bake sale

Nothing strikes fear in me than the words "bake sale" because I'm not someone who can whip up something delicious at the spur of the moment.  It takes planning and recipe-hunting and careful shopping and lots of preparation.  Not to mention worrying how to package the bake sale item so that people will want to buy it (heaven forbid that my contribution will be the only thing left on the table at the end, with the sellers begging someone to TAKE it, never mind paying any money for it).

"Pot luck" is another bunch of words that I stress over, but I usually solve it with minute chicken with cake noodle from Kin Wah or musubi and chicken from Gulick Delicatessen.  No cooking, no stress.

The one Thanksgiving that Ryan wanted to bring my pumpkin crunch cake to his girlfriend's family dinner was very stressful because there was a pumpkin shortage.  (But this is one thing that I DO know how to make and it comes out great.  Thanks to Monica L on Kauai for the recipe!)  Then a friend asked for dessert contributions for her daughter's graduation party and I said I would bring something; I tried a recipe that I'd never tried before (but it was a tried and true one from our family recipe book), the electric mixer broke and I put in the wrong amount of sugar, but luckily it came out ok and got eaten up right away.  (Yes, I kept checking the dessert table at the party to make sure the pear cheesecake wasn't the only dessert left.)

(And yes I know there are bigger problems in the world but I can't help my insecurities.)

After the bake sale organizer sent out an email with the list of past years' contributions of wonderful home-made items (butter pound cake! cone sushi! rum cake!  blueberry mochi!), I told the organizer that I was planning on going to Costco and picking up muffins or something that can be packaged and sold individually.  She graciously said that they are happy with any contributions, but also mentioned that store-bought items go more slowly than the home-made ones.

Sigh.

So I kinda shamed myself into trying to make something.

I was looking at Pioneer Woman's blog and saw this recipe for Krispie treat eggs.  They were so cute and I wanted to try them because I figured they would sell (bake sale was on Good Friday).  I started looking through the website for other Easter-y recipes and found one for "Bunny Bark."  Hey, the skill level said "Easy" and "make with your kids" so I figured I could handle it.

I went shopping for the items clutching my printed-out recipes and spent way too much money, but I was going to make something "home-made" gosh-darn-it.

Wound up taking a picture of the bark to post on Facebook along with my insecurities but got a bunch of "likes" and positive reviews from how it looked so I crossed my fingers it would be ok.  I did stress out quite a bit about how to package both items (and wound up changing my mind from making the krispie treat eggs to regular krispie treats with Easter-y sprinkles), but it all worked out.

I did buy back the last few items left to give away and bring home since there were a few left near the end.  But consoled myself that it was because I made a lot (two pans of bark and two pans of krispie treats).  

Well, it was kind of worth the stress to raise money for the Hawaii Food Bank.

And now I know how to make krispie treats (butter and marshmallows, no wonder they're so good!).

Next year I am picking up manapua and wrapping them up to sell.  Or taking a vacation day on bake sale day.

The end.