Ready to Bake for Oceans’ Sake? Great! Here’s the place to get what you need for your own bake sale.

GETTING STARTED:

Print Your Bake Kick-off to get details for organizing a Great Bake. Post Your Great Bake Event Info in your neighborhood, office and town to let everyone know the date, time and location of your Great Bake event.

DONATION FORMS for Recommended Sweet Sites:

With the Sea Turtle Hospital Donation Form, you can help them raise the additional $300,000 needed for the new facility, opening this summer. The IMMS Donation Form helps marine life affected by the Gulf oil spill. Oceana Donation Form proceeds help protect the world’s oceans. The Caribbean region benefits when you send the WIDECAST Donation Form. Do you have your own favorite ocean charity? Send Your Favorite Ocean Conservation Donation Form to let them know they benefited from a Great Bake!

THE COOKIES

First, you don’t HAVE to bake sugar cookies. But they are yummy, easy, and totally customizable.

Sprinkle on some ocean colored sugar or slather with frosting, use some sea animal cookie cutters (we love the well-made, cuter-than-cute and for-a-great-cause cookie cutters from Oceana’s adoption page) or just go plain. Who can resist a chewy sugar cookie? But if you have another sweet treat that lines ‘em up around the block, go for it. Get creative – send us pics of your creations!

Here’s a favorite sugar cookie recipe to get started, from The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion – The Essential Cookie Cookbook:

The Essential Chewy Sugar Cookie

3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks, 6 oz.) unsalted butter
3/4 cup (5-1/4 oz.) granulated sugar
1/2 cup (4 oz.) brown sugar
1/4 cup (2-3/4 oz.) light corn syrup
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. nutmeg, or 1/4 tsp. lemon oil (optional, your choice)
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 large egg
2-1/2 cups (10-1/2 oz.) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (2-1/4 oz.) coarse or granulated sugar, for coating

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets.
In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter, granulated and brown sugars, corn syrup,
vanilla, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, salt and egg. Stir in the flour.

Place the coarse sugar in a shallow dish. Drop the dough by the tablespoonful (a tablespoon
cookie scoop works well here) into the sugar, rolling the balls to coat them. Place them on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake the cookies for 10 min, until the edges are just barely beginning to brown, they’ll look soft. If you bake these
cookies too long, they’ll be crunchy, not chewy. Remove them from the oven and cool on the baking sheet for 5 min., then
transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Yield: 3 dozen cookies

The Fancy Factor – from King Arthur Flour
If you just can’t resist gussying up your favorite crunchy or chewy sugar cookie, here are some ideas for add-ins. Add 2 cups of any of the following to the cookie dough just before shaping:

M&M’s or other small candies
Pistachio nuts (or the chopped nuts of your choice)
Diced apricots or other diced dried fruits
Diced crystallized ginger
Butterscotch chips, cinnamon chips, or the flavored chips of your choice
A combination of shredded coconut (unsweetened preferred) and dried pineapple

The Great Bake Facebook page posts links for cookie recipes, too.

THE FANFARE

Now you’ve got the cookie baking covered, tips on planning and promoting your own Bake for Oceans’ Sake and donation forms for send bake sale proceeds. What are you waiting for – it’s time to get going. Our marine life depends on us! Baking together, we can all make a difference.

Good luck, and make sure you get in touch and tell us all about your BAKE!