Cakes From Grace: Minnesota Mom Finds Solace In Baking

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – With Valentine's Day, there's a lot of talk about hearts. That's why this week was also dedicated to Congenital Heart Defect Awareness.

But Minnesota mom Becky Hunt is honoring kids with heart defects all year long, through baking.

She's always loved baking, but now each cake has a little something extra; something special from Gracie.

"I needed to put a butterfly in it or a little pink in it," Hunt said. "These little Gracie things, things that remind me of her."

Her daughter, Gracie, was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. The whole left side of her heart never developed.

"Essentially she had just half of a heart," her mother said.

Gracie spent 82 days fighting in the hospital.

"She had such a light in her all the time, she was a fighter she was so strong," Hunt said.

But just days before Gracie was set to go home, Hunt got a phone call at three in the morning. Gracie's fight was up.

"She didn't need to be strong anymore," Hunt said. "It was a really hard day, but it was a beautiful day because I got to dance with her in my arms around her room and I had always wished for that ..."

In the days following her daughter's death, Hunt says she was walking around in a fog, and everything became a blur.

The one place she says she found solace was in her kitchen.

"After that I wanted to be baking, I was making cakes and cupcakes all the time," Hunt said.

So she decided to give her cakes to other heart families, and "Cakes from Grace" became a saving grace.

"When I had Gracie I always imagined all the hundreds of cakes I would make for her throughout her life," Hunt said. "In a way I'm still making them and I'm giving them to other heart kids."

She makes about 20 cakes a month for children with heart defects.

If you'd like to learn more about Cakes from Grace, or donate, check out the Cakes From Grace website.