After childhood cancer, my daughter found her calling in baking

Claire has always been a foodie. When she was 2 years old, she would sneak bites off everyone’s plates so she could sample everything. She had a mature palette, preferring a snack of crusty bread dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar over snack crackers. 

In 2018, when she was 8 and going through her treatment at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® for brain cancer, one of the major concerns was nutrition because the treatments are so hard on the kids’ tummies.  

Claire did lose weight, but she maintained enough weight to avoid a feeding tube because the Kay Kafe at St. Jude provided for her cravings. She requested foods such as fresh salmon and half-and-half instead of milk to drink.

She loved to look at the app on my phone to see what the Kay Kafe offered for the day so she could plan her meals. Now, when we travel back for her checkups, she does the same thing. She wishes they would publish a cookbook!  

During treatment, Claire joined a monthly cooking class at St. Jude and asked for her appointments to be scheduled around it. She learned how to cook omelets, stir fry and other delicious foods. It was a highlight of our time there.

After returning home from St. Jude, Claire’s interests turned to desserts. Once she experienced the joy of seeing someone eat one of her cookies, there was no turning back.  

Being a cancer patient at St. Jude changed Claire in many ways, but the most enduring one is the gentle love she now has for others. She has a very tender heart and can see right into people’s eyes and tell if they’re hurting. 

Because of the love and care she experienced at St. Jude, she is determined to be one of the loving and caring people in our community. But Claire is also very shy and soft-spoken, so delivering treats has given her a way to quietly show her love for others. 

She invented a tradition called “Sweet Sunday” where every Sunday after church, she makes a dessert and delivers it to neighbors who might need a pick-me-up. Nothing spreads joy like a plate of warm cookies. 

She started becoming known in our community a few years ago when she mastered the art of the macaron. She learned how to bake them from Erin, a St. Jude mom who lives near us in Utah and who happens to be a professional pastry chef. We started our friendship at St. Jude, and now our families have become dear friends.  

Once Claire started baking macarons, the news really began to spread. She had a booth at the local children’s business fair and sold out more than 80 boxes! She won the “Highest Potential” award, which meant that out of more than 100 booths, hers was judged the most likely to become a real business someday.

That moment flipped a switch in her mind. She started to believe owning an actual bakery could be a part of her future, which I assured her was completely possible.  

I have always enjoyed baking, but mostly as a means of feeding my family of seven. It hadn’t really crossed my mind that I could make money at it. Then, just this past January, something switched in my own mind. I finally thought, “Why someday? Why not now?” 

I started looking into the local laws about home food production and licensing, and I realized this was something she and I could start to build now. Not at some nondescript point in the future; now. Other people start businesses, why not us?  

In battling brain cancer, we have already done the hardest thing there is to do. Starting a business, by comparison, seemed so much simpler.

We talked about it, and Claire’s eyes filled with tears. “Really? We can do it for real? Me and you?”  

I stopped telling her she could only bake a few times a week and totally let her loose in the kitchen. She started baking two or more items a day, sometimes spending hours in the kitchen. 

When her sister Millie asked if she could join our business adventure, we finally felt complete. The two sisters have been inseparable from toddlers to the cancer battle to now entering their teen years, and we couldn’t do this without her along, too. Now all three of us bake at the same time, passing ingredients, making suggestions and often tripping over each other and giggling about it.  

We started sharing with neighbors, asking for feedback on flavors and different recipes. We began researching different potential bakery locations. 

After months of work, we decided to open the bakery from our home so we could get started selling immediately while working toward opening a brick-and-mortar bakery sometime next year.  

I bake the classic items such as cinnamon rolls and sourdough breads, while Claire’s favorite things to bake are fancy, special and beautiful. She’s perfecting items such as macarons, danish and eclairs. 

Claire still experiences lingering side effects from cancer, which causes a lot of difficulty with some school subjects. But when she steps into the kitchen, her confidence is palpable. She puts on her apron and is immediately in the zone. She can divide or double or even quadruple a recipe, seemingly not realizing she’s doing math.  

My husband and I often watch her, thinking of all she has gone through. It is easy to be sad about what happened to her and the different path she has had to take because of cancer. But when we see the joy baking has brought into her life, the sadness goes away. Instead, we’re filled with the gratitude that she is still here and still ours. 

Now through her tender heart, her goodness and her talents, she is bringing that joy to our community.