Now that takes the cake — to underserved kids

By Mike De Felice For the Review
June 25, 2022 1:30 am

Underprivileged children associated with family shelters, the foster system, domestic violence or human trafficking agencies, or food banks are among those who receive birthday cakes from Cake4Kids. (Courtesy photo)

Swirling pink, purple and blue frosting on the unicorn cake was a huge hit when an 8-year-old Bainbridge Island girl opened her eyes and saw the colorful creation at her birthday celebration.

The mother of the second-grader beamed and said, “She was super excited to see all the colors, candles and decorations. It was a blessing.”

Designs on the unicorn cake were so impressive that they led to a tiff between family members. “The family got into an argument over what was the best way to cut the cake to preserve the decorations, but we all knew we wanted to eat it!” the mom laughed.

Leading up to her daughter’s birthday party, the single mom of two girls, who found herself stressed and strapped for cash, turned to Cake4Kids for help. The nonprofit has volunteer bakers who make special treats for children who otherwise may go without a birthday cake on their special day.

“At Cake4Kids, we say that no child should go without a birthday cake,” said Dawn Snider, Kitsap County lead for the nonprofit. “We all grew up getting birthday cakes every year, and we remember. We don’t realize there are children in our neighborhood and our community that may have never had a birthday cake. Our mission is to bring joy to these children.”

The nonprofit works with agencies serving youth to locate kids who could use a birthday surprise. Underprivileged children associated with family shelters, the foster system, domestic violence or human trafficking agencies, or food banks are among those benefited by Cake4Kids, Snider noted.

Once a service agency selects a young candidate, the group puts out the referral to its volunteer bakers who pull out their mixing pans and heat up their ovens. Goodies whipped up by chefs include birthday cakes, cupcakes, cookies and brownies. “It’s whatever the child requests,” said Snider, of BI.

Bakers often create theme cakes – examples include dinosaurs, skateboarding and popular movies like Disney’s “Frozen.”

A baker who accepts a job is responsible for buying all the ingredients and getting the finished product to the referring agency. “For privacy concerns, we never see or meet the child,” Snider pointed out. “While they don’t meet the client, oftentimes the volunteer baker gets a thank-you card and sometimes gets a picture of the smiling child with the cake.”

Volunteer bakers

Cake4Kids began in California in 2010 and has expanded to 40 chapters across 11 states. The nonprofit expanded to Kitsap County last fall. Agencies wishing to make referrals can contact Snider at dawn@cake4kids.org. Volunteer bakers can go to cake4kids.org.

Cakes4Kids has 14 bakers in Kitsap County. The group primarily is active in North Kitsap, Snider said, but the group is looking to expand to the central and south county and is looking for volunteers in those areas. “Our bakers are people who love to bake, have the time and love helping children,” Snider said.

Local bakers range from a scientist and a counselor to people in marketing and the tech field. Retirees also have signed up. They all learn in the process.

“[Our bakers] have some competency in the basic ability to decorate cakes but you don’t have to be a professional. Like myself, I can do basic decorating, but I thought it would be fun to learn how to be a better decorator,” Snider said.

Bakers sign up to make as many desserts as they want. “Some bakers are very active and bake one or two times a month. Others do one or two a year,” she said.

Kim Fox of Bainbridge Island has been a Cake4Kids volunteer baker for several months.

“My grandmother made me decorated cakes growing up,” Fox said. “I have fond memories of that. Now, I’m addicted to watching YouTube videos to learn about cake decorating.”

Fox, a retired software executive, finds her volunteer kitchen work satisfying. “I feel good about delivering a cake. It’s not like writing a check — this is much more personal,” said Fox, who recently finished making a Sonic the Hedgehog cake for a lucky child.

Dawn Snider of Cake4Kids: “Our bakers are people who love to bake, have the time, and love helping children.” (Courtesy photo)

Dawn Snider of Cake4Kids: “Our bakers are people who love to bake, have the time, and love helping children.” (Courtesy photo)

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Cake4kids spreads the frosting around: Volunteer bakers mark special days

Volunteer Joan Coyne puts the icing on the cake for Jefferson County’s Cake4Kids project earlier this month. (Diane Urbani de la Paz/Peninsula Daily News)

Peninsula Daily News
By Diane Urbani de la Paz
Sunday, March 28, 2021 1:30am

PORT TOWNSEND — Last Sunday, Joan Coyne created a birthday cake — a tall, multicolored, exquisitely frosted layer cake — for a child she’s never met.

