Sugar Angel Beth Townsend Raises $25K for Icing Smiles

Cake decorator Beth Townsend set a goal to raise $2,000 for Icing Smiles. She ended up raising $25,000. Here’s her story. 

For the past three years, Sugar Angel Beth Townsend has created massive cake sculptures at the South Florida Fair to raise awareness about Icing Smiles. This year, Beth set a goal to raise $2,000 for Icing Smiles — and she ended up raising $25,000!

She presented the check to Icing Smiles’ Assistant Director Karen Griffiths at the American Cake Awards on April 30 in Miami.

“We were in an audience full of very high-caliber cake people who could easily do this themselves and who have way more followers than I do with more street cred in the cake world,” says Beth, a cake artist living in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. “I hope that it sets in motion other artists doing their own campaigns to raise more for Icing Smiles.”

Contributions like this help keep the smiles rolling, says Chelsea Boog, Icing Smiles’ development and communications director: “We are blown away by the support and know this donation will move mountains. Beth’s thoughtfulness and generosity is a gift we will always treasure. It is donations like this that allow us to continue to bake a difference for the most deserving children every day!”

But before Beth worked with cake and icing, her tools were sandpaper and paint. 

From Hobby to Obsession

Beth grew up in her father’s cabinet shop. For nearly two decades, she worked as a faux painter and wood finisher. She painted murals, figured out structures and supports, and added texture to walls and furniture that simulated the look and feel of other surfaces such as marble.

In 2008, she transferred her skills to the pastry world. She’d been watching Bronwen Weber, Mike McCarey, and Kerry Vincent on Food Network Challenge and thought, “I can do that.” So she made her mom a poker-themed cake — which promptly fell apart once stacked. “I realized cake decorating is way harder than it looks on TV,” Beth says. 

Beth learned through trial and error, making cakes for family and friends. Soon it became “a hobby that got out of control,” she says. 

The Joy of Giving

Beth stumbled upon Icing Smiles while scrolling on Facebook. “I remember seeing that all my cake idols were doing Icing Smiles cakes,” she says. “I looked into it, and I was like, oh, my gosh, this is the sweetest thing ever. I was not a very good baker back then. I was still learning. I applied anyway because I was like, oh, well, maybe I can do something.”

Beth became a Sugar Angel in 2012. Her first call to action was for a little boy with leukemia who wanted a SpongeBob cake. “This is my chance to go all out,” Beth remembers thinking. “Because nobody trusted me yet. My cake clients did not trust me. I was still learning. So I was like, well, I get to do whatever I want. I knew it wasn’t going to be hyper-judged by a client. It was just going to be super loved by a child.”

Beth credits Icing Smiles with helping her step outside her comfort zone in the kitchen, moving from tiered cakes to sculpted cakes. Her father, Bob Townsend, is also a critical part of her cake designs. An accomplished inventor, Bob has helped Beth develop the internal form structure and basic architecture she needed to push the limits on her cake designs.         

Beth has responded to eight CTAs through Icing Smiles, creating everything from the Incredible Hulk to a Sleeping with Sirens guitar to Baby Bop from Barney. One of the most memorable deliveries for Beth was a Purrmaid cake in 2020. Beth’s fiancé is a firefighter, and she recruited his crew to deliver the cake. “We brought the fire truck, and all the firemen carried the cake in the house for her,” Beth recalls. “It was super impactful because they were so grateful and happy.”

At first, Beth loved Icing Smiles because she got joy out of giving joy to others. “We were taught at a young age that if you can do something for somebody, then you do it because it feels good,” she says. “Icing Smiles was so perfect because I love to create and love to bake. So it was the best of both worlds — you get to do it, but you get to do it for a mission to make somebody happy.”

But then her eldest daughter gave birth to a baby girl with an extra chromosome who passed away three days later. 

“Now, it’s a totally different feeling when you meet the parents and see their struggle,” says Beth, who has five children and two grandchildren. “They’ve gone through so much. You know that you’re giving them however many minutes of just fun and excitement and a sugar rush rather than them thinking about whatever medical issues they’re having. Cake is very powerful. It’s a small gesture that is very, very powerful.”

A Source of Inspiration

Beth became a full-time cake decorator in 2015. When she isn’t making cakes for Icing Smiles or her clients, you might see her competing on the Food Network, the Cooking Channel, the DIY channel, and HGTV. 

Her team took first place on Season One of Cake Wars Christmas, and she won during her appearance on Cake Hunters on the Cooking Channel. Beth and her cakes have also been seen on the Vanilla Ice House Project on the DIY channel and Halloween Wars on the Food Network.

She also teaches thousands of beginners through her cake decorating course on CreativiU. 

To bakers who might be interested in getting involved with Icing Smiles, Beth says don’t hesitate: “It’s such a heartfelt moment to get called to action. You get just a couple little blurbs of what cake flavor they like, what their theme is, how old they are, and then you take that and run with it. When you’re on the way to the delivery, you get excited. They have no idea what they’re getting. It’s so exciting! And then you pull up to the house and the whole family is in awe over what you made for them out of the kindness of your heart.”  

To people who have the resources to donate or host fundraisers for Icing Smiles, Beth hopes she can be a source of inspiration: “I hope that we can inspire others to fundraise for Icing Smiles and give them all the support and love we possibly can.”

Adds Icing Smiles’ Karen Griffiths: “Beth has a heart of gold and did such a great job of spreading the word about Icing Smiles. Her fundraiser started out small but continued to grow. She did not stop until she had raised an amount she was excited to present to us. She challenged other Sugar Angels to do the same.” 

Do you want to help keep the smiles rolling? Your tax-deductible donations help us deliver not only a cake but also unlimited smiles.