December 4, 2011

Our bake sale for In-Sync Exotics is only a week away, so our ovens are in turbo mode and there’s lots to do!  Here’s a quick update:

• These glittery cookie boxes are finished and waiting to be filled with goodies.  I’ll give you a quick little how-to on making them as soon as I can get the chocolate and sugar off my hands.

• Remember these painted cross magnets I made around Easter? They make great Christmas gifts and stocking stuffers, so I’m getting them dressed up in Christmasy boxes for the sale.

• SisMama has already baked oodles of pound cakes in vanilla, chocolate, lemon and brown sugar/caramel flavors. Go, SisMama!

• K & L have baked breads in apple cinnamon, spice, cranberry and blueberry flavors.  They’re also working on doggie treats and bunches of cookies this weekend.

• I have pumpkin walnut and banana chocolate chip gluten-free breads done, plus 3 varieties of biscotti (gingerbread, chocolate/chocolate chip and dried cherry orange), and 3 kinds of brownies so far.

• We have some nibbles on matching our sales, and continue to market the event as well as more baking this week.

• CityVet is graciously sponsoring our event for the second year in a row.  They have donated items for the sale, and are considering doing more for this worthy charity.  A huge thanks to CityVet for their support!

That’s it for now, I have cookies to check on!  Stay tuned for more!

~BigSis

November 6, 2011

It’s official, we’ve chosen our charity for this year’s Bake Sale. Drumroll please…it’s In-Sync Exotics in Wylie, Texas!

In-Sync Exotics may be new to many folks.  It was to me and my fellow bakers until a year or so ago.  In-Sync is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to the rescue of unwanted, neglected and abused felines.

And by “felines” we aren’t talking about little housecats. We mean BIG cats; much much bigger than my 16 pound Gaby whom LilSis calls the fat cat with the little head.

In-Sync was founded in 2000 and is currently home to 59 tigers, lions, leopards, bobcats, cougars, cheetahs, lynx, servals and one honorary cat named Nugget who is a Coatimundi.

This is the fifth year for our Charity Bake Sale, which has been held to benefit the SPCA of Texas for the last three years.  We decided to select a smaller charity this year – a bit below the radar – who might benefit from our little fundraiser and the attention it could bring to a group in need.  We still support the SPCA of Texas personally, and continue to appreciate the crucial work they do every day in North Texas.

Back to In-Sync now.  I had the chance to visit their big kitties last weekend, along with a couple of my fellow bakers.  We spent a few hours enjoying the annual Pumpkin Bash, where the cats all get a pumpkin to play with/eat/destroy/ignore.  We absolutely fell in love with the cats and the place, and the work that’s being done here.

In a perfect world, these cats would be running free in their native habitat but this world isn’t perfect.  Not even close.  These guys have suffered at the hands of humans, and needed a safe place to recover from the physical and emotional damage inflicted on them.

In-Sync is that safe place.  Big wild cats can’t be placed in furever homes like cats and dogs can, and they can’t be released into the wild.  Big cats need a place to live out the rest of their days, where they can receive medical care, a clean environment, nourishing food, enriching playtime, and love.

Since these cats will stay at In-Sync forever, and more cats continue to unfortunately come in, In-Sync’s need for funding will only grow as time goes on.  They are currently trying to raise $30,000 to build a home for the two cheetahs who recently joined them.

The four of us girls are going to bake our little hearts out to try to help in our small way.  Stay tuned for more details as we approach this year’s Bake Sale on December 12th.  Meanwhile enjoy a few photos of Jett the spotted leopard enjoying the Pumpkin Bash!

For the record, the final score was Jett 1, Pumpkin 0.  ^..^

Note: All photos were taken by BigSis and published with the permission of In-Sync Exotics.

~BigSis

December 19, 2010

The 2010 SPCA Christmas Bake Sale is now history!  We held the charity event last Monday, and contributions are still coming in but the total amount raised so far is $3,265.  We’re short of our $4,000 goal, but considering all of the obstacles that confronted us this year, we’re pretty happy to have raised that amount!  We wanted to beat last year’s $4,023 total but we’re thankful for what we have.

Our conference room wasn’t available this year, so our management company allowed us to use an empty suite on the first floor.  We liked the accessibility of the ground floor space, but the large concrete-floored room presented an ambiance challenge.  We used lots of signs and color, and fabrics on our tables.  The focus was on the goodies available for purchase to benefit the animals anyway, not the interior design, right?

We had a wide selection of cakes, breads, candy, treats, cookies and brownies to choose from.  The biggest change this year was that all 15 items that I baked were vegan, and I was really happy with how they came out.

Here are some photos from our wild and crazy day!

Cakes and Breads

SisMama's Cream Cheese Pound Cake: DEEEElicious!

Cookies and Brownies

Vegan Cookies

Vegan Cranberry Orange Macadamia Biscotti

Reindeer Bucket O' Biscotti sold out quickly!

Treats and more treats

Santa's Spiced Pecans surrounded by more goodies!

Huge thanks to our first SPCA Bake Sale Sponsor: CityVet!