She kept this youngster’s age, gender, location and requested theme confidential. And Coyne, a teacher, would use her lunch hour one day last week to deliver the cake to the honoree.

“This gave me a chance to bake, which I love to do,” but wouldn’t do just for her small household, she said before wielding her piping bag.

Coyne is one of a kitchen army in East Jefferson County. These are the Cake4Kids volunteers: retired professional bakers and decorators and hobbyists. They bake for children, teenagers and young adults who live in homeless shelters or transitional housing or who are in the foster care system.

Volunteer Joan Coyne puts the icing on the cake for Jefferson County’s Cake4Kids project earlier this month. (Diane Urbani de la Paz/Peninsula Daily News)

“It is mind-blowing what these volunteer bakers can do,” said Cynthia Castro Sweet, founder of the local Cake4Kids chapter. Hers is the first Washington state group to become part of the nationwide organization.

As elaborate as the cakes are, Sweet keeps the delivery process simple. Working with agencies including Dove House of Jefferson County and Bayside Housing Services as well as local schools, “it’s a two-conversation process,” she said.

A young person has a special day coming up: graduation, a birthday, anything deserving a celebration. This person also has a particular passion about something, which provides the theme for the cake.

The social services agency acts as the connector, providing the volunteer baker with that theme and the delivery date and address.

“Our goal is to lighten the burden,” said Sweet, adding Cake4Kids serves young people age 1 to 24 by way of their schools or social service providers.

And while she has about two dozen volunteer bakers — plenty for now — Sweet hopes to connect with more agencies.

Interested organizations can reach her via www.cake4kids.org/our-chapters-jefferson, on the Cake4kids East Jefferson County Facebook page, at cynthia@cake4kids.org, or at 206-580-3766.

Since the chapter’s launch in September, volunteers have constructed cakes with a universe of themes: “Alice in Wonderland,” TikTok social media, nature, unicorns, pandas and other animals. Bakers have scrutinized YouTube videos and called on their creative powers, Sweet said, to rise to each occasion.

“Another thing we do is we support agencies when they’re doing events for all of their families,” for holidays such as Halloween, she added.

Maggie Smith of Port Ludlow took on the TikTok-theme cake, though she was unfamiliar with the social networking platform and its speedy dance and comedy videos. She did copious research, found dozens of TikTok cake demonstrations online and baked two mock-ups to practice.

“My neighbors ate a lot of cake. It was really fun,” Smith said, adding it was also a bit stressful. A veteran of 30 years as a school nurse, she wanted to do something outside her comfort zone, and that TikTok adventure brought her up to speed culturally, she said. Smith wants to broaden her skill set further, so she’s added gluten free cake to her repertoire.

Greer Gates, development director at Bayside Housing Services, witnessed a Cake4Kids-fed celebration earlier this year. Bayside’s transitional housing complex in Port Hadlock has several youngsters in its care, and cakes make a major impact, she said.

“While I don’t know the exact volunteer who baked our first cake as a Cake4Kids partner, they knocked it out of the park,” Gates recalled.

“It is so, so important for these kids to feel the excitement and celebration of big days, despite being in some very tough situations. There is something very fundamental to a child’s development of being celebrated and feeling seen, and Cakes4Kids really acknowledges that.”

At Dove House, program manager Pat Jaap said the cake-baking team made the experience a carefree one.

“Many of our clients cannot afford to have birthday parties for their children. Between Cake4Kids and Dove House, we take that burden off Mom. She gets to celebrate,” Jaap said, adding client confidentiality is paramount throughout. “Cake4Kids respects and understands this,” she noted.

“I don’t want there to be a lot of bureaucracy,” Sweet added.

A cake, anonymously baked, frosted and delivered, is her kind of gift.

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A Sweet start: Volunteer bakers make sure no child has cake-less birthday

Cynthia Castro Sweet, founder of the first Washington branch of Cake4Kids, and several of the tasty creations she has made for the nonprofit, is seeking volunteer bakers in Jefferson County.

PHOTO COURTESY OF CYNTHIA CASTRO SWEET

The Leader
By Luciano Marano
Sunday, September 27, 2020 at 8:00 am

Calling all culinary artisans: Unthinkably, it seems there are kids whose birthdays are bereft of cake.

