Baking up a storm of support.

• KAT ROBINSON
• FUNNY POPS: Gigi's shared Angry Birds for the bake sale

The big event this weekend for this blogger was the National Food Blogger Bake Sale for Save Our Strength. Christie Ison did a fantastic job of coordinating donors from local food bloggers and area bakeries alike. It was fantastic. The game-plan had been to start setting up around eight Saturday morning, open at nine and finish up around two. The crowds didn’t see it that way. We were mobbed. Folks came right over from the Argenta Certified Arkansas Farmers Market and from Argenta Market to see what we had — and when they found we were raising funds for Share Our Strength, they opened their checkbooks.

• KAT ROBINSON
• Cupcakes from Brown Sugar Bakeshop

• KAT ROBINSON
• Oatmeal raisin cookies from Make Life Delicious

We had donations from local food bloggers — oatmeal cookies from Sunshine Crawford ofMake Life Delicious, fantastic Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough cupcakes from Heather Nabres ofClassy and Fabulous, Christie’s Sweep the Floor Cookies, a double chocolate pound cake from Ashli Ahrens (Lisa Fischer bought that cake, by the way!), a couple of Coca-Cola cakes from Kelli Reep and my own plain old cheese muffins.

• KAT ROBINSON
• Mini-cheesecakes from Cabot Cheesecake Corner

We also had a ton of donations from local bakeries eager to help the cause — chocolate chip cookies, mini-pies, margarita cupcakes and Earthquake Brownies fromGimme Some Sugar in Greenbrier; croissants, muffins and sugar cookies from The Peabody Hotel; four different types of rich cupcakes from Brown Sugar Bakeshop; a whole cooler full of chocolate and vanilla mini-cheesecakes from Cabot Cheesecake Corner; fancy cupcakes from Blue Cake Company; espresso buttercream cakes from Peace By Piece Foods & Gifts; scones and apple pies and reusable bags from Whole Foods; the cutest cake pops featuring Angry Birds fromGigi’s Cake Boutique and Mary Mann’s sweet and adorable red velvet cupcakes from the Arkansas Culinary School at Pulaski Technical College. The quickest sales came from the items from Dempsey Bakery — gluten free breads and cookies that were scooped up so quick we were out by 10 a.m. Dempsey Bakery will be opening soon… I’ll keep you up to date on that.

• KAT ROBINSON
• Earthquake brownies from Gimme Some Sugar

We had fully intended to keep going until 2 p.m. — but by noon we were down to less than a sixth of our original stock. The remnants went to Homeless Heretic for dispersal to the hungry. In the end, we raised $843 dollars through the sale of baked goods and the Foodista books Christie appears in.

And we’re still going. Christie noted that the Chicago group of food bloggers raising money for Share Our Strength had $1000 in donations. Heck, we can beat that. So we’re still accepting donations through the program. I’m throwing in $25 myself… and challenging each of you to match it. You do that, I’ll mention you here — and maybe give you a bear hug when I see you next. I just saw that Amanda Galiano has already matched up. We’re up to $913 dollars.

Thanks to the folks at Argenta Market, who helped us with finding a location and with our packaging needs; with the Argenta Downtown Council; with the Argenta Certified Arkansas Farmers Market and with Signs First for donating our sign. We’re going to do it again next year and see how much bigger we can go.

Which reminds me — I believe it’s time we got an official Arkansas food bloggers group together. Interested? Watch this space — or contact me direct at kat@tiedyetravels.com.

UPDATE: Michael Roberts has met the challenge. How about you?

UPDATE: Larie Morgan has donated $20... we're just $32 from the $1000 mark!