America’s hunger for justice is palpable. When professional pastry chefs are the ones to satisfy the hunger, it’s also righteously palatable.
Baked goods were the fundraising mechanism behind Bakers Against Racism, an international bake sale to benefit racial-justice organizations. The brainchild of three Washington, D.C., chefs, the bake sale included both professionals and amateur home bakers, who took orders and baked their hearts out ahead of pick-up day on June 20. After tallying their sales, bakers were instructed to report their donations and chosen organizations to bakersagainstracism.com.
Unsurprisingly, the bake sale’s online base was Instagram.
Organizers posted at @bakersagainstracism and participants tagged their posts #bakersagainstracism, with localized images via #bakersagainstracismdc and the like.
It takes both hands to count the number of orders I placed. I came home with a delightful bounty for a fiercely urgent cause. Only one of my chosen bakers made a cupcake, so this is the singular representative of cupcakes against racism.
The baked goods were the means to an end: to raise money for anti-racism causes. Here’s what one participating chef had to say.
I was one of those 189 orders for the item she baked, matcha and black sesame shortbread cookies. Here’s what I received.
Anyone who displays this much gratitude earns a spot on my radar. I had never heard of her restaurant until this bake sale. I’ll be patronizing it liberally.
Cupcakes are an artist’s canvas, ready to receive the messages a pastry chef wishes to express. I recently learned about Clyde’s Cupcakes in New Hampshire, which created this artwork.
Cupcakes ignite passions and elicit strong emotions. They have a magnetic appeal that is attracting the next generation of cupcake bakers, some of whom are opening retail shops as teenagers. At the hands of youth in the streets and the kitchens, sweet justice is taking shape.
Andrea Adleman | Cupcakologist 