Bunny Cakes

One Day Without Shoes

Yesterday, April 5th, many of my coworkers and I went without shoes for the entire day.  This event, called One Day Without Shoes, was organized by TOMS Shoes to raise awareness of the many kids throughout the world without shoes and the impact one pair of shoes can make.  For those of you who don't know about TOMS One for One Movement: for every pair of shoes you buy TOMS will give a new pair of shoes to a child in need.  The company I work for pushed to get everyone to participate (can't complain about that) and they even provided cupcakes.  

TOMS has come out with some nice wedges for the Spring. I ordered mine in 'Kenya Stripe', but if they are as comfy as I am hoping, then I will also get them in black.

-K

Charity Gift Baskets

Earlier this week my work held their annual fundraiser for a well-deserving charity.  The event included live and silent auctions, raffles and lots of food and drinks.  Groups from around the company were asked to donate gift baskets for the silent auction portion of the gala.  My boss asked me to be in charge of our team's donation and I happily accepted.  My approach for the baskets was to put together something I would want myself (I also use this tactic for White Elephant gift exchanges).  Since I had plenty of lead time I was able to shop for weeks.  This brought on several comments from Hubby, mostly I heard, 'How much stuff are you going to buy!?!"  To which I would calmly reply, 'Its for charity.'   Can't argue with that.  I splurged on a few necessary key items (e.g Star Wars cookies cutters & a bottle of Patrón), but mostly I was able to make the most of our team's donated funds.

Naturally a 'Martha' basket had to be created.  I purchased a bunch of her cake stands, a casserole dish, an enamel roasting pot and tons of her crafting stuff and then stacked them all together.  It turned out better than I expected.  Sadly, I did not have the 'winning' bid.  The winner, however, was kind enough to give me the Halloween Drippy Goo edge punch (laugh, but any true Martha fan knows how desirable this is) as a consolation prize.

 

A 'New Frontiers In Baking' basket was also created.  This basket was inspired and anchored by the aforementioned Star Wars Cookie Cutters and the fabulous cook book Baked: New Frontiers in Baking.  A ruffled cake stand and a few other fun baking items were thrown in.  

 

The last basket (not shown) was a 'Margarita Night' basket.  The bottle of Patrón was a nice draw for bidders, but it also included a nice tablecloth, appetizer plates and a chip & dip set all from Williams Sonoma and 6 Margarita glasses stashed in a large galvanized tub.  

-K

Sweetheart Cupcakes & Bloggers For Good Event

If you are local to the Washington, D.C. area then please join us for a few drinks (and some Shepard's Pie) at the next *Bloggers For Good* event on Feb 19th.  Proceeds will benefit Loudoun Interfaith Relief, the area's largest food pantry.  Please click on following link for more details, I hope you can join us!  And many thanks to Suburban Fizz for organizing this event.

If you are local to the DC area then you are also probably familiar with the local cupcake hot spot: Georgetown Cupcake.  I used their delicious Vanilla Frosting Recipe to enhance some box-cake-mix cupcakes and the results were very well received.  When making the frosting as directed you may need to add 1-3 teaspoons of milk to get the perfectly smooth texture you see at their store.  Add some candy hearts and coordinating sprinkles to give the cupcakes some Valentine cheer.

-K