Jaden entered Felicia’s life through foster care. As an infant, he had suffered a traumatic brain injury. When other kids were going to Mommy and Me classes, Felicia and Jaden were going to doctor appointments. There were surgeries, medical procedures, and countless hours of physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy.

Yet Jaden was still just a kid. He loved the large all-inclusive playground with ramped play structures, deck platforms for wheelchairs, a sensory tunnel, and a communication board with common words and symbols near their home in Overland Park, Kansas. He was delighted by music, especially when his mom sang him songs — “You Are My Sunshine” was his favorite — and was disappointed anytime he was told no.

Despite his wheelchair, he was an explorer. “He hated being confined,” Felicia says. His constant companion was a toy puppy he named Scout. His favorite TV show was Go, Diego, Go, an animated spin-off of Dora the Explorer that follows Dora’s cousin Diego, an 8-year-old boy whose adventures frequently involve rescuing animals and protecting their environment. And he relished the sense of freedom he felt in water. “He loved bath time, loved to swim,” Felicia says. “He was a water baby for sure.”

Jaden’s Journey

But Felicia knew something wasn’t right. In addition to seizures, Jaden was experiencing intestinal issues. “I noticed he was having some episodes, but I didn’t know what was happening,” Felicia says. “I took him to the hospital, and we discovered that it was pain. He was just in a lot of pain. Since he was nonverbal, he couldn’t explain, ‘This hurts’ or ‘This bothers me.’”

For two years, Felicia and Jaden went back and forth between Children’s Mercy Hospital Kansas and Boston Children’s Hospital, the No. 1 hospital for children’s gastrointestinal issues. Jaden was diagnosed with gastroparesis, hyperthyroidism, and hyperalgesia, among other things, but nothing the doctors did improved his symptoms. His intestines were failing. After a fourth-month stay in Boston, Jaden was released “with the understanding that he most likely wouldn’t improve,” Felicia says. 

When they returned home, 8-year-old Jaden was put on palliative care. 

Finding Icing Smiles

Icing Smiles Sugar Angle Mike Elder with Jaden’s mom, Felicia Taylor

That July, Jaden received a trip to ​​Give Kids the World Village in Florida through Make-A-Wish. Prior to the trip, Felicia joined a couple Facebook groups to read about other families’ experiences at the nonprofit theme park for critically ill children. That’s when she learned about Icing Smiles. 

Jaden was now on hospice, and Felicia knew it would be his last birthday. She wanted it to be special, and she knew what the theme of the cake should be: Diego. The rest, she left up to the Sugar Angel, Mike Elder.

Mike became a Sugar Angel in 2010 and has completed over 30 calls to action, including our 25,000 cake. The owner of Black Sheep Custom Cakes in Wellington, Missouri, Mike understands the power of a cake. “I had a lot of trauma as a child,” he says “A lot of dark stuff happened to me. Kids don’t deserve to be in these situations. It’s nice to be able to do something fun and positive and support a kid that doesn’t have a whole lot of that going on.”

When Mike’s not baking cakes for kiddos with medical conditions or their siblings, he’s baking 8-foot-tall cakes for Gordon Ramsay or competing in bake-offs on TV (he’s been featured on more than 15 shows).

When the CTA came in from Felicia, he knew he wanted to go all out. “I wanted to make sure it was worthy of this boy,” Mike says. He created a 3-foot-tall sculpted vanilla-and-raspberry Diego cake. He was supposed to deliver the cake to Jaden’s favorite park, but the week before the birthday party, Jaden’s health started rapidly declining. He wasn’t tolerating any of his feedings, he was sleeping more and more, and when he was awake, he was in great pain. 

On Friday, Sept. 7, Jaden moved to a hospice house. 

The Last Birthday

The day of the party, Saturday, Sept. 8, was a beautiful day. The nurses at the hospice house decorated a tranquil outdoor area with Diego decorations. Jaden’s family; teachers, paraprofessionals, and schoolmates; and his health care providers were there. And when Mike showed up with the cake, everyone was in awe. 

“It was overwhelming emotionally to see such a beautiful cake,” Felicia says. “This could have been a contest and Mike would have won hands down. His creative ability was just — he went above and beyond, I mean above and beyond, for my son. It was so cool.”

Although Jaden was really struggling, Felicia says there were a few beautiful moments when he would sit up, open his eyes, look around, and hold onto some of his favorite toys. “I could not have asked for a better day for him,” she says.

