Looking for a great fundraising idea? I have sold everything from stickers, notebooks and jewelry to cupcakes, cookies and chocolate lollipops. Chocolate Gifts are something that almost everyone enjoys, so I have found that it is especially easy to sell.

Gertrude Hawk Chocolates offers sales programs designed to fit fundraising, corporate and gift-giving needs. I am going to be sending an e-mail to ask if they would be willing to donate a basket or gift that we can use as a raffle prize.

Have any other 3-Day participants or teams had luck with food fundraisers? My cookie and cupcake bake sales at work have been a hit each time I have them, and they have left my co-workers asking when will I be doing it next. Any other suggestions?

Hooray!  My cookie and cupcake sale was a success!  I have some wonderful co-workers who were incredibly supportive of the cause.  I set up my wares on a corner of my desk with a little sign advertising the goodies and their pricing.  The rest was word of mouth.  Here’s my little spread after day 1 (unfortunately, the pics from the beginning of the day didn’t turn out).

Things were a little slow at first, but my good friend Sherry helped out by taking some of the cupcakes to her desk, and leaving them out there to get more visibility.  She also helped to spread the word to others.  My first customer was Todd (known around the office as my BBFF).  ToddHe bought a strawberry cupcake with cream cheese icing.  There was a steady trickle from that point on until later in the afternoon when the newest member of our team, Ray, came by and purchased cupcakes and cookies for his entire team!  RayHe even donated the change after that!  Thanks Ray, YOU ROCK!  I got more donations from my friends Mel and Dawn, and some of the technicians even chipped in!  The cookies seemed to be a lot more popular than the cupcakes, with the chocolate chip going first and then selling out at the end of day 2.  One of my teammates, Jason, bought the last 6 sugar cookies.  He said they were great!  After all was said and done, my total earnings were…(drum-roll please)…$90!  That brings my total funds raised so far to $265!  I’ve still got a long way to go, but every penny brings me closer to my goal.  A big ”Thank You!” to everyone who helped make the sale a success! 

In case you were wondering if I am still alive…the answer is “yes”!  I’ve been traveling quite a bit these last few weeks, which has kept me very busy.  Meanwhile, back at the ranch, our Laurie-pooh has been rockin’ and rollin’ with her fundraising activities.  I figured that it was time to get ball rolling for me too, so I am proud to announce the subject of this blog- “Baking for Boobs”. 

Based on Laurie’s research, it seemed that the “fruity” cupcakes had been a hit, so our first trial run was strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese icing and lemon cupcakes with lemon icing.  The critics gave us a big thumbs up! 

Since the cupcakes were so successful, we decided to move forward with the cookies…  Laurie found an awesome ribbon cookie cutter, so we gave that a shot.  We found that it was extremely difficult to work with the cookie dough.  Despite the well floured surface and rolling pin, the dough stuck to just about everything.  If that wasn’t challenging enough, it would crack or fall apart when we tried to “cut” it.  Because of the challenges, and because of the amount of dough required to make each cookie, we only made about ten of them.  Here are some pictures of the finished product:

Aren’t they cute?!  We decided that these adorable little guys required a level of patience that neither of us posses, so we switched to regular “drop” cookies with pink icing.  They came out really well, and were given the stamp of approval from our quality control supervisor; Taylor:

Several hours later, we have 4 dozen cupcakes, 2 dozen chocolate chip cookies, and 10 pink ribbon cookies plus two more dozen “drop” cookies.  I’ll be setting these up on my desk tomorrow, and I’ll take lots of pictures to share with you!  More to come!

I know it’s only been two weeks since LeAnn and I baked cupcakes. It was a lot of hard work and I pretty much said it was something I wouldn’t be doing very often. I was thinking maybe once every few months or so. The reaction to them was so positive (people at work kept asking when I’d be doing it again), and I made over $150. With that being said, I figured I might as well sieze the day and go for it again. With my new KitchenAid, cute breast cancer ribbon cupcake cups and sprinkles… I was ready to go!

I missed having LeAnn’s company and expert baking skills, but she gave me some good tips during our Saturday together. Luckily it was enough for me to pull off 4 dozen cupcakes.

Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting (colored pink)

I wrapped them the same as two weeks ago and brought the cupcake tree again. The response was good once again. By noon they were already half gone. Angela and Mandy helped me sell the ones that were left by walking around the building and telling people about my walk. Besides making over $150 on the cupcakes, I got several great pledges: one for $100, and another for $150. Angela also donated $50, and her boss Joe said he would match it. In addition, my friend Corrin also donated $100. Friday turned out to be an awesome day! I am now almost halfway to my fundraising goal which is very exciting.

I am already itching to do more baking. I know that Nikki is off next week for Spring Break and also plans on doing some baking for a fundraiser too, so I’d like to help her if she needs it or wants company. Come back to hear about her results!

Wednesday night I finally broke down and bought a KitchenAid mixer. I have wanted one for the longest time. I’m not a big cook, but I have always enjoyed baking. I know I am going to use it a lot this year since I have been wanting to make goodies for my 3-Day, and I don’t want to bother LeAnn every time I have a fundraiser.

Immediately after I brought it home I whipped up a batch of sugar cookies with cream cheese frosting. They were DELICIOUS! I got a pretty good response at work too. I sold them for $2, which does seem like a lot for a small cookie. Once again though, I am hoping that everyone feels good about donating to the cause. Next time they will be bigger since I will be using the ribbon cookie cutter that I purchased from 3-Day Gear. I think $2 will be a little more reasonable for those. I made about $40 though, so that wasn’t bad.

