going over-the-top to save the children

ROLL UP, ROLL UP sweet boys and girls.

Our circus party was last (last? last?) Saturday and boy was it crazy!

We provided entertainment for ALL ages in the form of face painting, bubble blowing and hair spraying! Mikey blew us away with his hidden artistic abilities. No wonder his parents named him Michael Angello.

(a beautiful butterfly for a beautiful girl)

(Mike Tyson's tattoo was a definite hit with the Greek Society)


We clowned around with the kiddies, zombies from the Drama Society and the Panda from I-have-no-idea society. LOL.

(Who knew pandas liked truffles?)

We definitely stepped right up, raising a total of $490.55! It's a new record, folks! Hi 5 your computer screen. C'mon, do it!! haha.

As you would recall we said we'd give out two awesome prizes at this event. The first being our lucky door prize which went to Batman and Batman's father, just the sweetest family. They won some yummy honey popcorn, a box of Favourites, a bear cake, a bouncy blue ball with a clown face on it and a Donna Hay cookbook.

(na na na na na na na... BATMAN!)

Our most creative Sweet prize went to Vanesza for her bear cake. Congratulations, chica! We hope your new cook book inspires you to keep baking so that others can have a sweeter life.

(Vanesza with her prize)

Special thanks to...
Emily, Vanesza, Laura and Mikey who braved the windy weather to help set up in the morning. Thank you to Joanne, our new official decorator, who designed our stall for this event:

BEFORE (Joanne's design)

AFTER

Thank you to ALL the bakers: Emily, Vanesza, Laura, Mikey, Chris Rita, Raelene and Michelle. Most of the money we made came from our baked goodies so excellent work, sweets! So lucky to have you part of our team.

Thanks to your hard work we came 3rd place for the secret judges challenge based on the club's visual appeal, atmosphere, audience engagement and audience participation. Our prize? 400 BIG ONES. This money will go straight towards cake mixes and other essentials needed for our bake sale in October. Pretty please (with a cherry on top) stay updated for more details on what might be our last bake sale for the year. Sad times but man oh man has it been a fun and undoubtedly memorable ride!

If you want to, check out our facebook page for many more photos from our Over-the-Top Bake Sale for Save the Children.

In the mean time, happy flower picking!


Sincerely,

Stephy.

our sweet tea party

Why, hello there sweet friends.

Last Tuesday we all sat down for a cuppa and picked at some yummy-in-your-tummy treats!

We had brownies, m&m cookies, rainbow cupcakes, hearty double choc muffins, victoria sponge cake and scones OOZING with jam and whipped cream. It was just great.

For all those who didn't attend we missed you dearly! We played this short vid at the beginning of the party to show how far we've come since we established ourselves in February of this year:



We signed pledge cards to commit to baking for our circus-themed bake sale on open day...

One of our newest members, Chris Rita, won a new baking set that was donated by Ros. Thank you, Ros, you're a gem(:

Our sweet 'Santa', Mikey, handed out mystery cake/brownie/cupcake mixes to help get the ball rolling for our next bake sale.

One of the definite highlights of our tea party was when Roz, founder of Tea4Toys, spoke about her experience of delivering toys to children who have never possessed a toy of their own. She also told us about the places where the toys we donated would go and even thanked us on the Tea4Toys website:

(YAY! We're famous!)

(our toys!)

Gracias Miriam for taking such amazingly professional photos!

As you already know Spring has finally SPRUNG (haha, I laugh everytime I hear that). Time to say SAYONARA to the butt groove you left in your couch and say HELLO (or Ohaiyogozaimasu in Japanese) to getting your BAKE ON for our bake sale this Saturday! All the details are found on our facebook page. But in a nutshell it will be circus-themed so don't be afraid to get creative. There will be a prize for the most creative Sweet. So come on over bright and early to help decorate our stall so our group can win a massive cash prize. Email sweetsbysweets@hotmail.com.au if you would like to be rostered or just surprise us and show up! We like surprises(:

See you on Saturday, September 10 from 8.30am-4.00pm. All those apart of the Sweets crew can get their face painted for FREE. Best news you've heard all day I bet!


Sincerely,

Stephy.

"I don't care too much for money, for money can't buy me love." - The Beatles

Sweet greetings!

