Sunday Sweets: Charity Roundup

Today's Sweet comes from five cake decorators who made an extreme Christmas Tree cake for the Festival of Trees in Utah to benefit Primary Children's Medical Center. Since the cake was itself made to benefit a charity, I thought it would be a fitting way to wrap up our Charity Countdown.

As you can see, it's big. :)

Here are a few close-ups:

Love the train and wood-graining.

It's hard to believe that tiny tree trunk can hold up such a huge five-tiered cake!

Here are some details on the tree itself:

Candy!!

And finally, the fine bakers who made it:

That's Amelia Carbine of Frosted Fantasy Cakes, Dianne Holgate of Cakes by Dee-sign, Tara Churchill, Paula Ames of Cake Creations, and Lynn Winter of Sugar Bakers.

We finished our 14 days of giving on Christmas Eve (go here if you don't know what this is about), and I'm proud to say that together we gave a lot of money to some fantastic organizations! We haven't quite reached all of our goals, though, so if you haven't had the chance to give your dollar yet there's still time to donate!

Here are the current tallies:

Charity:Water - $12,869 raised online so far. Every $5K builds a well that serves 250 people in need of clean drinking water, so as of now 643 people will be helped thanks to your dollars! (Today is the last day to give, so let's see if we can't still reach our initial goal of $20K!)

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital - Sorry, we didn't set up a page to track these donations. But you know you gave, right? So that's all that matters.

Heifer International - $5,770 raised online so far. Again, that's over halfway to our $10K goal!

Child's Play - since they also accept Paypal (and prefer it if the donation is more than $1), we don't have totals for Child's Play. On our First Giving page we've had $2,072 given - but again, the majority of us gave via Paypal.

Share Our Strength - Initially featured on Day #2 of the Countdown, so a lot of you donated before we had a way of keeping a tally. (Had to switch to St. Jude because the site wouldn't accept $1 donations.) On our First Giving page now, though, we have $2,783.

Puffy Paws Kitty Haven - Another with two options to give, but we've talked to Rick & Chrissy and they reported well over $5,000 given through Paypal. So combined with the $5,186 on the FG page, that's over $10,000 - or enough to feed and house the cats for over 3 months, plus pay for the de-worming meds they needed. Thanks for helping meet some serious needs, guys!

Doctors Without Borders - $4,723 raised online so far - not quite halfway to our $10K goal.

Love 146 - $9,025 raised so far for our $10,000 goal. So close! Oh, and you must read this amazing post by founder Rob Morris on the impact your comments and dollars have had.

Habitat for Humanity - $2,090 raised so far of our $10K goal.

Operation Smile - $2,712. To put that in perspective, that's 12 kids who will now have reconstructive surgeries thanks to your generosity. If we hit our $10K goal, that would be 41 kids.

The Buckland Family Trust - The last time I spoke with Kristie, a close family friend, the Bucklands had received more than $14,000 dollars through Paypal. Awesome! Thank you for helping Amanda & her stepdaughter start to put the pieces of their lives back together.

Free the Slaves - $1,759 so far of our $10K goal. These are all great causes, guys - if you're catching up, please be sure to check them out.

To Write Love On Her Arms - $1,566 so far of our $10K goal.

Give Kids the World - $2,193 so far of our $10K goal.

Thanks again, guys!