04-11-2024 Howard Magazine - Flipbook - Page 16
E AT S
BY MICHELLE DEAL-ZIMMERMAN Howard Magazine
This is the cake made for Violet,
who was the first child to receive
an Icing Smiles cake.
Tracy Quisenberry, left, is the
founder of Icing Smiles, a nonprofit
that bakes and delivers cake
creations for critically ill kids.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF ICING
SMILES
Sweet success
Icing Smiles, a nonprofit, creates cakes for sick children and their families
Some people look at a cake and see calories. Tracy Quisenberry looks at a cake and sees caring.
The 54-year-old Maple Lawn resident is the founder of Icing
Smiles, a nonprofit built upon layers and layers of flour, sugar,
fondant and, well, sweetness.
Icing Smiles creates magical cakes for children who are
critically ill — think of it as a bake-a-wish. Since launching the
organization in 2010, Quisenberry has watched it grow into a
network that includes thousands of volunteers who have delivered over 30,000 cakes nationwide to ailing kids.
Quisenberry, a certified accountant, marvels over the incredible creations bakers have made and the overwhelming joy of
families receiving so much love and support all in a bite of cake.
Sometimes, she wonders how all of the ingredients came
together to make Icing Smiles a sweet success.
“I have always had a heart for service and no artistic ability at
all,” Quisenberry said, with a laugh, as she shared the nonprofit’s
origin story.
It begins with Quisenberry giving birth twice to premature
16
| Spring 2024 | howardmagazine.com
babies and spending a lot of time in the neonatal intensive care
unit (NICU) with other moms just like her.
“The experience of dealing with the NICU, as well as chronic
illness with my second [child], kind of really made me feel for
medical families, particularly medical moms,” she said. “And the
stress that [they] go through about not being able to provide
their child normalcy.”
Quisenberry found her normalcy through baking and quickly
realized that “cake is so much more than cake,” especially for
children.“My very first cake, which was supposed to look like
a rubber duck, really looked like a pineapple with a beak,” she
said. “But despite that, it had such an impact on my son’s first
birthday party. Like all the kids thought it was so cool.
“And I was like, if an ugly cake can do this, what would the
impact of a well-executed cake be?”
That was the light bulb — or oven timer — that sparked the
creation of Icing Smiles.
Quisenberry was living in Ohio at the time, and started with
a cold call to her local Ronald McDonald House, offering to give