Hope your holidays have been nothing short of lovely.

Mikey and I have been working on all our financial stuff, namely our monthly expenses spreadsheet and filling out forms so that we can finally get cheques for the Breast Cancer Foundation and Coast Shelter. Emily and Suziee will be sending off these cheques alongside personalised letters on behalf of the group. Thank you, cupcakes.

FYI we will not be having a bake sale in August... but chins up, sweets! INSTEAD we will be having a 'Sweet Tea Party.' As mentioned in a previous post Tea 4 Toys signed up to be our first EVER sponsor. So what better way to say THANK YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH than by holding an event to support their cause? (Please take out your uni diary/ mobile calendar at this point). So far the plan is to flock together in the second week of August, either Tuesday the 9th or Friday the 12th around 11am for about 1 hour. Rosalyn, the creator of Tea 4 Toys, will be there to accept our toy donations and will speak a bit about where the toys will be going. There will be, of course, baked goodies to munch on and yummy-in-your-tummy tea. Details about our bake sale in September will also be mentioned on the day.


See you all very soon(:


Sincerely,

Stephy.

meet the sweets: stephy

What's your name?
Stephy. Nice to meet you *firm hand shake*

If you were a crayola crayon what colour would you be?
Tickle me pink

What do you want to be when you grow up?
A year 6 teacher at my old primary school

Who/what inspires you?
People who create good and are authentic

What's your most favourite thing to bake?
Probably cupcakes, I love decorating them!

What's so sweet about being one of the Sweets!?
It combines my two passions: helping others and baking. It gives my baking a purpose!

Most importantly, what charity are you donating our proceeds to for September and why?
I have chosen Save the Children's Imagine Program. This program stands for what I stand for as a teacher in preparation. It advocates that all children should have equal access to education and health care no matter their socio-economic status. By creating a level playing field you are allowing children the opportunity to actually achieve what they dream. I'd love for the Sweets to learn about children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Click me for more info.

hold your breath... make a wish.... count to three

Hello sweet friends.

So you might be wondering why we have been MIA for the past month. Well, we've been studying for finals and they're finally over! Congratulations to everyone for making it through yet another semester. Hi 5 for hibernation time. Time to sleep-in as much as we can and dream happily!(:

Just now I have completed our interim report with the help of our treasurer, Mikey, to let the big bosses know what's been cracking.

Our next bake sale will be on Macquarie University's open day which will be on September 10 from 10am-4pm. I think it's exciting stuff because we get our very first stall that we can decorate all pretty-like. Heh. Details about the charity that has been chosen will be released soonish and all registered sweets will be contacted by Emily. It's a piece of cake to join us, simply email your name and student number to sweetsbysweets@hotmail.com.au. Then follow us on facebook for regular updates.

Okay. So I know that Glee did their own rendition of 'Pure Imagination' a few weeks ago but honestly it has nothing on the original. Nothing. This song reflects what being a part of Sweets By Sweets has meant to me since its creation. Click here to watch the vid.

Want to change the world?
There's nothing to it



Sincerely,

Stephy.

P.S - I still wish Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory was real.

1977

1977 was a 'common' year according to wiki. In 1977 Nickelodeon (originally named the Pinwheel Channel) was first launched, Uranus' rings were found, Orlando Bloom and Shakira were born and the late Elvis Presley performed his last ever concert in Indiana's Market Square Arena. Thank you, Wiki.

1977 is also the amount that Sweets By Sweets is getting from MUSRA, our student representative council at Macquarie University! We are seriously such lucky ducks!

(Click on the email to read it more closely!)


So happy to announce that the basic costs for running our bake sales are fully covered. If you would like to have a look at our planned expenses for the year and have some input send an email to sweetsbysweets@hotmail.com.au. More than happy to listen to you!

"Got the joy joy joy joy down in OUR hearts..."(:


Sincerely,

Stephy.

fun under the sun for coast shelter

Hello Sweets,

This morning, Emily and I put up posters for the bake sale while my little brother looked after our belongings (love you little bro). At 10am we set up our table and realised we had more baked goodies than we had anticipated! But it was definitely a GOOD THING.

