Still a little tired, but utterly content, we can say that Cookies Without Borders was an unmitigated success. The humongous outpouring of delicious baked goods made for an irresistible and constantly changing spread. As the steady line of sweet-toothed angelenos made its way across the tables of sweets, we received so many “thank yous” for creating an opportunity to help out with the situation in Haiti. Now it’s our turn to throw out some thank yous.
But, first some details. We had something like 50 different bakers make about 120 different items. We didn’t quite sell out, but I’m proud to report that at the end of the event, we donated what leftovers we had to Covenant House, a home for wayward teens not far from Scoops. As of today, we have raised over $5400 for Doctors Without Borders’ Emergency Relief Fund, and there are still a few donations trickling in. This is an awesome number, and everyone who contributed should be incredibly proud.
What’s great about these bake sales is that each person involved contributes in whatever way he or she can, and each of these unique individual contributions is indispensable. We have many people to thank.
First and foremost is Tai Kim, the owner of Scoops. He has been so very supportive and mellow as we take over his little ice cream shop each year. He is truly magnanimous and we’re so lucky that he is so very generous with his space, his energies, and his money: every bake sale my morning starts with Tai coming outside and asking, “Who should I make out the check to?” Having our bake sale at Scoops is a huge part of what makes it what it is.
Then come the women behind the bake sale — this is most definitely a group effort. We started out with about 5 people back in 2007 — and have made one or two incredible additions each year. And again, each contribution is crucial: from coming up with the name “No Cookie Left Behind”, to creating our adorable logos, from procuring tables, tablecloths, flowers, labels, packaging and more, to writing a compelling press release and blasting it to a vast list of local media, from manning money, to conjuring a professional sign out of thin air at tee-minus-two-days, I’m pretty convinced that these girls can achieve anything. And they’re so pretty!
So, Logan Clare, Annie Crowninshield, Rachel Gandin, Heather Goldberg, Jenny Goldberg, Jodi Hildebrand, Ann Le, Jessica Smith, Peggy Tachdjian, huge thanks! You guys are extraordinary.
The bloggers and bakers! I wish I could call out each individual baked good contribution here, but here is a tiny sampling of our wonderful contributors:
Amelia at Bon Appétempt (gold-dipped chocolate peppermint sandwich cookies)
Sook at Yutjangsah (peanut butter chocolate bundts)
HC at LA-OC Foodventures (midnight brownies)
Ila at I Nom Things (ginger matcha scones)
Sarah at Sarah the Bear (vanilla passionfruit cupcakes)
Jenn at The Appropriated Muffin (brownie bites)
Hilary at Nosh With Me (mandel bread and brown sugar shortbread)
Patricia at Life With a Whisk (pear pistachio brown butter cake and lemon ricotta muffins)
(Note that not all of our bakers were bloggers. Plenty of normal home bakers took to the kitchen. I just call these guys out because bloggers like to be linked.)
We were lucky to have sweets donated by a few choice local bakeries as well:
Bittersweet Treats
Valerie Confections
Baking Whoopie
Cakes Suzette
Quinoa Cookies
And then there’s those kooky kids who took the time to tweet. Myriad people spread the word across blogs, Facebook, and Twitter, and we would not have had nearly as successful a showing without them. Again, it’s a small sampling, but here are a few blogs that helped get the word out:
e*star LA
LA Eater
Monkey in LA
Food GPS
Eating LA
Tasting Table LA (whose editor, lovely Lesley Balla, also contributed Casablanca tea cakes and gorgeous apple crostatas!)
So, what can we say? We are hugely grateful. I’ll leave you with a great write-up from Monday’s LAist, and stay tuned for No Cookie Left Behind in June — we’ve got a few new tricks up our sleeve.
No Cookie Left Behind Bake Sale 
