Multi-layered generosity in the Bradenton area

On March 27, Denise West received a text message from GreyHawk Landing resident Valerie Demino telling her to look outside her front door.

When West opened her door, she saw a cake box. She brought it inside, and she and her children, 11-year-old Kayden and 8-year-old Kylie, couldn’t wait to see the treat inside. 

“My children were over the moon,” West said. “We opened up the lid, and both of my children’s eyes were as big saucers, and their mouths dropped open.”

Demino has been baking cakes from scratch and delivering them to friends, health care workers and the staff at Robert E. Willis Elementary School, where her children attend.

Kathy Price, the principal at Willis Elementary, thought it was sweet of Demino to make her a Biscoff cookie cake.

“I picked off all the Biscoff cookies and ate those first,” she said. “It put a smile on my face, and it was very thoughtful of her and very much appreciated. It was the bright spot of my day.”

Her tasty surprises have caused friends to dub her the Fairy Cake Mother of Lakewood Ranch. She has baked and delivered more than 65 cakes in a month.

Demino started baking cakes when she saw people in Lakewood Ranch putting together a rainbow hunt for families to do while they stayed home. People would put rainbows on their windows.

The colorful displays reminded her of the rainbow cake she makes. Each layer of the cake is a different color, and the middle of the cake is filled with sprinkles that pour out once the cake is cut.

On March 26, she delivered her first rainbow cake.

“It was so cute how happy a simple cake made somebody,” Demino said.

The s’mores cake came at the perfect time for the West family because they had been in isolation for at least two weeks and had to cancel their spring break plans due to COVID-19.

“Something like that arriving when you’ve already been in isolation going on the second week, it was pure joy,” West said. “I’m not going to lie, I cried a little. Seeing the kids get so happy, it just made my day.”

Baking has been a way for Demino to take her mind off having to stay home; helping her daughter, Gianna, adjust to online learning; and knowing her husband, Tracey, is on the front lines as an emergency room doctor at Manatee Memorial Hospital.

“It’s probably more therapy than a therapist could offer me,” Demino said. “It’s stressful in ways we weren’t prepared for in that he’s not in a field that you would typically see somebody on the front lines. It’s not something we’ve ever faced.”