(Our table overflowing with yumminess)


We baked with a beachy theme in mind for 'Coast Shelter'. Check these babies out...

(Sarah's oysters)

(Stephy's ice cream cupcakes)

(Sarah's thongs)


We even had new sweets participate, thank you Lucy and Rebecca!

(Lucy's brownies that blew everyone's minds)

(Rebecca's adorable banana cupcakes that she baked with her son)


Eight customers signed up to be our newest SWEETS!

Our raffle prize was, of course, beach-themed with Guylian chocolate sea shells, chocolate truffles, brownies and a big blue and white beach towel donated by my mum. When I called the winner of our raffle he couldn't believe it and shouted, "YOU'RE KIDDING!?"

(John, the lucky winner of our raffle! Congratulations, mate!)


Today marked a milestone for Sweets By Sweets because we also had a customer ask for "one of everything, please!"

(Champion)


How much did we raise? $396.55! Coast Shelter, we hope this helps with the refurbishment of your new community centre.


Now for my favourite part, the thank you and you and yous (deep breath) -

Thank you Khris from MUSRA for printing our posters and hundreds of pamphlets, hope you LOVED what you bought from us today. Thank you, SWEETS, for baking your hearts out, you guys are beyond amazing. Thank you to the people who signed up to be a part of our club, looking forward to our baking adventures. Thank you to everyone who donated even though they didn't buy anything and to those who let us "keep the change."


Sincerely,

Stephy.

sweets by sweets 4 coast shelter

Hello sweet(heart)s,

It's that time of the month again!... BAKE SALE TIME!(:

This month we're spreading the love to Coast Shelter, a non-for-profit charity that provides accommodation to homeless families, men, women and young people. In 2009/10 they provided 34,505 overnight beds and accommodated for 425 homeless people. Sadly, they had to turn away 58% of those who sought accommodation because they had no vacancies. Thank you to Suziee for choosing such a special cause.

FYI last month we had some customers asking us where the crackles and brownies were! Maybe we can go back to the basics this month. Let's see some smartie cookies, gooey brownies and crackles made out of rice bubbles! Om nom nom. Try to also incorporate the beach into what you bake, for example if you're baking vanilla cupcakes add a drop of blue food colouring to the mixture and when they're done top them off with some yellow buttercream icing.

STAY WARM, SWEETS. Keep calm and drink tea(:


Sincerely,

Stephy.

meet the sweets: suziee

What's your name?
Suziee Xoshnow

If you were a crayola crayon what colour would you be?
I would be a yellow crayon because it's the colour of sunshine and reminds me of beautiful sunny summer days. It's bright, always stands out and is the most noticeable in a box full of other crayolas.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
A primary school teacher

Who/what inspires you?
Everyday people trying to make a difference one small step at a time.

What's your most favourite thing to bake?
Cupcakes

What's so sweet about being one of the Sweets!?
It's very rewarding knowing that you're contributing to a good cause one cupcake at a time!

Most importantly, what charity are you donating our proceeds to for May and why?
The Charity that I have chosen for May is a local charity called Coast Shelter. The reason why I have chosen this particular charity is because it is a local charity that helps the local community and it's always rewarding when you see the results within the community. Click here to find out more about Coast Shelter.

"Toys are more than fun: they are essential" - Rosalyn Manipis (Tea 4 Toys)

Hello sweet folks,

Today I met with Rosalyn Manipis from TEA 4 TOYS, our first ever supporter!

Ros created her non-profit organisation in 2009 with the purpose of "empowering disadvantaged children to exercise their right to play by distributing toys donated by the community." How beautiful is that? They hold tea parties all throughout the year where anyone can drop by with new toys that they wish to donate and in exchange get some free baked goodies - that's where we come in! At one tea party they had a cupcake decorating stall which was apparently a big hit with both the adults and kiddies.

Ros distributes toys all around Australia, including to the Mutijulu community in the Northern Territory. Currently, she is working on getting helmets for children with Cystic Fibrosis because the National Australia Bank has actually donated a few scooters to her organisation. Click here to take a peep at their website.

