San Franciscans go hard on two things: Politics and pastries. Combine those two obsessions, and you get this Sunday’s Cake for Choice, the bake sale of bake sales, featuring the city’s all-star pastry chefs raising money to benefit reproductive health.
The fundraiser is set for noon to 3 p.m. at Octavia, the Pacific Heights restaurant owned by chef Melissa Perello. Organized by Gather for Good, it will benefit Plan C and Reproductive Freedom for All, organizations fighting for equal access to contraception and abortion services.
Perello isn’t the only famous chef willing to put her restaurant’s baked goods behind her politics. She has enlisted Liz Prueitt of Tartine Bakery, Michelle Hernández of Le Dix-Sept Pâtisserie, Lisa Chan of State Bird Provisions, and Sarah Rich from Rich Table, among others.
Loquat Bakery will be selling lemon poppy cake with preserved lemon cream and strawberry-elderflower jam, while the temple to single-origin, Dandelion Chocolate, will be hawking carrot cake with chocolate cream-cheese frosting, sesame shortbread bits, sesame caramel, and Belizean chocolate glaze.
L.A.-based Gather for Good has hosted other Cake for Choice events, as well as Pies for Justice. The group first came in contact with Perello when she was running M.Georgina, her now-closed Los Angeles restaurant.
“Reproductive rights are even more important to me, not for just my own personal rights, but looking to my daughter’s future,” said Perello, who has a 2-year-old. “Of course, we live in California, so we think we’re safe, but honestly, who the fuck knows? And I resent that my daughter has to grow up like this.”
Rich, who normally doesn’t involve her restaurant in political statements, said she feels so strongly about this cause that she’s willing to put Rich Table in the mix. Her donation? She’s selling devil’s food cake that she normally makes for her kids’ birthdays, though she’s adding white-chocolate frosting to give it a little twist. Will she inscribe it with a message along the line of past Cake for Choice offerings — say, “Cut cake, not rights” or “Sugar and spice and reproductive rights”?
“My chocolate handwriting skills are limited to ‘Happy birthday,’” the Louisiana native laughs. “Maybe I’ll buy some Mardi Gras babies and just stick them on there. Or better yet, maybe they make little uteruses.”
Cake for Choice, Sunday, noon to 3 p.m., at Octavia, 1701 Octavia St. Guests can purchase slices or full cakes. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased in advance or at the door; they grant entry to the fundraiser and include one raffle ticket. For those who cannot attend but wish to support the cause, donations can be made here.