best marinade (for life)

On Feb 16, I attended Cookbooks, Cocktails and Cupcakes, a life-changing event.

"Life changing".

To some, those words may carry a lot of dazzle and flash. To me, life changing' = much inconvenient effort that yielded enormous returns that can't be calculated in $. What happened that night was so magical, that to deconstruct it step-by-step turns it into a manual, a how-to, it sucks the poetry out of life, and I'm not doing that, ever.

What I will tell you is that Jodi Lastman is a community-building maven. Her and I go back almost a decade via writing-social media-motherhood, and we're both on the same page when it comes to honesty: we use it, whether people like it or not.

Jodi's got T-O-N-S of friends, and the ones I've met are solid. The kind of people you can't help but fall in love with because they are sooo passionate and generous. They're culinary tourism experts, food activists, they write incredible food blogs, they publish out-of-the-box magazine, they run bakeries in west Toronto, they run independent bookstores (that takes huge _ _ _ _ _), they run bakeries in east Toronto, they self-publish books, they're fundraisers, and they do so much more(!!!) ~ and the glue that binds them, us, is that they showed up.

Remember that great Woody Allen quote about success:
Eighty percent of success is showing up


I almost didn't go,
because of babysitting issues,
because my husband always has to work late,
because I hadn't rehearsed my Cupcakes for Haiti cookbook story,
because it's such a long streetcar ride across the entire city.
But something was pulling me there.
As I took the streetcar back home I knew what that thing was, it was the energy of my tribe, the one that stands behind, next to, onto its people.

Thank you Jodi and everyone that night who shared, clapped, and celebrated together. Honoured to be a Woman in Food.

You are invited to a street party!

WHAT: Cupcakes for Haiti Cookbook Launch & Leslieville East Corridor Street Party!

WHEN: Saturday, November 6

TIME: 2-4pm

WHERE: From Voulez-Vous Café
1560 Queen St. E.
To
Beaufort Décor,
1576 Queen St. E.

What is community?

Photo on the cover of the book features Angel Riccio's Brownie Heart Cupcake, pg 2 (more on Angel below).



"There's plenty of intelligence in the world, but the courage to do things differently is in short supply."
Marilyn vos Savant
Columnist, Author and Lecturer

Great quote, isn't it!


It resonates with the book we produced because our courage was a collective one,
thus, the more people, the more courage, and ultimately a courageous project =
more effective in getting our message across.

Our message is this: the people of Haiti still need our help.

Sure, we all gave $ to a charity back in January, but now, 8 months later that $ has been spent by MSF Canada and FINCA Canada, and they need more to continue their aid work.

The Interprovincial Group printed 1000 copies of Cupcakes for Haiti, for free. Free takes a lot of courage.

Rachael Muir designed the January cupcake bake sale poster for free, then went on to tackle the design of the book, for free. She is a very busy Art Director, mother of two, wife, philanthropist and wonderful friend. Free time is scarce and takes a lot of courage.

Brian Gahan photographed the cupcakes over a period of three weekends. He is a very busy partner at an ad agency, he's a father of two, awesome husband, philanthropist and supporter of many local and international causes. Like Rachael, his free time is scarce. You may think I'm partial to his charm, but it's authentic, and I have loved him for over 12 years because of his courage.

I define community as the people who you can call on the phone, near or far, people we bump into on the street daily, or yearly, people we include in emails, people we've never met in person but chat with on twitter, the word community is endless, like a circle, to me, courage and community are inseparable. Thank you for everyone who has been a part of the Cupcakes for Haiti community, and those that are yet to join the circle.

The Cupcakes for Haiti community is growing day-by-day, here are a few links to get you acquainted with some of the courageous people that enrich our cause (see sidebar for more). Follow these people, learn about them, support them and your community will grow too.

Kari @ ActivekidsClub

Brandie @ Parent Central and The Star.

Kathleen @ good egg communications

Amanda @ FamilyNature

Amanda @ Desmond and Beatrice

ActsofSweetness @ Acts of Sweetness

Joanna @ InsideToronto


Rick Declute @ Team DeClute - RE/MAX Hallmark


Shirley @ Beaufort Decor

Angel @ Shine Blogspot

Thanks for listening. XO

Cupcakes for Haiti fresh off the press!