So where to from here, huh? Ros will be speaking to her members and sponsors about helping out with our future bake sales. I will be discussing with my sweets how we can merge tea parties with our bake sale concept. Perhaps we can have 'sweet tea parties' at uni and if you bring in a new toy you get a baked good of your choice, free of charge. Also, we can sell donated tea with our baked goodies which would be just perfect for the Autumn/Winter season!

(Ros & Stephy: big kids)


Thank you, Ros, for all your support so far! I see amazing things happening for both Tea 4 Toys and Sweets By Sweets in 2011(:


Th-th-th-that's all folks!


Sincerely,

Stephy.

the original cuppycake video

You're my honeybunch, sugarplum
Pumpy-umpy-umpkin, you're my sweetie pie
You're my cuppycake, gumdrop
Snoogums-boogums, you're the apple of my eye
And I love you so and I want you to know
That I'll always be right here
And I love to sing sweet songs to you
Because you are so dear(:

pretty in pink

OLO munchkins!

Are you ready for an action-packed recount of our first bake sale for twenty-eleven?
...VAMINOS!

At 10 in the morning, Emily, Yoel, Lauren and I set up our table all pink and pretty-like. Suzie and Julia also took time out during the day to help sell our goodies! Loveliest people ever.

(Emily, Stephy & Lauren: eager beavers)

(Stephy with one of our first customers!)

(Emily, Suzie & Stephy)

(Some happy customers)

(Kirsten & Amber from Campus Experience with some of our baked goodies)



WHAT DID WE BAKE?

(Lauren's gluten-free vanilla cupcakes)

(Julia's vanilla cupcakes with strawberry icing and shredded chocolate)

(Stephy's abrazos - chocolate truffles)

(Stephy's vanilla blossoms)

(Stephy's white chocolate with strawberry cream)

(Emily's butterfly cakes)

(Emily's coconut ice)


Special shout outs to...
* Demi for preparing cute cuppycakes with butterfly candies on top
* Sarah for her delicious dark chocolate and raspberry muffins AND vanilla cupcakes with pink icing.
* Karinya for her freshly baked lamingtons

While the girls took turns selling our goodies Mikey and I sold raffle tickets for our Easter-themed basket full of cute and yummy prizes.

(Mikey after selling 100 tickets)


WHO WON THE PRIZE? Click play!

(Lauren, Bec & Stephy)



HOW MUCH DID WE RAISE?

$452.35

Happiness to the maximus(:


All in all, I never predicted how successful today would be and how responsive everyone would be to our bake sale. We definitely know what will be re-baked for our next sale so thank you for your feedback. Today was a very important stepping stone for Sweets By Sweets in that we have become aware of all the things we can improve on for future bake sales and recognised how well we all work as a team!

If you like baking and want to join in our shinanigans, 'like' us on facebook for regular updates and shoot an email through to sweetsbysweets@hotmail.com.au.

ONE MILLION THANK YOUS!

TOODLES NOODLES(:


Sincerely,

Stephy.

when the going gets tough, the tough gets baking!

Good evening, starshines.

Sweets By Sweets was able to get a section in the latest edition of Grapeshot News, the Macquarie Uni student newspaper (March 28, 2011, Issue 3). You can grab a copy outside of the 'old' library. At our bake sale today a few people mentioned that they actually heard about us from Grapeshot - NU WAY, BRO! Thank you to MUSRA for putting together our section and most importantly putting us under the spotlight. We appreciate it very much!

(Our section in Grapeshot- typos smypos... HAH.)


Sincerely,

Stephy.

ready.. steady... BAKE!

Hello sweets and lovers of sweets!

Lots on your plate?
Join the club!

Hopefully the sun is coming out tomorrow.
Especially between 10am-3pm!(:

Earlier in the evening I was freaking out because my strawberry truffles failed BIG TIME but thank goodness baking allows you to unleash your creativity! My strawberry truffles have now transformed into white chocolates filled with soft-centered strawberry cream - kind of like freddo frogs. "MOVE OVER FREDDO!" HAH.

Sigh. I hope you guys are having or have had better luck than me.
Luckily, I have already made my oreo truffles and vanilla cupcakes. PHEW!

Please invite your friends to support us in raising funds for the Breast Cancer Foundation, the charity chosen by our secretary, Emily. Tell them we're having a RAFFLE too!!


See you and your yummy creations tomorrow, sweets!



