Custom-made cakes put smiles on the faces of ill children - Charlotte Observer

NORRISTOWN, Pa.

Few things can sweeten the day of an ailing child like a beautifully frosted birthday cake.

And few bakers know how to spin sugar and flour into an edible fantasy like the artisans of Icing Smiles.

The organization has iced nearly 19,000 smiles since its inception in 2010, when Tracy Quisenberry founded the group to create sweet memories for kids who have a life-threatening medical condition that is considered progressive, degenerative, or malignant and are within two years of their most recent treatment.

Norristown native and renowned Food Network competitor Victoria Andreacchio has been whipping up cakes for Icing Smiles kids for nearly as long as the group has existed and she has no plans to stop.

"It was such a honor to be picked by them because they're global," noted Andreacchio, who is a fan of Satin Ice cake supplies.

The company is a corporate sponsor of Icing Smiles, she explained.

"If you use their products and they like what you do, they pick you. They loved my 'pug' cake and that's why I got picked."

Every Icing Smiles cake that comes out of her oven is customized according to the particular child's chosen theme, Andreacchio said.

Over the years she's designed cakes decorated in motifs that celebrated Minnie Mouse, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Disney's "Cars" movie.

"Icing Smiles will send you an email and ask you if you can make a cake, and if you say yes they'll send you a list of what the kid can have and what they can't have. Some can't have certain fruits or eggs. And then you use your imagination. Most of them can have everything I offer. I can do vegan, nut free, sugar free.”

Her clients get to pick from 248 flavors, including her signature cookie butter, noted Andreacchio, who hand delivers each cake to the family home or the hospital where the child is being treated.

"You're trying to make an over-the-top cake so that the family can forget that they're in the hospital, even for a little while, to celebrate their child," she said.

According to icingsmiles.org, Icing Smiles now serves kids in all 50 states through a network of 11,000 volunteer bakers and more than 50 volunteer administrative staff and more than 200 partner organizations.

The organization has nearly 500 bakers in Pennsylvania alone, noted Kim Hearn, communications director.

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