Thanks to CityVet and to everyone who helped us raise a bunch more money for the SPCA of Texas!  We appreciate you and look forward to next year!

~BigSis

December 12, 2010

As I mentioned with great enthusiasm and anticipation last the week, our 3rd Annual Bake Sale for the SPCA of Texas is TODAY, Monday, December 13!  100% of the proceeds go directly to the SPCA.

Last year, our sale raised over $4,000 in one day, and we hope to repeat that success this year.  Here are the details:

Location: Dallas, Texas (If you can come, please email me for the address)

Time: 8 am until 6 pm or sell-out, whichever comes first!

If you can’t attend but you’d like to support the SPCA of Texas, you can contribute through this web page:  http://www.spca.org/bakesale

Thanks in advance for your support!  Stay tuned for photos and the scoop on the outcome of the day!

~BigSis

December 8, 2010

This December 13th will be our 4th charity bake sale, and the 3rd one we’ve done at Christmas for the SPCA of Texas.  Since I stopped eating and using eggs and dairy products this last January, I needed to find some great new recipes for this year’s sale.  We’ve been blessed with great success and happy customers that return year after year, so scrapping all of my old recipes and starting over was a daunting proposition!  I was especially motivated to find some fabulous goodies after a hater told me I’d be disappointed because no one would buy “that vaygan stuff”!

I bought several vegan baking cookbooks and did a lot of online research, and finally swooped into the kitchen to get my hands dirty.  I’ve been baking up a storm in my lab (aka kitchen) for the last several weeks, trying out new recipes.  The latest test: Oatmeal Dried Cherry Cookies adapted from Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook.

These cookies had a great flavor, and would have been excellent if I hadn’t over-baked them by a couple of minutes.  That’s why I test though.  I have a rule that I never make a recipe for the bake sale without taking it for a test drive first.

I’m pretty excited with the successes I’ve had.  I actually have well over a dozen things to choose from.  These are my favorite options.

• Cranberry Lemon Zing Oat Bars – The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes: Amazing Cookies, Cakes, Muffins, Pies, Brownies and Breads

• Super Moist Pumpkin Bread from Allrecipes

• Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Coconut Cookies adapted from Epicurious

• Spicy Peanut Brittle -  My Sweet Vegan: passionate about dessert

• Coconut Fudge – My Sweet Vegan: passionate about dessert

• Crumb Topped Brownies -  My Sweet Vegan: passionate about dessert

• Rice Krispie Treats with Almond Butter -  The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet

• Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie with Peanuts and Almond Meal adapted from Cookie Madness

• Giant Wheat-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies from Cookie Madness

• Almond Toffee adapted from Cookie Madness

• Soft Peanut Brittle from Cookie Madness

• Gluten-Free Banana Chocolate Chip Bread from Babycakes NYC

• Gluten-Free Brownies from Babycakes NYC

• Mexican Chocolate Snickerdoodles -  Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar: 100 Dairy-Free Recipes for Everyone’s Favorite Treats

• Gingerbread Biscotti – Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar: 100 Dairy-Free Recipes for Everyone’s Favorite Treats

• Cranberry Orange Macadamia Biscotti -  Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar: 100 Dairy-Free Recipes for Everyone’s Favorite Treats

• Kitchen Sink Biscotti with Peppermint and Chocolate Chips -  Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar: 100 Dairy-Free Recipes for Everyone’s Favorite Treats

There’s much more baking to be done so I’m dashing back to the kitchen for more baking frenzy.  I’ll be back next week with photos from the sale, and hopefully a big donation to the SPCA to report!

~BigSis

December 31, 2009

We have one more little topic to wrap up for 2009 just as we fly into 2010…the SPCA Bake Sale results, of course!  The sale was held for one day only on December 14th, and we thankfully sold every crumb we had!  We also had a web site set up for donations from out-of-town folks, or for local friends who just couldn’t make the sale.

So here are the results.  Drum roll, please!  The web site donations are $405, and the one-day sale of baked goodies brought in $3618.  That makes our grand total so far $4023!  Woo hoo!!

We are enormously grateful for the support of our friends, family, fellow tenants, our building’s management, and an awesome SMU fraternity.  Thank you so much for showing your love to the animals and to the SPCA of Texas in a huge way! We baked our fannies off, but without all of you, it would have been for nothing!

Here are some photos from the sale.  You can get an idea of how much we started with, but what you can’t see is that we have boxes and boxes of more goodies under the table!  We sold it ALL!

Cakes and breads all lined up before the sale started at 8 am.

Bars and brownies are ready to be snatched up and gobbled up!

Cookies were all huddled together here.

All the treats were organized in happy little rows here.

Almond Toffee and Soft Peanut Brittle went into these cute little totes.

Cakes and breads were packaged in tall treat bags from PaperMart.

Brownies and other bars got these cute Treat Toppers from Hobby Lobby.

3 kinds of fudge were molded into shapes, and then decorated.

Cinnamon and Peanut Butter Fudge close-up.

Pretzels got a dip in chocolate, and then a swoosh and a drizzle of cuteness.

The cutest gift bags ever were donated by LilSis!

Thanks again to everyone! We can’t wait until next year!

