Are you getting excited about the bake sale? We sure are! There are three days until Austin Bakes for Japan, and waiting for our first cookie to sell feels like waiting for Santa to come. That is, if Santa were bringing really awesome cookies and money for AmeriCares. If you’re mapping out your schedule for Saturday, here’s a convenient Google Map with all 5 locations of the bake sale plotted out. If you’re more a pen and paper person, the locations are:

Downtown Austin: Woof Gang Bakery, 1204 North Lamar Blvd., 78703 (10 AM-2 PM)

East Austin: Nomad Bar, 1213 Corona Drive, 78723 (10 AM-2 PM)

West Austin: The Shops at Mira Vista, 2785 Bee Cave Road, 78746 (10 AM-5 PM)

Central Austin: Foreign & Domestic, 306 E. 53rd st., 78751 (10 AM-2 PM)

South Austin: Hotel San Jose, 1511 South Congress Ave., 78704 (10 AM-2 PM)

Jessica from ATX Gluten-Free is bringing these coconut lemon sugar cookies to the West location of the bake sale. Buying these cookies is a gluten-free and dairy-free way to give to AmeriCares’ work in Japan! Speaking of gluten, we’ll have gluten-free and vegan goodies available while they last at all five locations of the bake sale.

 

If you live in central Austin, Tasty Type’s chocolate almond toffee (also gluten-free!) is both a convenient and delicious excuse to make a donation to AmeriCares. It will be available at our Foreign & Domestic location. If you’re looking for something a little more unusual, or if you live east, perhaps a retro fabulous gelatin mold is just the thing!

 

The Modern Gelatina will be on hand at The Nomad Bar starting at noon on Saturday to sell some of her one-of-a-kind, boozy gelatin molds. This niche blogger has received international acclaim for her work, so the chance to buy one of these vintage-inspired creations is not to be missed! She created this Plum Wine Cocktail recipe especially for Austin Bakes for Japan, but she’ll have other flavors on Saturday, too.

Vegan Lazy Smurf will be making these vegan Peanut Butter Cocoa Puff Treats for Saturday. She’s one of  several vegan bakers at the south bake sale location, and although we’ll have vegan options at every sale, the south has the largest selection.

 

Across town, Cookie Madness is bringing Chocolate Skor Bar Cookies to the Mira Vista location around 2 PM. These treats are sure to be kid-pleasing because of the high chocolate content and rainbow sprinkles!

Austin Bakes organizer Lisa is Cooking will be bringing these white chocolate hazelnut blondies to the central location, plus she’s our lead volunteer there!

The lead volunteer at our downtown location, Franish Nonspeaker, is making these Strawberry Almond Scones with Buttermilk Glaze for folks who don’t want rich dessert items too early in the morning.

For those of you who DO want a rich dessert item early in the morning, Miles of Chocolate famous chocolatey desserts will be available at the downtown and central locations. They are even cutting the bars into single servings and wrapping them individually for us! These treats are a must-try if you’re at the bake sale. For three years running, Miles of Chocolate has been voted #1 in the Local Chocolate category in the Austin Chronicle’s Restaurant Reader’s Poll. They’re kind of a big deal in town, and we think they’re going to raise big bucks for Japan!

We’ll be previewing even more recipes and photos from all five bake sale locations tomorrow and Friday. In the meantime, we’re preparing for lots of social networking on Saturday and afterwards. Here’s a rundown of links to our online communities:

• Flickr: We’ll be asking people to post photos of their baked goods and photos from the bake sale here!
• Twitter: If it’s 140 characters or less, and it’s about @AustinBakes, it belongs on Twitter! The volunteers and donors at the bake sale will be using the #austinbakes hash tag to share information on Saturday.
• Facebook Community: We like you, and you should like us, too! We’re posting bake sale previews, recipes, and donation updates on the Facebook Community page.
• Facebook Event: Inviting your friends to the Facebook Event is a great way to spread the word about Austin Bakes.