Cupcakes, Cookies, Cakes & Pies....Oh my!

I'm am just coming off my sugar high from Valentine's Day, how is everyone else doing?  I'm not usually a Valentine's Day kind of person, I could take it or leave it.  This year I spent the day at work, on my day off and it was the best Valentine's Day ever!  That sounds like a crazy person just typed that I know but let me explain.  My coworker (and friend) Brooke and I like to plan bake-off style events at work and this year we held one on Valentine's Day. 

We included a raffle and flower/balloon sales to make sure everyone was scoring brownie points when going home that night.  All of our coworkers (or their wives in most cases) really brought their A-game baking this year.  We had 5 tables filled with delectable delights for everyone to sample.  Let me tell you a little bit about how our bake-off works.  Rather than doing a bake sale and having everyone purchase baked goods, we let everyone just sample until their hearts content (or belt too tight)!  When done, we ask them to "vote" for their favorite by making a cash donation in the jar next to that baked good.  At the end of the night we gave prizes to the top 3 bakers that brought in the most cash during the day with their sweet treat!  I didn't *gasp* bake cupcakes for this event.  I was intrigued by a red velvet monster cookie recipe over on Something Swanky, so I made those instead.  Ashton had something of a red velvet revolution happening over on her site leading up to Valentine's Day, so many awesome recipes!  I was so busy with the day I forgot to even take a picture of my cookies.  I didn't win any prizes with them but I had a lot of competition.  Did I mention we had 5 tables of sweets. I mean, really! How can I compete with pies already to go in their individual to-go container!  We did balance out everyone's diet with some hot sandwiches, vegetable platter and a big bowl of fruit but the sweet smell of this room could hypnotize anyone on even the strictest of diets!

As I mentioned earlier, the bake-off also included a raffle and flower sales.  Lucky for us we have a friend working with a local flower shop to get us some beautiful flowers.  Just one problem, the flowers needed to be arranged so I tried my hand at flower arranging and I think it was a success.  All the vases were collected from coworkers, my own and my Mom's collections and reused, looking just like new!


Our raffle was also a success with coworkers donating some great items or creating fabulous baskets.  I won a homemade bracelet myself!

The details were fun planning the weeks leading up to the sale.  We made Valentine's themed labels for the jars used to collect donations, signs and baskets for to-go bags and cards, and I never had so much fun wrapping empty boxes to collect all the raffle tickets.  At the end of the day it just meant the world to me knowing we were helping a coworker and friend.  All funds raised that day were given to a coworker who is in the hospital.  Again, I'm not a Valentine's Day person but this year I was.  My heart just swelled each time someone walked through the door.

I ended my night with one last cupcake....wine that is.  Sadly this wine doesn't taste like cupcakes but good all the same.

Last weekend I got to make some mini cupcakes for my aunt and uncle's wedding anniversary.  60 years on Valentine's Day! 60! If that doesn't restore even this darkest of hearts in Valentine's Day, I'm not sure what can!