Going beyond the taste buds
Initiative featuring encouraging cupcakes and cookies in support of mental health
BRIANA RUPPERT HAS HAD A knack for baking ever since she and her grandmother found a cake-decorating kit at a store. She then started to take classes on decorating and eventually the addiction took hold of her, instilling the dream of becoming a professional cake decorator.
After sharing her creations via Facebook, she saw an opportunity when someone offered to buy a cake from her. She followed that up with a co-op experience at a local bakery before heading out on her own.
Ruppert has now been working as a part-time professional baker – she works as a secretary as her day job – for the last three years under the business name Briana the Baker, making use of an inspected kitchen facility in
St. Jacobs.
While she may not get to devote as much time as she'd like to her true passion, she has found a way to do more with her baking.
She recently launched an initiative aimed at helping those with mental health issues, offering up cupcakes and cookies festooned with encouraging words to inspire and brighten someone’s day.
“It was just kind of this year that it really hit me with mental health – seeing so many friends and family really struggle was really hard for me. And then seeing myself struggle with different situations of life right now is hard to process, so I just thought this is my creative aspect. This is something that I’m seeing in the world right now being affected, and I thought ‘why not bring the two together?’ – cupcakes and cookies seem to make people happy, so hopefully, it can brighten somebody’s day, [those] that do receive the cookies and cupcakes,” said Ruppert of her fundraiser.
She says what sets her apart is her “attention to fine detail,” with a specialty on making figurines to sit atop the cakes. It is the fact that she strives to make every cake unique and special that inspired her to come up with an aspect for the fundraiser that will ultimately bring a some joy into people’s lives.
“All my baking is a lot about custom. So, it’s always nice for it to be personal, especially when you’re giving a gift. If somebody can see that, ‘hey, my friend is giving me this cookie and it’s their writing, and it’s their message,’ that’s a lot more special,” Ruppert explained. “And at least if they have something personal that they want to say to the person, they can do so through that. So, it’s just more personal and absolutely heartfelt.”
People who purchase the cupcakes and cookies are able to write messages for those who will be receiving the baked goods. She says each cookie purchased comes with an edible marker to write a message, and cupcakes can have a message put on by Ruppert.
While taking orders for this round of baked goods for mental health is over, Ruppert says she is planning to do so again in the very near future.
For more information on her baked creations and to find out when the next round of encouraging cupcakes and cookies will take place, visit brianathebaker.square.site.
ACROSS 1.
A meeting space for sharing ideas on an issue
5. Currency unit once
used in France
10. Head covering
15. Exuberance
16. Custom fitted
dental work
17. Derby
18. Barrage
20. Willow twig
21. Pelvic bones
22. Bye word
24. Publicity, slangily 25. One who winks 27. Artist Max
29. Asterisk
31. Append
32. Blockhead
35. Smell
37. Archetype
39. Small salmon
41. Operating room 42. Temporary
45. Autocrats
46. Shear leggings 48. Fishing, perhaps
51. Fertility clinic stock 52. Christmas decoration 53. Person who takes
long vigorous walks 55. Reverses
56. Supports feminism 57. E.P.A. concern
59. When repeated,
like some shows
60. No memory
61. Cousin of an ostrich 63. Asian tongue
64. Buster
65. Kid
DOWN
1. Presidents' Day mo. 2. Earthen pot
3. Bust, so to speak
4. Disentangle
5. Horoscope king
6. Undisturbed
7. Style
8. Stinks
9. Be off
11. Persia, today
12. Wild dog 13. from of acre
14. Facial hair
19. Abysmal test score
21. Femme fatale
23. Annul
25. Arabic valley
26. Boor's lack
28. Incursion
30. Jot
33. Average
34. Monday, May 17, 2021 36. Cloths used for
cleaning
38. "Encore!"
40. Breakfast staple
43. One who takes orders 44. Charges
47. Connections
49. Hit the slopes
50. "A jealous mistress":
Emerson
52. Marks subject of
destination
53. Informal high
54. Christiania, now
58. good use of oppotunity 62. blemish
63. Big bang maker