Food Bloggers Rock

I decided not to set my alarm this morning since I've been up baking until 3am and 2am the last couple nights. I guess it went to show me how much sleep I needed since my eyes opened to see 11:02am on my clock and a hungry doggie staring me in the face. All this baking was of course in preparation for the National Food Bloggers Bake Sale to raise money (no, not for Food Bloggers, like one guy asked) but for the charity Share Our Strength which fights to end childhood hunger (which would be quite different than ending "food bloggers' hunger"..)

Three different macaron flavors and three different macaron
fillings = not a lot of sleep over the last few nights

She planned this ONE MONTH before her wedding! ONE MONTH!

What a day it was! It was quite possibly as close to Perfect as it could have been!

• GORGEOUS weather (and after a gloomy rainy weekend, prior too)
• Lots of passersby walking dogs and babies and grandparents
• A fabulous group of not only talented but helpful, giving, funny, sweet and heck, good-lookin' bloggers who contributed and worked and donated baked goods!
• A wonderfully organized leader in Anita who rallied us just ONE MONTH before her own WEDDING. Folks, - ONE MONTH!!
• A SUPER accommodating and generous hostess in Celia at Omnivore Books
• Unbelievably chic packaged goodies - we looked SO professional!
• Ending on the high note of hearing Baking Goddess Rose Levy Beranbaum speak at Omnivore about her newest book Rose's Heavenly Cakes
  

Baby Gingersnaps and Lemon Madeleines

UNBELIEVABLE how fast that cake sold!

Spicy and Salty Caramel Corn - I ♥ this packaging

Ridiculous amounts of precision in those fruit tarts

I am SO proud and SO excited to report that San Francisco's food bloggers raised ONE-THOUSAND-SIX-HUNDRED-AND-FIFTY DOLLARS for Share Our Strength yesterday! $1650!!! *pausing for all the applause* *bowing* *patting Anita on the back* That there is one of the highest totals we've heard of being raised throughout the entire nation! Gaby, who came up with the phenomenal idea for food bloggers to host bake sales on 4/17, hosted her bake sales in LA and they came in at a whopping $2300!

Mike, the Money Man - look they're waving money at him even as he stands there!

GORGEOUS breads by Penni Wisner

Storefront on far left: Omnivore; Storefront on right: Noe Valley Pet Co.
Owned by two fantastic women - we're so thankful for them!

I feel like I'm still coming down off the high that was yesterday. Making some truly wonderful new friends. Chatting with baking fanatics from the hobbyists to the professionals. Seeing Rose Levy Beranbaum in the flesh! Even right down to visiting with all the friends who came out to support our bake sale and chat with me!

The PLACE to be on Saturday was that corner right there

Rose Levy Beranbaum speaks while Celia (owner of Omnivore) looks on

Some of the wonderful bloggers who contributed (and with whom I actually found the time to chat):

• Shauna at Piece of Cake (not only is she incredibly friendly - she has one beautiful little girl!)
• Daphne at Cooking San Francisco (made a very generous donation in the end and "adios-ed" a bunch of our leftover goodies)
• Allison at Bake Your Heart Out (turns out we're neighbors!)
• Irvin at Eat the Love (heard about the bake sale the morning of and still managed to bake!)
• Pat at Ringalings (also known for her ipies which currently sell at the Palo Alto Farmers Market)
• Faith at Blog Appetit (a friendly, happy face I got to chat "cakes" with most of the afternoon)
• Katie at I'd Have Baked a Cake (hilarious. HILARIOUS. And worked so hard all day long!)

There were something like 19 other contributing bakers/bloggers that I either did not meet, or do not have a blog - but HUGE shouts out to all of you as well!!

By 4pm we'd transitioned from 5 tables down to 2! GREAT selling!

I ♥ this blogging community! We rock!!