That night, Felicia crawled into bed with him at the hospice house. In the middle of the night, Jaden woke up, looked up at Felicia, and said, “Hey.” 

“His favorite thing to say was, ‘Hey,’” Felicia says. “I don’t know if you’ve ever seen Guardians of the Galaxy’s Groot. He says, ‘I am Groot.’ That was Jaden with his “Heys.” He had a “Hey” for hello. A “Hey” for goodbye. A “Hey” I’m happy. A “Hey” I’m angry. And we loved it. That was our language, full of “Heys.”

Felicia says it was a loving and tender moment just between Mom and son. “That was the point that I told him that he could let go whenever he was ready — that I would be OK and he could let go. And he did.”

Jaden passed on Sunday, Sept. 8, 2019, two days before his ninth birthday.

“It was so hard to do that because it’s out of the ordinary to lose your children,” Felicia says. “You don’t want your children to leave you, especially so permanently. So telling him that was really hard, but it felt right. Being able to tell him that he could let go and he could be free was like the ultimate moment, the ultimate test of being a mother. You know, just allowing your child to transition on, to leave you.”

A Celebration of Life

Felicia never expected her child’s last day on Earth to be a celebration — but she wouldn’t have had it any other way. 

“Every expectation of his future that he wouldn’t have, every memory of his past that he enjoyed — it was all wrapped up in that one day,” she says. “It meant that, regardless of circumstance, we could celebrate him. It was, in a sense, even therapeutic, just being able to acknowledge that he was a child. This wasn’t an adult who had lived a full life. This was a child, and having this amazing cake was just an honor of his childhood, of what he loved. So to have this cake that was like the final send off for him, to be able to have that day — it felt right. It felt good.”

A year later on Jaden’s birthday, Felicia and her other son, Jason, actually got to enjoy the Diego cake. Felicia couldn’t bear to cut into it the previous year. After the party, a teacher and paraprofessional helped cut the cake up into smaller pieces so it could be frozen. On Sept. 10, 2020, they thawed the cake and ate it. 

“If I were to have a regret — I mean, I don’t regret it, but I kind of wonder what the cake tasted like fresh because it was so good a year old,” Felicia says. “It was amazing.”

Now, every year on Jaden’s birthday, the family goes on “Jaden Adventures.” This year, they traveled to Omaha, Nebraska, to visit the Henry Doorly Zoo. “Jaden would have loved to have gone,” Felicia says.

Jaden’s brother, Jason, also received Super Siblings cakes through Icing Smiles on his birthday. ​​”I really wanted to do something special for him because it was only a couple months after his brother passed away,” Felicia says. “So we went to Main Event and celebrated his birthday. The cake was absolutely awesome.”

“​​I’m so beyond thankful to Icing Smiles for such an amazing program,” she says.

Give the Gift of Smiles

As Felicia’s story attests, it is so much more than a cake. Contributions like yours help keep the smiles rolling. 

You have a beautifully decorated cake — and now you have to transport, cut, and serve it. Whether you’re a family picking up a cake or the Sugar Angel who is delivering it, there are a few things you can do to have a triumphant celebration.

This spring, Sugar Angel Krystal Posey made a tie-dye TikTok cake — the “biggest and heaviest cake” she’s made to date. The family was coming to pick up the cake later that day, and despite the supports she included in the bottom layer, she was nervous about whether the cake would make it to its final destination in one piece. 

Krystal hopped on the Icing Smiles’ Sugar Angels Facebook page and posed her question to the group of experienced bakers — and they responded in full force. 

7 Tips for Transporting a Cake

Here are some of the top tips from veteran Sugar Angels for what you can do to make sure your cake is as perfect at the end of your trip as it was at the beginning.

1. Wrap the Cake Board

Sugar Angel Megan Wood Borg noticed that cardboard cake boards tend to get soggy, so she wraps the cake boards before building her cakes. 

For tiered or heavier cakes, Sugar Angel Maria Morlock double or triple stacks her boards and duct tapes them together for added support. Sugar Angel Kathleen Cherie recommends alternating the corrugated lines of the boards for even more strength. 

Wilton recommends using a cake board that measures at least 2 inches bigger than your cake. For example, if you’re transporting an 8-inch cake, use a 10-inch cake board.

