There’s nothing like a good birthday cake, and on Friday (July 18), 24 cupcakes were delivered to make two-year-old Matilda feel special on the big day.
Natasha Gannon baked the cupcakes and delivered them to the United Community – Early Learning Center in the Alexandria area of Fairfax County. Since 2020, Gannon has baked upward of 50 cakes for the Northern Virginia chapter of Cake4Kids, which recently delivered its 10,000th cake to underserved youth.
“People take birthday cakes for granted a lot,” Gannon said. “Like, I didn’t realize that a lot of kids in the foster care system do not get their own birthday cakes, and that’s something that Cake4Kids really brings to light that people don’t really think about a lot.”
Matilda’s birthday is actually Saturday (July 19), and she asked her parents if she could have Hulk-themed cupcakes. The vanilla cupcakes were baked in Gannon’s kitchen oven.
The United Community Early Learning Center is one of the partner youth agencies that sends requests to Cake4Kids.
The Northern Virginia chapter was formed in 2019, and that year baked 163 cakes, according to the organization’s website. It is currently seeking volunteer bakers.
Gannon said that kids, parents, and social workers will occasionally send back cards thanking her for the cake or dessert that she made.
“There’s one email I got that I’ll never forget,” Gannon said. “It had a picture of the birthday boy holding the cake that I had made for him, and the message from the caseworker said that he couldn’t believe that the cake was for him, because he had never had a birthday cake made for him in his life. He was 17 years old.”
