Brooklyn’s Flip the Senate Bake Sale Sells Out of Nearly Everything in One Night

If you, like me, were too distracted yesterday to order sweets from the Flip the Senate Bake Sale happening at The Fly in Bed-Stuy, you are going to be disappointed when you discover that all but two varieties of cookies are already gone.

That’s right, all those heirloom apple tarts with frangipane, apple butter, and Marcona almonds, ham and pimento cheese croissants, Lady Baltimore cakes, and peanut butter-miso cookies with white chocolate and sesame seeds will neither be yours nor mine. The sale may have started last night, but it's already over.

This is no surprise.

That’s because this particular bake sale features treats from some of New York’s most prominent pastry chefs and food personalities. Thus, it was widely promoted on social media by famous contributors like cookbook author and YouTube personality Claire Saffitz, Fanny Gerson of Fan Fan Doughnuts and La Newyorkina, food writer and Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree Priya Krishna (and her pastry-savant/architect boyfriend Seth Byrum), and James Beard Award-Winning pastry chef Natasha Pickowicz.

Restaurant people are on the fringes of society on a good day, so the Trump administration’s failure to combat the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting mass closure of independent restaurants is incredibly personal for food professionals of all kinds. Organized by Restaurants Advocating for Democracy (RAD), the bake sale is just one in a series of events to “promote access to polling sites, ending voter suppression, and [assist] with voter registration.”

The bake sale benefits Georgia senate hopefuls Jon Ossoff and Reverend Raphael Warnock’s campaigns along with The New Georgia Project and Fair Fight, all of which are working to flip the Senate Blue in the pivotal runoff elections coming up in January.

These elections will have a seismic impact on the state of our democracy going forward. If the last four years of constant gaslighting have shown us anything, it's that the cracks in our 244-year-old democracy are getting wide in its old age, and it's arguable that not even the overpowered executive branch has as much reach as the Senate. If Mitch McConnell’s stranglehold on the Senate is released, we might have a fighting chance at a government that actually represents us in the coming administration.

Nothing tastes as sweet as good governance, and if the sheer level of enthusiasm for Christmastime cardamom black pepper cookies with lemon glaze and sparkle sugar is any indication, Brooklyn is prepared to help the people of Georgia make their voices heard.