The DC Food Blogger Bake Sale for Share our Strength, held this past Saturday at Eastern Market, was a great success. We got off to a slow and chilly morning, but business picked up as the crowds grew throughout the morning. I’m pleased to report that we raised $612 to fight child hunger right here in DC — plus a sizable donation of leftover goodies to The Carpenter’s Shelter in Alexandria. And overall, the National Food Blogger Bake Sales raised … over $16,500!

We had about a dozen bakers providing tasty treats that included cookies, cake balls, biscotti, pound cake, whoopie pies, lemon bars, pretzels, cupcakes, granola and even dog biscuits. Here are some of our volunteers as we set up in the morning:

Ken of Indoor Garden(er), Colleen of FoodieTots, Sally of Come to the Table, Cathy of Mrs. Wheelbarrow's Kitchen, Martha of A Measured Memory, Amber of Live Love to Bake

My contribution was lemon cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting. I had a hard time finding a simple lemon cupcake recipe, but the Barefoot Contessa came through with a cake recipe that was easily adapted to make yummy, moist, pound cake-like cupcakes. I got too late a start baking to put the Foodie Tot to work in the kitchen, but he contributed his artistry on our signs.

Recipe: Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
adapted from Ina Garten/Food Network

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• zest and juice of 1 large lemon (1/4 cup juice)
• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3/4 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract

Instructions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare cupcake liners in lightly greased muffin tin. In bowl of mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, and lemon zest and mix until combined. In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, combine buttermilk, lemon juice, vanilla and lemon extracts. Gradually add flour and buttermilk mixtures to the mixer bowl, mixing until batter is just combined. Bake 17-20 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in muffin tin for 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack. Cool thoroughly before frosting. Makes 2 dozen.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting (Organic)

Ingredients:

• 2 8-ounce boxes of organic cream cheese, at room temperature
• 4 tablespoons organic unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract

Instructions: Cream butter and cream cheese in bowl of mixer until smooth. Add sugar, mixing at medium speed until smooth, then add vanilla and lemon extracts and mix another minute. Add additional sugar if needed to reach desired consistency. Frosting will be soft, so you may want to refrigerate for 30 minutes before frosting cupcakes. Makes enough to frost 2 dozen cupcakes, and then some.

Here are some of the other treats shared on Saturday: Cathy from Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Kitchen’s Fregolatta and Nutty Fruity Granola; Martha of A Measured Memory’s Oatmeal Cherry Pecan Cookies; Dskco of Lunching in the DMV‘s Pound Cake; lemon bars and whoopie pies from Sally of Come to the Table; and the strawberry rhubarb jam that filled Jenna of The Modern Domestic’s oatmeal cookie sandwiches. Thanks everyone who baked, shopped and helped spread the word!

Nearly 1 in 4 children in the US do not have enough food to eat — that’s nearly 17 million kids. This weekend, Share our Strength kicks off their annual “Great American Bake Sale” campaign — where volunteers across the country host bake sales to raise funds for SOS’s efforts to end child hunger. Saturday will be the first-ever National Food Bloggers Bake Sale, to further help raise awareness for this important cause.

The DC bake sale will be held this Saturday, April 17, from 9am-12noon at DC’s Historic Eastern Market. So come on by and look for our table outside near the farmers line.

Some of the local bloggers who will be participating:

• Martha of A Measured Memory
• Jenna of Modern Domestic
• Kenneth of Indoor Garden-er
• Marie-Noelle of Lunching in the DMV
• Cathy of Mrs. Wheelbarow
• Maiy of Beans Rice Life
• Sally of Come to the Table
• Amber of Live Love to Bake
• and yours truly, Colleen of FoodieTots

If you’d like to chip in to help us reach our goal, please visit our team page to make a contribution now. And we hope to see you at Eastern Market on Saturday!

Outside DC, visit What’s Gaby Cooking for a list of food blogger bake sales in other states.

I’m a firm believer in eating, er, cooking for a good cause, so I’m delighted to be helping with the first ever National Food Bloggers Bake Sale to benefit Share our Strength and their work to end childhood hunger. On April 17, food bloggers across the US will unite to support the cause by holding bake sales in their states. Readers will have the opportunity to taste the baked goods from their favorite food blogs at each state’s bake sale location. The event is being organized by the fabulous Gaby Dalkin of WhatsGabyCooking.com.

DC BAKE SALE: The DC bake sale will be held Saturday, April 17, from 9am-12noon at DC’s Historic Eastern Market. So come on by and look for our table outside near the farmers line. There are some great local bloggers participating, stay tuned for a list closer to the date.

Funds raised through Great American Bake Sale support Share Our Strength’s efforts to end childhood hunger in America.  Nearly 17 million— almost one in four—children in America face hunger. Despite the good efforts of governments, private-sector institutions and everyday Americans, millions of our children still don’t have daily access to the nutritious meals they need to live active, healthy lives. More information on SOS can be found at http://strength.org/.

If you’re in DC and would like to participate, please send me an email at foodietots (at) gmail (dot) com. Outside DC, visit Gaby’s blog for a list of coordinators in other states (and states needing hosts). And wherever you live, please make plans to stop by and purchase some yummy treats that day!

I’ve written before about Share Our Strength and their work to fight childhood hunger in cities and neighborhoods across the US. I’m on the volunteer committee for their upcoming Taste of the Nation event here in DC, so you can expect to hear more from me on ways to help support their efforts. The new campaign, below, takes just a few seconds so please check it out and consider making a contribution and telling your friends about it, too!

Share Our Strength has launched a brand new campaign to raise funds to help end childhood hunger.  “Operation No Kid Hungry” responds to President Obama’s call to action to end childhood hunger by 2015.

Share Our Strength has partnered with AT&T to make it easy to support and participate in “Operation No Kid Hungry”:

Donate by text: Text “SHARE” to 20222 on your mobile device to donate $5. AT&T will match all text donations up to $100,000. Help us meet this challenge grant! Click here to find out more.

For more information about “Operation No Kid Hungry” and how you can help end childhood hunger, visit Share Our Strength’s website.

I’ve written before about the work Share Our Strength does to combat childhood hunger. I am on the volunteer committee for the DC Taste of the Nation 2009 fundraising event, which will be held March 30, and feature the best of Washington’s chefs and bartenders. For those of you in the Washington area, I wanted to announce that tickets have gone on sale today, with a special discount on tickets purchased before the end of the year. Buy now to save $10 off a general admission ticket or $25 off VIP tickets. All ticket proceeds go directly to local grant programs.

You can also invite your friends via the Facebook page or follow @TOTNationDC on Twitter for updates as the event approaches.

Outside of DC? Check for an event in your town, and follow @ShareStrength for other hunger news.