Sweet Blessed with a Great Semester

Sweet Blessings has truly been a great experience.  All of the people I met there, Ashley and fellow volunteers, and gaining the opportunity to make unique cakes has had such a positive impact on my life.  Also, knowing that the enjoyment that I experience while volunteering goes to benefit another child's life, makes my time spent there that much more rewarding.  I absolutely plan on going back next semester when I return to Lexington to volunteer again!

See You Soon, Sweet Blessings

Serving at Sweet Blessings surely has been a sweet blessing! I have enjoyed working with the volunteers and Ashley (founder). It has been a very positive experience and I look forward to serving with Sweet Blessings in the future!

Reflecting But Looking Forward

Photo from
sweetblessingscakes.org 

My time at Sweet Blessings was productive and very satisfying. I am glad I got to be a part of such a great organization. The people there truly care about bringing joy to the lives of underprivileged children. I hope I can continue to volunteer at Sweet Blessings in my future semesters at UK.

Below is a link to sign up for a 5K Race that Sweet Blessings is hosting as a fundraiser. Check it out if you are a runner competitively or recreationally.
The Great Cake Race on May 1, 2016

Learning About Cakes and Giving Back

During my time at Sweet Blessings, I have learned a lot. Not only have I learned about cakes, but I have also learned about giving back. The non-profit organization strives to share love and put a smile on each child's face that they help. They are extremely successful in this mission! The organization has grown, and there are many regulars that volunteer with Sweet Blessings. I have become passionate about their mission while serving there and I have also picked up some cake decorating techniques! In the summer, I hope to get more involved with the baking and delivery of the cakes. I have included some photos (below) that show some of the cakes that I have worked on. To view the Sweet Blessings video that I mentioned, please visit www.sweetblessingscakes.org

Crafting a fence for the horse themed cake.

Creating a pixelated logo and adding text to the video themed cake.

Adding paw prints, stripes, and text to the UK themed cake! Go cats!

A Sweet Farewell

Unfortunately, my last post was about my last visit to Sweet Blessings for the semester. I wanted to reflect on volunteering with Sweet Blessings and the organization throughout the semester. I hope you guys will watch and enjoy my video! Thanks for keeping up with my blog!

It's NOT about the cake t-shirt

Dalton's birthday cake taken from sweetblessings.org

Birthday Joy taken from sweetblessings.org 

Dalton with his birthday cake taken from sweetblessings.org

Sweet Blessings Influence

Photo take from Sweet Blessings Facebook page

During my time at Sweet Blessings, I have learned a lot about what it takes to run a nonprofit.  Ashley, the owner, is a very inspirational lady in the way she started Sweet Blessings, and has turned it into the place it is today.  Every time I have gone to volunteer she is available to guide beginners, and help out the people who have been there before.  Ashley is just one of the reasons that I have enjoyed working at Sweet Blessings thus far.

Another reason I love Sweet Blessings is because I have the knowledge that every cake made goes to a child who otherwise would no get one.  This makes me excited to go volunteer because I know I am making an immediate difference in that child's life, even if it is only for one day.  The fact that each child's individual interests are taken into account before making it is something that makes Sweet Blessings so unique.  I have been lucky enough in my life, where I have always felt special on my birthday, and I have never had to worry about whether I will receive a cake or not.  Being able to help children not so lucky is a very rewarding experience.  As seen in the picture on the right, Sweet Blessings has such a positive influence on each child who gets a cake for their birthday.  This child received a Cars themed cake, one of his favorite movies, and clearly he was overjoyed to see it on is birthday.

Cake made during last visit

At my most recent visit to Sweet Blessings, Lanie and I had the privilege to make a UK cake for a boy with very good taste in teams.  Before we even got there, the cake was baked, layered with cardboard in between the two cakes, and covered in a layer of fondant.  The fondant is basically a thick layer of icing to make the cake smoother and look nicer before adding details.  The process that we contributed to this cake involved cutting out the letters for his name, using a ribbon cutter to form stripes, and hammering a dowel into the cake to stand up the UK symbol.  These may sound like daunting tasks, but with the other volunteers' guidance, the cake turned out great.  Once it was steamed, we boxed it up and it was ready to go the child on his birthday the following day.  Unfortunately with finals approaching, my last visit is most likely my last visit of the semester.  That being said, I had such a great experience volunteering here, I plan to come back next semester and bring my friends so that they too can help out.

