRA cute. This sweet little dude dove right into that big mound of frosting and then handed the cupcake-sans-frosting back to his mom. Ha!

The End! We sold out 1 hour early - there was SUCH great turnout! By a lovely circumstance, my mom walked up JUST IN TIME to buy the very last cookie. Perfect!

Thanks to everyone who helped with such a successful event!

Vegan Bake Sale for Haiti - This Saturday!

Be there, or be square! We are going to have a load of tasty items, and there will be something for everyone: gluten-free, soy-free, chocolatey, fruity, tiny, huge... take your pick!

Locals & non-locals, stay tuned for a massive post of vegan baked goodies!

Nature's Bounty!

What better way to kick off 2010 than with a big plate of Fronch Toast with homemade jam and a Cara Cara orange from our very own orange tree!? Auspicious beginning.

We got more goodies from the garden when I noticed that our turnips were bulging up and calling out to me. This is my first time ever growing turnips, but not my last. One of my yoga students gave us a packet of seeds for these turnips, and they grew so quickly and were so delicious. I have 3 more runts in the ground and hope to plant a new row or two sometime soon.

I took those turnips and made a batch of Potato-Turnip Soup from "Vegan Italiano" - it was smooth and hearty and perfectly full of turnip-y flavor. We loved it! I haven't used that book much, but not really for any good reason. I was really happy to find this recipe, and wasn't at all surprised that it turned out exactly as described!

Meanwhile, I took ALL THOSE turnip greens and braised them with a little garlic and veggie broth. Mr. Vegan Eats & Treats, hater of all bitter greens, was most emphatically not impressed. They were definitely on the bitter side, but I enjoyed them very much and summarily ate 'em up!

Along with the soup, I made a little side dish... Our lovely friend Gil dropped by in the afternoon with a bag of enormous Chantarelle mushrooms that he had picked out in the forest. These were about 5-6 inches across. It was so generous of him to share with us! He gave me some good instructions on how to cook them up:

Wash them thoroughly. TEAR them up (don't cut, he says). Heat in a skillet with a little oil and a little lemon juice and a little salt. Once they release their juices and are boiling in the juices, drain off the liquid to a separate pan. Then, add a little onion or garlic (I used shallot) and saute til done. Meanwhile, reduce the liquids in another small pan. Then, combine the two elements when complete.

As the world's former Number One Mushroom Hater, I have to say that I really enjoyed the delicious smells of cooking up these mushrooms. But, once I tossed them over a little rotini pasta, I couldn't muster up too much enthusiasm. Ah well, turnip greens for me, mushroom pasta for Mr. VE&Ts. Luckily, nature provided something for each of us to enjoy!