Today at 6:30 PM • Updated today at 6:57 PM
It is perhaps the most beautiful moment when you turn 3, 7, 9 or 13. A beautiful cake in front of you with dollops of whipped cream, pink roses or a miniature superhero. There are burning candles on it, which you can blow out while everyone sings exuberantly to you. But such a sweet treat is not a given for every birthday child. Many families in poverty lack pastries, simply because there is no money for them.
Marnita van de Groes from Veldhoven therefore bakes creative cakes via Gebakplaats without obligation and with lots of love for a job anniversary or a birthday party. Marnita loves making sweet baked goods. It once started with a simple apple pie, but when her daughter turned one, she decided to take a more exciting approach.
“I wanted to make something unforgettable, it became one unicorncake with lots of bright colors, gold glitter, fondant and a delicious sweet filling,” she says in her kitchen where she is putting the finishing touches to one of her creations. “It was so much fun to turn all kinds of separate elements into one beautiful whole. Moreover, it makes me completely zen to spend hours working on such a cake. It’s really a moment of peace for me.”
Since then, her two children have been surprised every birthday with something special from her, from a mermaid cake to a babyshark-cake. But Marnita is much more often busy with flour, sugar and butter: “When we visit the family, I always bring something tasty. During the holidays I treat my neighborhood to Christmas cookies and recently, when my neighbor turned 89, I surprised him with chocolate. cupcakes.”
“While eating the police cake, our tongues were bright blue.”
She also makes the most tasty sweets for her husband’s birthday. “He works for the police, so I once made a police cake for him. What it looked like? Blue! And because it contained food coloring, our tongues and lips were also bright blue afterwards,” she laughs.
Hubby loves it all, but he recently expressed some cautious protest. “My wife has a dangerous hobby, he said, because I have to eat it all and I’m slowly starting to notice it in my pants.”
Gebakplaats is a solution for Marnita’s sugary excesses. But above all, she thinks it is a wonderful project: “I got goosebumps when I saw the call, because I had never thought about the fact that for some families a birthday cake is an unattainable luxury. It is very special to be able to surprise children in this way.”
“I made an FC Barcelona cake for an 8-year-old boy.”
The Veldhoven native had received her first assignment in no time. “A little boy, a huge fan of FC Barcelona, turned 8 years old. Then I made a Spanish club cake in the colors blue and red, with some players and the number 8 on top. I brought it to him on his birthday. The reactions were so heart-warming. His mother then sent me photos of her son with the cake. Just fantastic, that’s what you do it for.”
According to the initiators of Pastry place There are more than 60,000 children in our country who cannot celebrate their birthday because they come from families living in poverty. “We are committed to surprising as many children from a poverty situation as possible with a birthday cake,” says Verona Soltysik, coordinator at Gebakplaats in the Eindhoven region. They have been active here for about a year and a half now.
“We place calls for a cake or… on the website cupcakeswith a brief explanation of what a child likes. These could be horses, technology, the comic series One Piece or football. The bakers can respond and are immediately inspired,” Verona continues.
The initiative has now become a success formula in Eindhoven. Sixty hobby bakers are ready to provide children with a festive treat. “But for Veldhoven, where we work with the Food Bank, we are still looking for enthusiastic volunteers with kitchens full of flour, sugar and creativity,” Verona appeals. In several places in Brabant, Gebakplaats is not yet active at all. “Wouldn’t it be great if we could make children happy there too with a home-baked cake?”
Marnita has now finished another beautiful example: a rabbit cake, complete with two long ears, a turn-up nose and blades of grass. She will soon take it to a friend’s daughter. “Actually, the fondant was too warm, which caused the grass to hang a bit limp. But as a perfectionist, I’m probably the only one who notices that.”
Even more creations from Marnita (private photo).