~BigSis

December 15, 2009

The 2009 SPCA Bake Sale is now history.  We started setting up at 6 am, opened the doors at 8 am, and left the building at 6 pm.  It was a long day, but it was incredible fun.

Our goal was to beat last year’s donation of $3055.  Our little team started baking 3 or 4 weeks ago, and we pulled out every trick in the hat to try to make our goodies irrestible to buyers. We emailed everyone we know, we sent out press releases, we lined up the most irresistible sample girls you could ever meet, and we talked about nothing but the SPCA and cookies for the last month.  We decorated, packaged and labeled until we were loopy.

How did we do?  I’m too fried to remember how to get pictures off my camera today, and we don’t have a final total yet because donations are still coming in online.  I’ll just leave you with one little teaser for now.  We are humbled and amazed and incredibly grateful.  How much money do you think that 5 baking girls could raise in one day if their bake sale sold out?  What if God showed up in a big way to answer their prayers?  What could happen?

I’ll come back later to tell you.  If I come down off Cloud Nine long enough to type again.

~BigSis

December 14, 2009

It’s finally here; the day we’ve been working toward and looking forward to since last year’s sale that resulted in a $3,055 donation to the SPCA of Texas!

The baking and packaging is all done, and now all we can do is sell these goodies!  Our goal is another $3000 for our favorite charity, and we pray pray pray that we make it!  Our secret fantasy – not so secret now – is that we sell everything we’ve made!  How incredible would that be!

If you’re in the Dallas area, email me for directions at bigsis at bigsislilsis dot com.  We’d love to see you!

If you’re not in the area and you’d like to help these little furkids, you can donate at http://www.spca.org/goto/bakesale.  If you use this url, the SPCA can see that your contribution came through our event, and we can send you a thank you!

Thanks for your support, your well wishes, and your prayers for a successful event today!

~BigSis

December 7, 2009

Our “little baking team that could” has been baking up a storm the last two weekends, and we have just one more week to get everything baked, packaged and organized!

We’re trying to raise another $3000 for the SPCA of Texas here in Dallas.  Last year’s sale raised $3055 and we really hope we can do better than that for the animals this year.

It seems like an overwhelming task to prepare $3000 worth of baked goodies, and then sell them all in just one day.  We all agree though that this is some of the biggest fun we have all year long!

So far, I have bunches of these things wrapped up in my freezer:

• Cranberry Pumpkin Bread with Walnuts

• Vegan Pumpkin Bread with Walnuts

• Strawberry Bread with Pecans

• Texas Pecan Pie Bars from the Pastry Queen

• Texas Pecan Pie Bars with Chocolate and Bourbon from the Pastry Queen

• Barefoot Contessa’s Outrageous Brownies

• Barefoot Contessa’s Outrageous Brownies with Mint Oreos

• Barefoot Contessa’s Outrageous Brownies with Bittersweet Chocolate Chips and Walnuts

SisMama has made a whole slew of awesome pound cakes in lots of flavors, and K & P have made oodles of breads.

Next weekend, we’ll be making all of the candies and other treats that we don’t want to freeze.  If you’re in the Dallas area, email me or leave a comment if you’d like to come visit us at the sale and I’ll send you the details.  If you’d like to donate to the SPCA of Texas but you’re too far away to visit us, you can use the web site that’s been set up for our donations.  It’s http://www.spca.org/goto/bakesale.

Meanwhile, wish us well!  The SPCA of Texas – like lots of animal organizations right now – is in serious need of funds in this economy, and we’d really like to help!

~BigSis

November 16, 2009

With our SPCA Bake Sale looming on the calendar, I’ve been busy planning and test-driving a couple of new recipes.  The last thing I need during the baking frenzy is a recipe that doesn’t work!  I have a bunch of tried-and-true favorites that I’m making, but still wandered through my cookbook collection in search of some new goodies to try.  I flipped through Carole Walter’s “Great Cookies”, and found a dark chocolaty recipe called Triple Chocolate Peppermint Bars that sounded crazy good.

You make a dark chocolate shortbread base and then top it with a dark chocolate brownie filling that has peppermint schnapps in it.  Then you cover the whole thing with a thin chocolate ganache that has even more schnapps in it.  How bad could that possibly be!  It certainly deserved a test-drive!

I didn’t have schnapps so I used peppermint extract instead, and left the ganache layer off since I thought it might be too smeary and messy once it’s packaged in a cute little treat bag.  The top got a sprinkle of crushed candy canes instead.

Can I just say YUMMY??  Oh, mommy, these have an incredible chocolate flavor!  Maybe I loved them so much because I adore chocolate shortbread and brownies and peppermint.

Only one little problem…my bars didn’t come out looking anything like the photo.  I expected the bars to be kind of chunky and thick, but mine came out very thin; only about 1/2″.  Phooey.  I can’t figure out what I might have done wrong, if anything, but I guess it doesn’t matter.  I think the bars are too thin and fragile to work well for the bake sale, which is a bummer, but this recipe is a keeper!  If I make them again and don’t need to package them, I’ll definitely add the ganache layer!

~BigSis