Sincerely,

Stephy.

LOVE CAKE

I'm gonna bake you a love cake
I'm gonna put it on a love plate
and serve it up to you

I'm gonna mix it in my love bowl
and add a little bit of my soul
I'm gonna put it in your cake hole
I'll serve it up to you

meet the sweets: emily

(Em: mad for macarons)


Ooh na na what's your name? Emily! Em backwards is ME! Hahaha.

If you were a crayola crayon what colour would you be? Pink, of course!

What do you want to be when you grow up? A jack of all trades hahaha!! a teacher :)

Who/what inspires you? I BELIEVE and thats all that matters xx

What's your most favourite thing to bake? I like to make muffins. They're quick and easy and you can add almost anything to them and they still taste sooo good!

What's so sweet about being one of the Sweets? It's all for a good cause and to me helping people is the most important thing!!

Most importantly, what charity are you donating our proceeds to for April and why? THE NATIONAL BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION because it mainly effects girls. I think that even the littlest bit makes a difference.

sweets by sweets 4 breast cancer foundation

ALOHA SWEETS,

We made it! It's time for our first bake sale of the year! Thanks to Emily, we will be raising funds for the National Breast Cancer Foundation. She will be explaining why she chose this particular cause in an upcoming blog.

So what are you going to bake? When you have some idea please let Emily know on emkate239@msn.com so that we don't have too many of the same thing on the day. Please also let her know when you are available to be rostered in to man our tables. 30 minutes to 1 hour on the day is enough.

Please incorporate PINK into whatever you bake as we all know that pink is the colour used by the foundation.

Feel free to ask your friends who love to bake to participate or your friends who love to eat baked stuff to help support us on the day!

NAME your baked good and decide on a reasonable PRICE for it.

Get creative, my sweets...

And happy baking!(:




Sincerely,

Stephy.

picnic lunch

BIG BIG thank you to those who came to our picnic lunch/ first meeting!

For those who couldn't make it Emily, our secretary, will be sending out emails to let you know what you guys missed.

(The committee's baked goods: chewy choc chip cookies, spanish donuts & chocolate brownie cupcakes with vanilla icing)

(Emily & Julia)

(Stephy & Mikey)

("Hat-like" box where Sarah randomly selected our first charity picker)



So I bet you're all dying to know WHO's choosing the charity for our first bake sale.

Well, hold your breath and click play:







CONGRATUMALATIONS, PEANUT BUTTER LOVE! (She loves peanut butter).



Sincerely,

Stephy.

rub-a-dub-dub we are officially a club(:

It's true, my sweets.
We have officially been dubbed a CLUB!
Sing. Dance. Hi 5 a random!
Just celebrate(:

(Mikey, Stephy & Emily after signing our affiliation agreement)


Sincerely,

Stephy.

cookie monster is so clever

"Cookie starts with C.
Let's think of other things that start with C.
Ahh, who cares about other things!"
- Cookie Monster.

Oh Cookie. You crack me up(:

thumbs up if you're accepted as a new club

Hello everybody!

Good news and bad news!

The GOOD NEWS is that today I had a meeting with Lauren (welcomer/acceptor of new groups), Kirsten (student group coordinator) and Tim (student representative from MUSRA). We talked about food regulations, booking logistics, getting funding (how awesome??) and free printing. After our discussion Lauren officially accepted us as a new club! My reaction? "Oh my God!!!" and, "Can I please take a picture of you guys for our blog??" HAHAHA.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

2: Lauren, Kirsten and Tim
s2: The Sweets


Thank you for making things happen for us! You guys have made this process SUPER easy and stress-free which is just the way it should be (I'm a poet - LOL!) Keep on keepin on(: And YES, if we ever decide to have a baking competition you guys will definitely be our first pick for judges.

(Lauren, Kirsten & Tim)

(Stephy & Lauren)



Next week the committee will be meeting with Kirsten to sign the affiliation agreement where we will finally be dubbed a club(: We're also having our first picnic meeting on Wednesday! See you there, my sweets.

Oh, and BAD NEWS? There isn't any!(:



Sincerely,

Stephy.

P.S- Don't let uni eat you up because after all stressed backwards equals... desserts!(: