So Tha-at’s A Kennedy School Year 1 Bake Sale…!

Hands up, any misguided soul out there who thought I knew anything about baking <snort>. Anyone? No? Good. Because if you did you want the other mummy blog. The one who views bakery as a form of bonding and all manner of warm and fuzzy and – get this – owns an actual apron and Stuff For Baking With. 

Y’know, one day back when Rockstar was in pre school I sent him in with a wire egg whisk for some show and tell-y thing, and after a couple weeks they very apologetically admitted they really couldn’t figure where it had got to. I very graciously accept their apology, but really what I’m thinking is Can’t Imagine How I Ended Up With One In The First Place <shrugs>.

So obviously I have a mental block about the Concept Of A Bake Sale. After some effort, I formed what I hope is a halfway-acceptable image in my mind of some mums (or dads) and their kids happily baking things, decorating them into works of art, proudly bringing the fruits of their labor to a school bake sale, raising some money for fun extras in the classrooms…..

Rockstar’d probably love to make something, but a) I have never, ever baked a thing in my life and b) who’s going to actually eat it after we make the stuff? (bake sale! bake sale! But by the time I manage to make something I dare to show anyone at a bake sale I would’ve had to practice like, a gadzillion times – who’s going to eat all my practice rounds?) Rockstar only eats these things on special occasions, none of us has a sweet tooth. To the extent that last birthday party we were invited to Rockstar turned down the ice cream. And then he sulked that everyone else stopped playing to have cake and ice cream. I ended up furtively eating his cake so no one would notice he didn’t touch it – how can you not eat your friend’s birthday cake right??), so…….

So here types one of those other people at bake sales. The ones who are happy to ogle, buy and eat the stuff.

I can do a mean ogle – try me 🙂

Oh Baby.

As a family who never orders desert or eats sweet things (Rockstar has been known to call hot curried prawns, eaten neat, “desert”), and with Rockstar and I having virtually the same (relatively wholesome) dinner 5 nights a week, I’m happy to Massive Calorie Overload on these occasions. And anyone else who can bake is already going to be better than moi. Case in point:

Dis is ART.

See the cookies? My question to the mum who baked those was, “Soo you squeeze all the colored stuff on and then put it in the oven?”

By all means enjoy yourselves.

(Okla for the one other baked goods dummy who reads this blog other than myself, the answer is you are supposed to bake the cookie first and then only put the icing sugar and I think maybe these things might have to be refrigerated, certainly the butterfly cupcakes do – they actually came in a very professional-looking container that had its own coolant. I took the top off to take the picture and then quickly covered it again because God forbid I be the klutz who ruins one of these creations.)

Food blogs, YOUR JOB IS SAFE.

This one also drew some attention because we were wondering if they came from Sift or were homemade

Both being compliments, I mean. 1) If the above are a special order from Sift (run by former banker – Merrill Lynch, if I recall correctly 🙂 – and there are also many orders in nice store-bought presentation boxes – which, from my tea-break ordering days, I can recognize so basically some mums also ordered baked goods at HKD 25-50 a pop for the bake sale where the kids buy them for HKD 5 a pop

2) If they are home made, someone was especially creative to find chocolate dogs in all different poses. (My guess: home made, even though it came in a Sift box. Because if I remember correctly then I know the mum who sent those in, and she has baked and cooked some exquisite things for a party I was at before.)

More stuff not yet unwrapped and arranged properly

I considered ordering cakes like some of my mum friends did, except I thought they might have more than enough stuff to sell (not to mention Rockstar said he didn’t care as long as I made some effort – in which case I wasn’t confident of knowing how to keep cupcakes or anything else with pretty icing sugar fresh in this heat – sure enough, today was the first time I knew this professional cupcake cooling thingy even existed), and so instead I gave Rockstar extra money to buy more stuff, with the instruction to look out for cookies for his extra cash.

(Because his “usual” limit is half a cupcake per sitting. No sweet tooth; we go to a cafe and he can’t even finish his half slice of choc cake I split with him. And he avoids the very chocolatey bits. Sigh. Tough, when your child doesn’t live up to your ideals, isn’t it?)

So unless Rockstar was feeling especially festive, I didn’t hold out much hope for him actually eating up. Figured if he gets cookies then we can still keep them for longer, til he eventually manages to finish them, and so we did that last week when some other classes kicked off their sale first.

The Mens on a mission this morning, Rockstar insisting on carrying his cookies (I know, such mission-y faces. But really, it was because of the bright sunlight)

Rockstar then chose for me to also buy cookies for him to bring to school, and thinking they could be brought home easier I put them in separate baggies. And clipped stickers on them. Because I didn’t know what else to do with them.

This btw, is what we brought:

Shut up.

I will have you know that Rockstar happens to be very pleased with this. He ate more than one. That is something, ok… Still feeling inadequate however, I then did this:

Pinterest, anyone?

Because for some reason I then thought this would make it better. Uh…..

In a sea of Black Belt Bakers, we are the White Belt Eaters 😀 

(Ok well, I am. Not sure how much Rockstar would/ could eat… And then he came home and told me he was just very busy when it was his turn manning one of the stalls to sell the stuff and thrilled that apparently they sold everything they were allocated for their turn…)

ps: There were many, many, MANY really beautiful cakes and things, just that I felt a bit creepy going round trying to take proper pictures especially at all the other stations I wasn’t even supposed to be helping at, all around the school. Also, the pretty ones get snapped up real fast. Suffice to say there weren’t just the beautiful cup cakes, there were brownies with little lady bugs, a dramatic offering of pink cake pops that had been mounted on a large circle of styrofoam covered with paper butterflies (I am NOT kidding). That I could see, a lot more mums of little girls than boys really went to town on the cupcakes and things and so I’m preparing to have to do better when it’s Little Miss’ turn, in case this is something she really wants to “pretty up,” unlike Rockstar who basically told me he “doesn’t care <shrugs>”.  

Also, in case you were wondering, the bake sale was a fun way to raise some extra cash to buy things the children could use/enjoy in the classroom (for e.g. Rockstar’s class used theirs to buy some puzzles, colouring sheets, a new carpet for the book corner, play dough etc); since for the Year 1s their sale occurs close to the end of the year, they’d have used last year’s proceeds so our bake sale would then largely be to replenish the Fun Fund (sorry, couldn’t resist) for Year 1s coming in the following year…