While I love the pink Cook for the Cure edition mixer, I went with the red one since it matches everything in my kitchen. I feel like my kitchen is more complete now. $50 from each purchase of the pink mixers goes to Susan G. Komen, so check out all the KitchenAid Breast Cancer items on their website. If you don’t need a mixer, there are lots of fun gadgets available in the pink line too. A portion of their sale price also is donated to breast cancer research.

Tonight I’ll be making several batches of cupcakes, so come back tomorrow to see and hear about the results!

I neglected to mention that the Saturday afernoon/evening that LeAnn and I spent making cupcakes, we also attempted to make chocolate lollipops. All the supplies cost around $18, and included a ribbon mold, pink and white pound chocolate bags, strawberry candy flavoring, and lollipop sticks.

This was my first time making candy, and I was actually pretty excited about it. I thought it was going to be easy, but boy was I wrong! It is a lot of work, and it took forever to make only 16! Since we used two different colors, we had to first put in the pink for the ribbons, and then fill the backs with the white chocolate. Quite a few of them broke in the process too. I sold them for $2 each, and mostly to my own team. They are pretty small, so I know the price is kind of steep. I might try it again with just the pink chocolate and charge $.50 or $1 instead. Live and Learn! I have to say that they are pretty tasty!

So I, the other half of this dynamic duo, have (finally) officially registered for the 3 day!  I’ve got my little page all set up and ready to go, and I’ve begun my e-mail campaign for donations.  I’ve got a long way to go before I can catch up with Laurie!  She’s turning out to be quite the little money maker!  My strategy has to be a little different because my workplace doesn’t really allow “open” fundraising.  I am only allowed to work within the walls my own personal office space, and that’s going to make this more challenging for sure.  I’m going to have to rely on word of mouth to help get my name out there, and to attract interest in my “wares”.  Craig and I are planning a baking blitz for the week that the kids have spring break; 3/17-3/21.  I’ve got an awesome recipe for sugar cookies, and a fantastic homemade icing that can easily be tinted pink.  I’ll add some chocolate chip cookies and brownies into the mix to make my own mini bake sale!  I think some creative packaging and posters on my wall may do the trick to help spread the word around the office.  I’ve had offers for help and support from several people, so I am sure they will mention the goodies to others.  Also in the works- Tasting for Tatas!  Laurie and I will host our very own, fancy-shmancy wine tasting event to raise funds for the walk!  We’ll offer wines, cheeses, and some other tasty treats.  I’m hoping to nail down a date soon, so stay tuned for more information!  In the meanwhile, I am going to be busy writing letter after letter and sending as many e-mails as I can to gain more supporters.  I think this is just the beginning of a wild and wonderful ride.  More to come soon…

-Nikki

The “Cupcakes for the Cure” fundraiser went fabulously today. I had 51 individually wrapped cupcakes this morning, and by 4:30 PM when I left for home, I had none! Special thanks to Mandy who helped me walk around the office talking folks into buying them, and to Dave for helping me with the sign (He drew it, and I glittered it). We sold each one for $3. While some people did menton that the price was too high for a small cupcake, most were willing to buy one in the spirit of the cause. Everyone said that they looked cute and tasted good, so I am glad that they went over well since we spent so much time on them this weekend.

Strawberry/Cream Cheese was by far more popular, however based on feedback I think the White/Coconut Buttercream were considered tastier. Next time we might leave out the fresh berries or use less oil to give them a cakier consistancy. Overall I am pleased with the outcome, and that’s $153 (minus about $50 supply cost) toward my walk. I am taking the cost on myself, so really 100% of today’s efforts are profits. I’m tickled PINK! I also got more donations today which I am excited about, and more of my awareness items sold as well. Today was another successful day! Thanks to my fabulous co-workers who have amazing hearts!

Cupcake Tree!

Mandy-Lou!

Today I spent the afternoon (and into the evening) at LeAnn’s house. We went shopping for groceries to make four dozen cupcakes for me to sell at work. We decided on white cake with pink coconut buttercream frosting, and strawberry cake (with real berries!) and cream cheese frosting. Both were fantastic! We individually wrapped each one, and I will spend the majority of tomorrow making tags for each one as well as a sign to post in front of my desk. I’ll let you all know how it goes!

Ready to bake!

Ready to come out of the oven!

Cool as a Cucake!

LeAnn is an expert at icing!

Today was an awesome day of fundraising and promotion at my workplace. First, one of the VPs came into our area and Angela and I told him about my participation in the 3-Day. He asked how much I had to raise, and then immediately pulled a $20 bill out of his pocket. I am still amazed how willing people are to participate and help me– even folks who do not know me personally. Above all things, I hate asking people for money. Truly. I was never very successful at fundraising in my youth. Honestly, I think I was afriad of rejection. I am beginning to learn how amazing people are when you just ask.

I also sent out an e-mail to a lot of my work contacts asking for a donation and letting them know about the “Cupcakes for the Cure” fundraiser I will be doing on Monday. One of our supervisors, Jo, sent the e-mail to her entire team saying that she would match whatever funds they are able to put together. At last count she said her team had $75! I plan on doing something nice for them in March to show my appreciation. Thank-You so much to Jo’s Team!

I ordered some extra bracelets, breast cancer pins, and stickers if anyone is interested ($3 each). If you donate via my official page it asks for your address, and I will be sure to send you some swag for your support. You can also send me a check or PayPal donation. Whatever works best for you. I assure you that it will all be going toward my walk.

David is also working on some really cute business cards for me. If they are ready by this weekend I wll be using them on Monday as a part of my fundraiser. I am so excited!