Lexington’s Sweet Blessings Raises Funds with Annual Bake-A-Thon

CAKE FOR A CAUSE: Sweet Blessings raises funds with annual bake-a-thon

Anyone who enjoys having fun while helping children is invited to Sweet Blessings’ all-day bake-a-thon on Tuesday, Feb. 23. To celebrate the fifth anniversary of Sweet Blessings, volunteers will bake, make and decorate a goal of 200 birthday cakes in one day for children in need.

The bake-a-thon takes place at Maxwell Street Presbyterian Church (180 E. Maxwell St. in downtown Lexington) beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 23 and continuing through the night until the last cake is finished, which could take up to 24 hours.

The birthday cakes will be delivered the morning of Wednesday, Feb. 24.

Sweet Blessings is a nonprofit organization creating specialty birthday cakes for children ages 4 to 17 who are facing a life-threatening illness or poverty. In 2015 Sweet Blessings served 1,500 children in Central Kentucky. Each birthday cake is handcrafted in a special shape or design made especially for that child.

The inaugural bake-a-thon in 2012 lasted 24 hours and produced 28 cakes; volunteers at the February 2013 bake-a-thon created 50 cakes. In 2014, 55 cakes were made in just over 12 hours. In 2015, production almost doubled for a total of 102 cakes. Can 200 be made in 2016? Sure!

“Sweet Blessings’ own birthday is in February, so we celebrate by creating cakes —not for ourselves but for the sweet children we are so blessed to serve,”  said Ashley Gann, founder and executive director of Sweet Blessings. Feb. 26, 2011, was the delivery of Sweet Blessings’ first birthday cake.

All cakes are made by volunteers. No experience is necessary. Volunteers are needed to bake and decorate the birthday cakes, as well as wash dishes and clean up afterward, help out with organizing supplies and ingredients in the kitchen, box up the cakes, transport cakes by car, provide moral support and spread the word on social media.

Anyone interested in participating in the bake-a-thon can sign up for a time slot by emailing Ashley Gann at ashley@sweetblessingscakes.org.

Individuals and businesses are also invited to sponsor a Sweet Blessings cake any time of the year.

Also planned for 2016 is the fifth annual “Great Cake Race” 5K/1-mile fun walk on Sunday, May 1 at Keeneland, to benefit Sweet Blessings.

This article also appears on page 7 of the February 2016 printed edition of the Hamburg Journal.