Quickly, to the kitchen!

Yes, even more unthinkable than Paul Hollywood tolerating soggy-bottomed pastries on “The Great British Bake Off” is the thought of a child who has never known a birthday cake. And it was just such a sad story that inspired Cynthia Castro Sweet to sign on as a volunteer baker for the nonprofit Cake4Kids, which provides at-risk and underprivileged kids with customized and personalized sweet treats on their big day.

“Most people, if they think back to their childhood and they think about their birthdays, you probably remember some of your birthday cakes,” Sweet said.

“Maybe you don’t remember who was at your party or what games you played, but the cake tends to have symbolism for people,” she said. “So that’s what we’re trying to do, give these children a really happy memory during a time when that may be harder to come by.”

Sweet first started baking for  Cake4Kids while living in California. After relocating to Chimacum, Sweet, the aptly named charitable culinarian, founded the organization’s first Washington branch right here in Jefferson County and is now seeking volunteer bakers willing and able to craft a good cake for a great cause. 

Cake4Kids boasts hundreds of volunteers who belong to various chapters across the country. They bake about 3,000 cakes every year.

Jefferson County’s chapter will serve Quilcene to Port Townsend. Bakers must be 18 years or older, Sweet said, have reasonable baking and decorating skills and personal transportation so they can deliver cakes.

There is no minimum commitment, she explained. Volunteers bake what they can, when they can. Some bake once a month, others just once or twice a year.

“We do get messages back saying the child loved it or the family really enjoyed it; they had a great party and thank you so much,” Sweet said. “It alleviates a burden on the families, too. Especially in times like these, people are a little more strained economically and it helps to take some of the pressure off.”

Sweet said Cake4Kids works agency-to-agency, with requests for cakes coming via social service organizations or government agencies.

“If they are interested in participating they basically have a representative who gets access to an online portal so they can put in their request,” she explained. “The bakers go in and they look through all the different requests that are open and pick one that they’re able to fulfill.

“We try to keep it a simple, streamlined process and not overburden it with too much bureaucracy because it’s supposed to be a simple but powerful gesture.”

Currently, the new branch is seeking volunteers and plans to begin accepting requests soon.

“We’re doing all of our training of our [initial] volunteers this month and then we’re going to launch in early October for our first requests,” Sweet said.

“There is quite a range [of skills] and we just ask the bakers have a basic confidence in their baking ability and their decorating ability — they’re not required to operate at a professional level by any stretch of the imagination.”

Sweet recalls her own proudest culinary accomplishment: a three-tiered construction based on the Disney movie “Moana,” complete with characters and icing waterfall.

“For a lot of people, cooking and baking is therapeutic,” Sweet said. “It gives us something to do, for sure. It’s also a way of people stretching their abilities, taking on new challenges and kind of pushing themselves to learn new things.”

COVID-19 has, of course, complicated things a bit. But Sweet said Cake4Kids already operated with minimal personal interaction, so the adjustments — contactless delivery, specific drop-off locations, etc. — were relatively simple.

“The nice thing about birthday cakes and most baked goods is they’re pretty safe in terms of their stability. And we do have regulations around the kinds of ingredients people can put in their cakes so they do stay what we call ‘shelf-stable’ and they’re not prone to spoilage,” she said.

Also, the requester can specify any allergies or preferences regarding the inclusion of gluten, dairy, and other ingredients.

More information and volunteer registration is available online at www.cake4kids.org. Sweet is also available to answer questions (cynthia@cake4kids.org or 206-580-3766).

Sweet said she’s excited to bring the program which has brought her so much joy to her new home.

The importance of such things as birthday cakes, she said, while seemingly trivial, can greatly enrich lives.

“The thing that hooked me when I was a volunteer and I went to my orientation session, they read a thank-you letter from a recipient of a cake and it was a teenager. I think they were 18 at the time, and it was the first year they’d ever had a birthday cake,” Sweet recalled.

“And I’m thinking, ‘Wow, if I never got a cake before I was 18’ — I have no concept of what that’s like! And it made such an impression on this 18-year-old. So when you think about that and think about what you’re used to, your own expectations around birthdays — you get a sense of how different it can be for other people.

“That really hits home,” she said.

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