2. Skewer the Cake

Sugar Angel Brittany Howe recommends putting a skewer through the middle of the cake, from top to bottom into the bottom board, after the cake is constructed. Cut the skewer so it’s a little shorter than the height of the cake so that it will sit under the frosting, and sharpen the end so that it’s able to easily go through the cake and cake board. Then slowly tap the top of it with a hammer, and conceal the hole you make on the top tier. 

Kathleen suggests using two dowels for added stability and to keep the cake from spinning on just one. 

Sugar Angel Anisor Fernandez follows this rule of thumb: one support per inch the cake is supporting on top. For example, a 6-inch top would use six supporting dowel skewers in the cake below.

3. Build the Box Around the Cake

Use a cake box that is the same size as the cake boards and at least 2 inches taller than your cake. 

Rather than dropping your cake into the cake box, Wilton recommends building the box around the cake. Simply place the cake on the flat bottom of the box, then build up the sides and tape it closed.

4. Chill the Cake

Sugar Angel Bridget Kennedy Badams always chills her cakes in the fridge or freezer for 20 to 30 minutes before transporting them. This makes the surface of the cake less likely to smudge when packing and transporting. 

To ensure the cake doesn’t sweat, Bridget tightly wraps the cake box with three or four layers of plastic wrap before she freezes it. This way, the box will sweat, not the cake. 

Don’t worry, Sugar Angel Lisa Velesbir says, it will thaw in time. 

5. Place the Cake on a Flat Surface

You might think the cake is safest on the seat next to you. But the slanted surface could cause your cake to slide off the board and into the side of the box, warns Sugar Angel Amy Hampton Kurtz.

Instead, place your cake on a flat, level surface, such as in the trunk of the car. Sugar Angel Toby Zaltsman uses a non-slip mat — even a yoga mat works — under the cake box for added stability, and Sugar Angel Kristen Lang sets her cakes on top of silicone trivets.

6. Turn the Air in the Car On

Kristen reminds her families to keep the temperature inside the car in mind. No heat, she says. Put the air on to prevent melting. 

7. Drive Carefully

Avoid sudden starts, stops, or fast turns and steep ramps. And watch out for those speed bumps, Kristen says!

How to Cut the Cake

Once the cake has arrived at its destination, avoid smudging the cake by cutting open the side of the box and sliding the cake out rather than lifting it.

Cakes are generally designed and sized according to industry-accepted portions, which are slices that measure about 1-by-2 inches. At Icing Smiles, we guarantee a cake with a maximum of 40 servings.

To portion a cake, refer to these Wilton blogs on “How to Cut a Square Cake” and “How to Cut a Round Cake.” This video by Love Island Cakes on how to portion a celebration cake is another helpful resource, as is this Cake Cutting Guide from The Cake Conspiracy.

Regardless of the shape and size of your cake, here are a few additional tips and tricks to make slicing and serving a piece of cake:

• Rinse your knife in hot water or warm water after each cut of a really dense cake to prevent sticking or tearing.
• Use a serrated knife to cut fluffy cakes, such as angel food or chiffon.
• Wipe your knife after each cut of a frosted cake for nice, clean cake slices.
• Place your cake on a grip mat or textured cutting board before slicing to avoid slipping.

How to Safely Serve a Cake

As we continue to navigate the pandemic, some families may worry about the transmission of COVID-19 associated with food. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is no evidence of food or food packaging being associated with transmission of COVID-19.

Of course, before preparing or eating food, it is important to always wash your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds for general food safety. It’s also recommended that you not share food or eating utensils with someone outside of your household.

When it comes to blowing out candles, some families and Sugar Angels are getting creative. Sugar Angel Kristin Miller made a separate candle cake to go with the party cake so the recipient could blow out his candles safely. Sugar Angel Jean Plotkin designed a cake so the top part came off, and that’s what her daughter used for blowing out candles.

You can also extinguish the candles by waving them out with your hand; using a No Blow Candle, Blowzee, or a Wishing Wand flame snuffer; or trying this paper plate swap method.

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If you want more tips, resources, and updates from Icing Smiles, sign up to receive periodic updates from the team. You can choose to receive the newsletters we send out every other month or to be notified when a new blog posts. We think you’ll enjoy reading about the smiles we help to create. These stories inspire us. They motivate us. And they are the reasons we are here.

It’s this commitment to Baking up Smiles that makes our Sugar Angels shine in whatever they do!