Oh, hello there!

Hello, cookie lovers!  

I apologize for my oh-so-long and unexplained absence!

Wondering where have I been?

And more importantly what happened to all the cookies?!

Well, I spent the months of January and February studying for the Bar Exam.

No, it was not very much fun!

Now, I'm in Africa...Lesotho to be exact!

I'll be here for a year, loving little babies like this one:

I already have grand plans to make some sugar cookies here.

But we'll see how my baking skills translate to this country 

where many of my typical ingredients are harder to come by!

Stay tuned for a baking adventure!

Touching Tiny Lives

Exciting news!  

In February 2012, I will be moving to Lesotho!  

Are you scratching your head, saying "Lesotho? Where's Lesotho?" 

I'm guessing from the pictures, you've guessed that it's somewhere in Africa

...and if you know how much I love Africa, that's a good guess. 

Well, Lesotho is one of the two tiny countries inside South Africa.  

I just have to say, I'M SO EXCITED!  

I'll be working with an organization called Touching Tiny Lives

 that cares for babies with HIV and does HIV/AIDS 

outreach and education throughout the community.  

Well, this is significant to Jujubee's Bake Shoppe for two reasons: 

1. I won't be baking too many cookies come February 2012 and 

2.  I'll be switching my global cause to Touching Tiny Lives.  

I've loved supporting the Rau Foundation, 

but I'm excited to start supporting this new organization that close to my heart.  

Thanks for supporting Jujubee's Bake Shoppe and Touching Tiny Lives!

Celebrate Africa!

This weekend I had the pleasure of participating in Odyssey World International's Celebrate Africa!

 This event was an amazing celebration of all the different 

African cultures that are present in Spokane. 

Over the past few months, I have had the opportunity to get to know of number 

of African refugees that live in Spokane.  I've learned so much from my new friends 

and am so glad we could celebrate their wonderful contributions to the Spokane community.

Healing Hearts Northwest Wine and Chocolate Gala

Healing Hearts Northwest had another spectacular fundraiser tonight...wine tasting at Lincoln Center!  The event was full of yummy desserts, delicious wine, and hundreds of generous people making sure that HHW's next trip to Rwanda is a success!

Healing Hearts Northwest

Flashback to the first official cookies from Jujubee's Bakery!  As I mentioned in that first post, my aunt and uncle are part of an organization, called Healing Hearts Northwest, that does medical missions to Rwanda.  They perform dozens of much needed heart surgeries each year and work with the local community to build their medical programs.  I brought back the Rwandan flags, Africas with the heart over Rwanda, and the swirly hearts for a fundraiser they're having this weekend.  They put so much work into fundraising to make sure they can continue to help the people of Rwanda, so I'm more than happy to make them cookies any time they need.

I think the flags turned out mucho better this time.  The lines are much straighter and much more precise.  I also decided to line the Africa cookies with color, instead of white this time, which I'm happy with. It's kind of funny...if you look at the Africa cookies for too long, they start to look like Great Lakes....hehe (Can you tell I've stayed up way too late baking?!). The trickiest part of this whole order was definitely getting all the cookies to look cute in one big box.

The First Official Cookies!

Hooray!  The first official batch of cookies by Jujubee's Bakery.  My aunt and uncle work with an organization called Healing Hearts Northwest that does medical missions to Rwanda.  The work and dedication they both put into this cause is truly inspiring.  My aunt asked me to make these cookies for a recruitment meeting. My aunt and uncle were really excited about them.  When my uncle wanted to show everyone where Rwanda is in Africa, he held up a cookie!

I didn't have an Africa cookie cutter so I had to cut the cookies by hand around a piece of paper I cut out.  I wasn't sure how it was going to work but I think they'll turned out pretty good.  I wasn't as happy with how the flags turned out...although they are pretty cute.  It was really tricky to keep the lines clean.