Having their cake and eating it
What’s a birthday without a birthday cake, one could ask, but there are many children who have never had a cake or any kind of celebration – until the Birthday Cake Project SA came knocking at their door…
The project, which was started by then 16-year-old Thabile Pinky Thabethe based in Johannesburg, invites volunteers from across South Africa to bake cakes for orphans and needy children as well as for the elderly for their birthdays, and Knysna local Karin RademeyerPretorius was moved to do exactly this, thereby becoming one of the project’s Cake Angels as they are called.
“It has given me so much pleasure to be part of this initiative, that I would like to urge the many talented bakers in Knysna to join The Birthday Cake Project, along with the charity of their choice. You don’t have to be a professional baker to participate,” says Pretorius. She then teamed up with Andrew Pohlman of PartWise here in Knysna, who became her sponsor for the ingredients, and together they provide birthday cakes for the children at the Lukhanyiso Safe House in Concordia.
Pretorius says there are quite a few children, and with Pohlman’s help she can focus on just the baking and decorations, to make it extra special for the little ones.
Once the cakes are ready, staff from the safe house delivers them to the children.
“They then send me a photo afterwards, and the smiles on the children’s faces always make my day. I try and make them age appropriate, and as special as I can,” she says.
Two years ago, they delivered a cake to an 18-year-old boy who had never had this treatment before. “Because he loves music, I decided to decorate his cake with a musical theme.”