Friday 22 March 2013

Operation Success!

A week ago today I was surrounded by a cloud of icing sugar whilst baking for Brighton Veg Fest. Right now I'm in a hotel in Galway after spending the last six days travelling between Dublin and the west coast of Ireland. There'll be more about that when I get home but for now I wanted to tell you guys about the fest! 

I had my first ever Operation Icing stall there last Saturday and it went even better than I'd dared to imagine it would. I spent 17 hours (with one Pompoko break!) baking on the Friday after almost an entire week spent getting prepared and I still sold out of cupcakes in three and a half hours, crazy! Here's the stall...

Nick suggested I wore my Mad Caddies t-shirt because it went with the stall's colours, genius!

...after looking into the price of a real banner I ended up making my own using paper, my printer, string and two mic stands. The perfect banner for my little punk rock inspired vegan bakery! In case you don't know the name Operation Icing was inspired by one of my favourite bands, Operation Ivy. As you can see my table cloth didn't quite fit the table so I filled in the spaces with leaflets for all of the charities Operation Icing supports.

I made 14 cupcake flavours which included three gluten free options. The best sellers, were definitely the Raspberry Doughnut and Cookies & Cream flavours. I'll make loads more of those next year! 


Unsurprisingly the Speculoos Caramel Cookie flavour also sold super fast...


...as did Peanut Butter Oreo. I actually only came up with this combo on the Thursday evening before Veg Fest after fellow Brighton blogger Christina from paperbagblog tweeted that she was spreading peanut butter on Oreo's. Genius! You've heard that Oreo's are now vegan in the UK right? I'm SO excited about it. Newman O's would be better but these corporate O's will have to do until their friendlier alternative makes it across the pond!

The cupcakes were not only toped with an Oreo cookie but there's a whole Oreo inside too.



I love the new Matcha Green Tea cupcakes, and I'll be adding them to the website soon. As you can see I borrowed the style of icing on them from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. I'm assuming that Isa & Terry wont mind as this is all not-for-profit?!


The matcha glaze instead of a buttercream frosting made these stand apart from the other cupcakes and they really appealed to people who said they hated the amount of frosting on most cupcakes. The Sweet & Salty Maple Bacon was the cupcake that really divided opinions, the feedback I got from people was either really positive or "it was interesting" which we all know means weird/gross! I loved the flavour though and I'll definitely continue to offer it for the more adventurous cupcake connoisseur.

As I said last time I blogged, Veg Fest just sneaked into the Raystede donation month and I ended up raising £280. Added together with the other Operation Icing profits for the month the total donation for Feb-March was £351, easily the biggest donation so far!

As well as being excited about selling out of cupcakes and raising money for charity I was also super excited to meet everyone who came by to say hi, to buy cupcakes or to tell me that they enjoyed reading my blog. Thank you! It was super awesome to have support from the blogging community and I'll definitely be seeing you all again next year if not before. 

The only sad thing about working on the Saturday and taking off to Dublin on the Sunday (aside from the fact that I was so tired when packing that I forgot a tonne of stuff) was that I didn't get much of a chance to enjoy the fair and check out everyone else's stalls. Next year I'll be planning that part better!

If the idea of eating cupcakes and donating money to charity appeals to you then you can get involved with this little baketivist project by buying some cupcakes! They'll be back in WaiKikaMooKau Cafe on Kensington Gardens next Friday, the 29th, and you can always order boxes of cupcakes in 6's, 12's, or more, via my website for collection or delivery in the North Laine area.

29 comments:

  1. Congratulations on such a success! They all look beautiful and how fantastic to raise all that money for a good cause :) I unfortunately couldn't make it this year, I agreed (without consulting my diary...) to doing all the cooking for my Mum's dinner party on the Sat and spent all day preparing. I think I would have struggled to choose one, maybe matcha or all out with the oreo cookie!?
    Are your recipes top secret by the way?

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    1. Thank you! You'll have to come down next year. And yeah, I can't really give out my recipes.

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  2. Hi JoJo! Good to see you there!

    Congratulations :) and I hope someday I will try your incredible vegan desserts! Double Miam!

    ♡ rika, vegan miam
    www.veganmiam.com
    ★ i travel + i eat vegan blog ★

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    1. Thank you! I really hope you can try my desserts one day too! It'd be awesome to meet one day!

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  3. Oh wow, those are such stunning cupcakes. Both the flavors and decorations are top notch! Makes me realize that I've been pretty lazy in crafting my cupcakes lately... These are so inspiring.

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    1. Awww, thank you! That compliment means a lot coming from someone as talented as you!

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  4. um, JoJo, those cupcakes are GORGEOUS!!! holy smokes, and also some of the biggest freakin' cuppers I have ever seen. of course they sold out, whoa!!!!

    congrats and great work. i'm so impressed and inspired by your skill.
    xo
    kittee

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    1. Wow, thanks Kittee! I'm always impressed and inspired by the things I see on your blog too. Your pudla have become a regular breakfast/lunch/dinner in our house!

      xx

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  5. Dannnnng girl! You are definitely the mastress of cupcake baking!!

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  6. Was like torture reading all the tweets about this years festival, was sad I missed it, looked like a cracker. However, put me down for a sweet and salty maple bacon in2014 please!

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  7. Jo Jo, you go!! All the cuppers look unbelievable, we are jealous on this side of the pond. And I used to love the band Operation Ivy :-) Don't know what happened to the "tape" I had of them (it was decades ago) it's probably in a box somewhere...but, I'd rather have your cupcakes!!

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    1. Thanks Dawn! If you stumble upon your original Operation Ivy tape I would happily swap it for some cupcakes!

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  8. Amazing! They look absolutely brilliant. Well done, that's a fantastic ammount to raise for charity. I make the matcha ones quite a lot too, ones of my faves from VCCTOTW.

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    1. Thanks! I don't use the matcha recipe from VCTOW but I totally stole the style. I love matcha so much!

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  9. Congrats on the stall! Your cupcakes look incredible and I'm not even that much of a cake fan. The coconut lime one would have to be my pick of the bunch. It's great you made so much money for charity!

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  10. Congrats on having such a success! I knew you'd do well :)
    I wish I could have gone, I'm definitely going to the next one!
    I haven't got much of a sweet tooth, but your cupcakes always look so pretty and yummy!

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  11. JoJo congrats on the HUGE success. Your stall and cupcakes look fantastic. All of the cupcakes look fantastic. I'm not sure I could have picked just one. Great flavor combos and ideas.

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  12. Whoa JoJo! You're cupcakes keep getting more and more impressive. Way to sell out, I'm super happy for you.
    Did you bake mini donuts to top your cupcakes? That's so freakin' cute!

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  13. I'm still a bit sad that I missed out on the oreo cupcakes. The choco pb ones were amazing though and the cookies and cream.

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    1. Thanks buddy! I'll make you some PB Oreo cuppers some time!

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  14. Congratulations, you are beyond awesome! Those cupcakes look amazing. Too bag you can't deliver to Australia. ;)

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    1. Awww thank you! It really is a shame I can't (hand deliver!) some cupcakes to Aus!

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  15. Stash ow lovely of you to bring some charity to an event like this ! Go you ! They look delish also !

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