Blessed to Serve at Sweet Blessings

Ashley Gann, founder (from sweetblessingscakes.org)

I have continued to enjoy my time serving at Sweet Blessings. As time has progressed, I have formed a better relationship with Ashley, the owner, along with the other volunteers. I always feel lucky to have so many helpful people around to help when I go to Sweet Blessings on Tuesday. Each person is willing to jump in and lend a hand even though they already have their own tasks to work on. The dedication that I see while I am at Sweet Blessings is inspiring.

Ashley puts in very long days in order to make sure each child in need receives their birthday cake. Sometimes, if she has a lot of orders in one week, this means she is coming in early in the morning and leaving late at night. Considering she has her own family and children at home, the sacrifice that she makes is huge. The work that Ashley and the other volunteers put in is very inspiring and causes me to wholeheartedly support their cause as well.

UK themed cake that Haley and I decorated.

I have learned a lot about cakes in my time at Sweet Blessings. A Tuesday at Sweet Blessings consists of cake baking, freezing the cakes, and lots and lots of clean up. Then, the cakes are constructed depending on the number of people that they are supposed to serve. It might be a small classroom or designed just to serve a family. The cakes are covered in fondant depending on the interests of the individual that the cake is going to, and that’s where I come in. The volunteers that are able to come in the evening complete the decorating of the cakes. I have learned to do various things that I did not even know existed! A lot of it is just jumping in and thinking of your own creative ideas regarding what might look good. I have learned a lot about what’s “in” with kids these days. This includes decorating video game cakes and decorating cakes based off of TV shows I have never heard of (and I have never felt so old)! I cannot wait to see what I learn next week.

Fun with Football

On my most recent visit to Sweet Blessings, there were over 70 cakes that had to be made! Needless to say, the motto for the day was "cute and quick." I had already decorated a football cake on a prior visit, so I was asked to decorate another one to save time. The cake was double layered, and it already had the brown and green fondant over it. I grabbed the cake and immediately started working.

Cutting out the lines

I began by making the yard lines for the cake. To do this, I had to roll out white fondant and cut straight lines. Then, I used water to stick them to the sides of the green bottom layer. The yard lines went all the way around the cake. Next, I added the numbers to the lines. This was done in the same way, except I cut out the numbers from the fondant instead of lines. The numbers are actually very hard to cut out without messing up the fondant. I think I had to redo every letter at least once before I got them perfect! 

 Adding the Lines

Adding the Numbers to the Yard Lines

Once I had finished decorating the bottom layer, I had to decorate the top layer. This was the brown layer, so I made this look like a football with lines of white fondant. I found a jersey made of gum paste to add to the top of the cake. I added navy fondant to the jersey to make it look more decorative. I attached the jersey to a stick and pushed it down through the top of the cake. To complete the cake, I had to add grass. I used green icing and decorated around the top and bottom layer of the cake. 

Finished Product!

Finished Product!

I spent two hours working on this football cake, and I loved every second of it. I was sitting next to a lady who has been coming to decorate cakes for years. I was able to talk to her about the cake she was decorating, and I was amazed at her creativity. She turned a cake with orange fondant into a beautiful Hello Kitty cake. She was such a natural at cake decorating! I was also able to hear some stories about her grandchildren, which was both sweet and interesting. 

I always enjoy my visits to Sweet Blessings. There is never a dull moment, and I always learn something new. I am so glad that I was able to become involved with this organization. I hope to continue working with Sweet Blessings throughout my time at UK!

Busy Blessings

The Rainbow My-Little-Pony
I colored at Sweet Blessings.

