This past Saturday, Sharon Kitchens of Delicious Musings, held her Portland Pop Up Bakery in the front of Akari. If you missed it, I feel kind of bad for you. Not only did you miss supporting a good cause, like the Good Shepherd Food Bank, but you also missed some fantastic locally made treats.
While the offerings were different than the ones Sharon sold at the Rockland Pop Up, like the Muppet Cupcakes that I had my heart set on, she still had a nice variety of baked goods up for the taking.
Simply Stroops are simply fantastic. Buttery, crunchy caramel filled waffle cookies. Who knew they were being made right here in Maine? And for the low, low cost of $1, they were a steal.
Planet Dog (pictured in the background), had some doggy treats on hand, which I’m sure were fantastic for any four legged friend. We, however, have cats so I skipped over those. It would be nice, though, to see a locally made cat treat that isn’t the nip.
Black Dinah Chocolatiers, from Isle Au Haut, were also represented on the table with a few boxes of their Caramel Collection.
Recent Cupcake Wars participant, Alysia Zoidis, brought some goods from her Fore Street shop, East End Cupcakes. Truthfully, I wasn’t in the mood for cupcakes, but they looked as tasty as ever.
El Rayo had some of their Pepita and Rice Krispy squares. But, I couldn’t help but be distracted by the sizable brownies brought from Scratch Baking Co.. The flavors were plain chocolate and chocolate peppermint. I took one for later and ended up warming it in the microwave, topping it with some Gorgeous Gelato Panna Cotta. It was simply awesome.
But, my favorite little treat came from one of our own local bloggers, Erika of Vin Et Grub. Her Macarons, filled with lemon curd, came with a an option of pepper or pine dusting on top. I purchased five pepper and one pine (mostly because I was pretty skeptical of the flavor combination). In the end, however, it was the pine that I enjoyed the most. The texture of the Macarons were perfectly light and airy. Her lemon curd was also neither too sweet or acidic. Who knew she was such the baker?
Kate, Dawn, Professor A. and I spent a good hour or so chatting with Sharon, in between her waiting on happy buyers. I love that she’s doing something like this because, let’s be honest, who doesn’t love a good bake sale? What’s even better is that she’s doing it for a really great cause. To quote her blog, Sharon wrote:
The events in Portland and Rockland raised several hundred dollars for Good Shepherd Food Bank, a clearinghouse for donated food that is distributed to food pantries, soup kitchens, group homes, and shelters. The organization is behind Mainers Feeding Mainers, Cooking Matters for Maine, and the Feeding Maine Youth: BackPack Program. Wow!
Great job, Sharon.
Edible Obessions 
