Baking with a purpose

I like baking for family and friends, but in the last few weeks I’ve also been enjoying baking for a larger purpose.  Around the office where I work, it’s fundraising time for the Provincial Employees Community Services Fund.  PECSF supports a large variety of charities and during the annual campaign there are fundraising events every time you turn around, from 50/50 draws, basket raffles, book sales, and the sale of lots of baked goods.
I don’t have pictures of the Breakfast Cookies I made for the Cookies for a Cause event.  They weren’t particularly pretty but they did make for yummy breakfast eating. 

The week before Halloween, our office was decorated with more ghosts and skeletons and bats and spiders and cobwebs and … well, you get the idea … oh, and a talking headless woman, and flying ghosts and … I could go on and probably not cover all the decorations.  We opened up the office for tours and had goodie bags and Halloween cookies for sale.

Did I mention, it was also a great excuse to buy some new cookie cutter.  My seasonal options were remarkably limited. My grandma’s sugar cookie recipe, royal icing and some seasonally coloured sprinkles made for some fun decorating late one night. Best part:  we raised over $170.00 dollars! 

Oh, I almost forgot, there were also lots of costumes on the Thursday.  I’m not much for dressing up but a friend did make sure I knew where I could find the perfect hat which was definitely more in character than the black cat ears I’d picked up on the cookie cutter shopping trip to Michaels.

When the call went out for cupcakes for the annual book and cupcake sale, I couldn’t resist.  I haven’t heard the fundraising total yet, but my Christmas Dreamin’ Cupcakes were among the first to sell out.

My other contribution didn’t last a lot longer on the table.  Who can resist Clearly Coconut?
One of the reasons I haven’t pursued cake decorating as a job is that mainly I enjoy investing the time making something special for people I know, but baking to help raise funds for a great cause, that’s a different thing all together.  That’s using the skills I’ve learned and the things I enjoy doing to make difference. 
In my world, that’s a hard combination to resist.