During my most recent visit to Sweet Blessings, my friend Sam and I both went together. It was the first time we had gotten to go in a while because of tests and previous engagements. When we first arrived, the founder, Ashley, wasn't there. We found another lady to help us get started on a job. Sam began stacking cakes. After the cakes had been covered in fondant, it was Sam's job to align the smaller cake on top of the larger cake. To secure it, she had to put skewers into the bottom cake and then slide the top cake onto the skewers. She said it was a very tedious job to do.

At first, the lady couldn't find anything for me to do (which was ironic because there was a sign on the front door saying they were very busy that day). She was going to have me box cakes so that they would be ready to be delivered, but there was no camera to take pictures of them first, so they couldn't be boxed yet. I ended up doing what I did the last time I went, which was coloring cut-out pictures that would be put on the cake. I colored a Rainbow My-Little-Pony, Joy and Sadness from Inside Out, and three Olaf heads.

The Olafs I colored.

There was only one other lady working on these and she seemed to be thankful for my help, because she seemed to be getting stressed. Not long after I began helping her, another volunteer brought one of the completed cut-outs back to her and told her it had broken. This only added to her stress, but the girl got the materials and made a new cut-out herself. After I began helping the lady, she was able to get done faster and head on home. She had been there for nearly eight hours that day! So I was glad that I got to help her and maybe make her job a little easier.

Reflecting on Sweet Times

During my time volunteering at Sweet Blessings I have learned a lot of information about their whole process.  Being able to see how the cakes come together and seeing first hand how passionate everyone is about this organization makes me even more happy to be there every week.  Every week since I have started volunteering I have been given more freedom to decorate these cakes to the best of my ability.  In this video, I talk about my experiences at Sweet Blessings so far and why I enjoy the work I do there so much.

As seen in the video, I was able to work on one specific cake, horse themed, and learned a lot of new techniques. Another cake I worked on was video game themed.  This cake also gave me an opportunity to take responsibility and decorate the cake how Lanie, another girl in our group, and I felt would look best.  Overall my experience at Sweet Blessings has been really inspiring, and I encourage anyone else looking to volunteer to check out their link and get involved.

           

Fondant pieces for fence on horse cake

Adding "grass" icing to horse cake

Fun with Friends

During my latest visit to Sweet Blessings, I got to try something new. I worked with a lady to color cut-out fondant pictures to put on the cakes. While working on them, it seems like they may not turn out very good, but it is surprising to see how "life-like" they are, even when you make a couple of mistakes. The best part was who I got to share the experience with. 

During the two weeks that Sam and Kendra got to go by themselves, they got to work on these cakes. I think they turned out great, especially for only their second time! On the red cake, you can see both the shoe on the top and the Air Jordan symbol, which are examples of the cut-outs that Sam and I got to make when we went together (not these specifically).

Sam and Kendra worked on this cake together.

Kendra worked on this cake by herself--
this was before it was finished.

Sweet Involvement

Sweet Blessings Header taken from www.sweetblessings.org

Hi, everyone! Today I wanted to talk about my experience with Sweet Blessings through a video post. I can't emphasize enough how much this organization has positively impacted my life. Working with Sweet Blessings is a true blessing, and I love being able to make cakes for children who may not otherwise receive a birthday cake. Watch my video to find out more about my experience and my latest visit!

(https://youtu.be/rzzh0oGDJDQ)

Cheerleader Decoration

Space Shuttle Decoration 

If you'd like to see more of the environment of Sweet Blessings, check out this YouTube video by Kristin Martin: https://youtu.be/OFvhlp3hXww. Thanks for watching my video post! If anyone would like to learn more about Sweet Blessings or volunteer, check out www.sweetblessings.org! Also, Sweet Blessings is holding a Great Cake Race on May 1, 2016 at the Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Kentucky! If you would like to sign up for this event, be sure to visit https://runsignup.com/Race/KY/Lexington/TheGreatCakeRace5K1M! 

Information on the Great Cake Race taken from Sweet Blessing's Facebook page 

Until next time, 

Rachel