As bakers and sugar artists know, creating a cake or cookie or other sweet treat is not just feeding people.  It is not just about a creative outlet for the maker. It is also about creating joy and fun and helping people celebrate something special. That satisfying feeling of instigating happiness is one of the things that makes hobbyists and professionals, alike, continue on the path of sweet construction!

Baking a Difference!

Tracy Quisenberry , through her own experiences, recognized that and decided to do something special with it.  She created a non-profit organization that would use and amplify those feelings of happiness and satisfaction and named it Icing Smiles.

Icing Smiles provides custom celebration cakes and other sweet treats to families impacted by the critical illness of a child.  Icing Smiles knows that sometimes simple thinks, like a birthday cake, are luxuries to a family that is battling illness. Their goal is to create a custom cake for the ill child, or their sibling, that provides a temporary escape from worry and creates a positive memory during a difficult time. 

Happy Anniversary Icing Smiles!

This year Icing Smiles is celebrating its 10th anniversary!  In the past decade, they have served over 20,400 cakes and are still counting.  That is over 20,400 smiles in all 50 states, by the way. 

When asked what her greatest achievement was, Tracy said “It is more like thousands of greatest achievements!  Without a doubt, it is the collective impact of our mission.  The impact most people are aware of is that we are creating wonderful memories for medical children, siblings, and their families. We are also impacting families in ways that we never imagined including bringing joy and celebration at the end of a child's life here on earth. These experiences extend beyond the families and also creating heart-warming memories for our volunteer bakers known as Sugar Angels.  How many volunteer opportunities allow you to have that much of a direct impact on the people you are serving? There is no greater compliment than hearing an artist say they are maintaining their skills simply to serve through Icing Smiles!”

Icing Smiles calls their volunteer bakers Sugar Angels, and at the time of this writing, there are 11,431 of them that help all these smiles happen.

Looking Ahead

Looking ahead at the next decade Icing Smile’s goal is:

"I want Icing Smiles to be a household name.  We could serve so many more kids if everyone told their friends about our mission!"

In that spirit, there are so many ways for people to help, whether you can bake a cake or not.

Ways to Help

If you can bake:

•       you can become a sugar angel and answer the call to be a sugar angel in your community. 
•       You can also hold an official bake sale  to raise funds for the organization.

If you can’t bake:

•       You can support a bake sale
•       You can donate money
•       Order a Smile Pack to help bring awareness 
•       Order a Bracelet with an Icing Smiles Charm
•       Shop with Amazon Smile and have a portion of your order donated to Icing Smiles at no additional cost to you! 
•       If you are a corporation, become a sponsor
•       Volunteer to be a cake and cookie scheduler
•       Use your social media skills to identify people in need
•       Attend The Buttercream Ball on March 7th in Baltimore

What everyone can do:

SPREAD THE WORD!

•       Tell everyone you know
•       Repost on social media
•       Create a post on social media about your support

Thank You!

A big thanks to such a dedicated organization bringing more joy to the world.  Congratulations on 10 years of service. We look forward to helping you grow for the next 10 years.