Eat My Blog: A Bake Sale by Bloggers

My friends Cathy Danh of gastronomyblog and Diana Hossfeld of Diana Takes a Bite are putting together a wonderful bake sale fundraiser on December 5th at Zeke's Smokehouse in West Hollywood from 10AM to 4PM. To help support them in the cause (100% of proceeds will be donated to the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank), I will be baking my share of the 600 some baked treats that will be on sale at the event.

I'm a bit anxious because in the past few years, I've become more of a cook than a baker. I have a general neglect for exact measurements and I don't have the patience to wait for my creation to sit in an oven, torturing me with delicious aromas until it's ready. I have a problem with peeking, and trying to see through the dimly lit window of the oven doesn't suffice. I usually have a mug of coffee or ice-cold milk ready to go as SOON as my cookies (or other baked good) are ready. That's why I prefer the heat of a stove and the sizzle of the frypan.

But for that weekend, I'll have to restrain myself. I'll need to bust out the zillions of bakeware (which I always purchase but rarely use) and make something.

Bake something...hm...what do I bake?! I don't know! Should I try competing with the dozens of other bloggers making brownies or cupcakes? Should I make something more germane to my cultural heritage? Could you imagine me beating rice flour and making dduk like an middle-aged Korean adjumma, huddling over in a kimchi-squat and humming old folk tunes early in the crisp morning? I don't fashion myself to be so romantic.

I generally choose the expedient rout for baking, something like Betty Crocker. I see absolutely no shame in making pull-apart cookie dough into baked magic because no one knows the difference! Or at least most people don't know the difference...

My last resort is do bake something dazzling. Maybe I should make jackfruit and coconut flavored macarons, much like the mignardises one might expect at Eleven Madison Park or Jean-George. Maybe I should bust out a canister of nitrogen and make frozen foie gras - black truffle cotton candy on a flaming hot stick of butterscotch budino. OR, make that Eagle Rare bourbon pudding that I ate recently at Alembic in San Francisco's Haight-Asbury neighborhood. That crunchy, creamy, rich concoction made me swoon more than Mozza's famous budino and Bradley Ogden's pudding. I'd have to make some inexpensive ramekin to distribute. I think I'd be the talk of the bake sale. Maybe I could gain another 50 Twitter followers! Or I could be homeboys with James Oseland or (better yet) Barbara Fairchild of Bon Appetit!

These are delusions of grandeur. Trust me when I say that I will make some faceless, boring chocolate chip cookies and wrap them in wax paper. I'll smile and barely sell any of them for a buck each. I'll envy other tables where classic whoopie pies or pumpkin swirl brownies, or black sesame cupcakes (wha?) with matcha frosting (woah!) steal my weak thunder.

Just come. Keep me company and buy some of my infernal treats to feed the hungry. They deserve to be satiated much more than I do. Keep checking my blog in the coming weeks, I'll be discussing potential recipes and (hopefully) getting your feedback.