Cupcakes for Haiti cookbook is fresh off the press! So many generous souls created this, so grateful. XO Launch party in the works, but if you want a copy sooner of course you can scoop one up. http://twitpic.com/1z4hne

Bakers Journal April 2010

So grateful to Bakers Journal for publishing our story in the April 2010 edition of their awesome publication! Brian Hartz is definitely the nicest, most professional, and supportive Editor I've ever worked with, ever! Thank you Brian for giving us the opportunity to share our fundraising story. Hopefully others will enjoy learning about how our community is helping another community (with MSF and FINCA's help); learning about the power of social marketing; and enjoy the reminder that cupcakes, although small are enriching and magical beyond our comprehension.

Pub Fare Cupcake & friends @ #ironcupcake

Iron Cupcake Toronto was a great challange! Thank you For the Love of Cake for hosting; thank you to the gracious, caring and happy volunteers; thank you Brian for collaborating with me on this creative 'green & beer' focused adventure - loved the pretzel journey and your pretzel bench; thank you to little S and littler S for being so supportive of Team @foodplayground; thank you to Acts of Sweetness for encouragement and laughter; thank you KLB Cream Ale - you're one great versatile beer, great refreshing creamy ale AND great baking beer!

There were 16 competitors, yet the focus wasn't on competition it felt more like a celebration of how truly versatile cupcakes are. I admire all of my fellow participants' ingenuity and dedication to baking.

FYI, for those of you interested in participating, next month's secret ingredient: COFFEE!

We have a printing partner!

The Interprovincial Group just called, they will print our cookbook, pro bono!
So truly grateful for their belief in our Cupcakes 4 Haiti endeavours. Thank you!

More Gratitude

Local journalist extraordinaire, Joanna Lavoie, has written a lovely story about what our community accomplished together.

We are most grateful that you made time for us, and shared our story so widely Joanna. Thank you! xoxo

Acts of Sweetness visit TDC!

Photo credit: Brian Gahan, Top Drawer Creative Inc.



The awesome Redpath Team, AKA @actsofsweetness visited us at the first of several professional photoshoots. They drove across the city in their adorable vehicle, brought joy, cookies and sugar! Please follow them on twitter, become of fan of theirs on facebook, and follow their tales on their exciting blog.


Here's the fruit of their labour, featuring yours truly and some of the great bakers: Youtube.


Thank you Acts of Sweetness for honouring us with a visit during such a critical step in our book's development!

Belated update

So many exciting calls to make and emails to send and respond to and photos to be taken and pleases to speak, that there's only a tiny fragment of time for a blog update. If you want to more up-to-date & behind-the-scenes information, please join our Cupcakes 4 Haiti Cookbook fan page.


Thank you to each and every one of you that is helping this project grow from seedling to magnificent miraculous tree. A special thank you to Baker Rhondda, whose beautiful website was born yesterday. Please pay her a special visit and say hello with a nice comment. xo

Cupcakes 4 Haiti - The Cookbook

Thanks @Baker Erica Fyvie, Mama/Writer/Baker, Film Lover Extraordinaire for baking Organic Vanilla Cupcakes. xo




Our group's next step is to publish our cookbook within a month (!!!) so that we can continue our fundraising efforts for MSF/Doctors Without Borders and FINCA. We will continue to collaborate with Les Domestiques - Cyclists Who Serve and Top Drawer Creative Inc - Creatives Who Serve -- both whom are our guardian angels, who will help us reach our 10 year plan of raising $1 billion dollars to help with the world's efforts to rebuild Haiti.

All the money is being raised via our collective efforts we have 'dubbed' the cupcake revolution which started on Saturday, February 23, 2010.

In order to accomplish our goals, we will refer to this beautiful speech, over and over for the next ten years. Please join the cupcake revolution, it's going to take lots of homemade baking to make this happen. Please email: susana@gahan.ws
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOX