In less than 24 hours, Austin Bakes for Japan will be open for business!! We are so excited about the bake sale tomorrow, and not just for the cookies. (Although Carly’s oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies are pretty exciting.) It’s going to be a great day tomorrow because Austin is coming together to raise a lot of money for a worthy cause: AmeriCares relief efforts in Japan.

While bloggers like A Taste of Koko have been baking hundreds of green tea macarons in support of Japan (available at the Downtown location), AmeriCares has been busy this week, too. On Tuesday their first aid convoy arrived in Japan to assist survivors there who are living in shelters. Working with a local partner, AmeriCares distributed hundreds of cases of hygiene items – including soap, shampoo, toothbrushes and paste, diapers, baby wipes and bottled water – to shelters in the hard-hit cities of Iwanuma, Watari and Yamamoto in northeast Japan.

When you shop at Austin Bakes for Japan, 100% of your donation will support Americares’ work in Japan. We are accepting gifts of cash, checks made out to AmeriCares Japan, and donations online via our secure FirstGiving page. If you make a gift online now and you still want some sugary goodness in person tomorrow, you can just show the friendly volunteers at the bake sale the email receipt of your gift. They’ll say “thanks!” and help you choose the baked good of your dreams as a token of our appreciation. Of course, if you wanted to make a gift online now AND write a check in person tomorrow, we won’t argue.

 

 

Whether you buy a cupcake donated by Sugar Mama’s Bake Shop at our East, South or Downtown locations, or some Confituras jams at our Central or  West Austin locations, your donation will be helping people in Japan.

Our home bakers and volunteers are joined by over 25 Austin businesses who also want to help Japan. One such business, The Pie Society, has given us pies to sell at the West location, and their chef has shared a special recipe for Lemon Cheesecake Pie to help raise awareness about the bake sale.

 

 

 

Another small business, Curious Confections, will be providing these Bakewell Tarts and some Ribbon Cookies for sale at the Downtown location. Both of these treats are labor intensive and delectable, so you’ll be inspired to buy several when you see them in person and think about how much time chef Gemma spent making them.

 

 

Home cooks are in on the action, too. Epicuriosities author Christy Horton is making bacon caramel marshmallow fudge for the Foreign and Domestic location. Christy’s picture of her fudge is a great example of The Right Way to bring items to Austin Bakes for Japan since it’s packaged and ready to sell, plus it’s labeled clearly with the item name, Christy’s Twitter handle and blog information. She told me that she found those plastic containers for a dollar each at Ace Mart.

Another example of excellent bake sale packaging are these items from The Kid Can Cook.

 

 

We’ve got one more preview post on the way tonight, and tomorrow a big list of the items available at each location will go live around 6 AM. If you’re mapping out your day tomorrow, click here for a Google Map with all five Austin Bakes for Japan locations tagged. If you want to help out at the bake sale with a donation of baked goods, signs advertising the sale, or money containers like pickle jars, let us know by sending an email to AustinGastronomist at gmail dot com.