Applying for a Cake? Click here for an application.
Unveiling the 2023 Limited-Edition Icing Smiles Ornament
Meet the family and Sugar Angel who inspired this year’s design.
We are so excited to share with you our third annual limited-edition Icing Smiles ornament and the family and Sugar Angel who inspired this year’s design.
Whether you’re looking for a new tree ornament to add the final touch to your holiday setup, a gift to give a cake-lover or Sugar Angel in your life, or a way to support a nonprofit near and dear to your heart, your purchase helps us to provide custom celebration cakes and other treats to families impacted by the critical illness of a child.
How? The cost of this ornament covers the cost of a cake so that a child can receive smiles and happy memories, even in the darkest of times.
Meet Kylie
This year’s ornament is a replica of a cake delivered to Kylie on her second birthday.
Kylie came into the world three weeks early, but her mom knew right away that she was strong. “She was very spunky and very independent, and she had this way about her that she was just wise beyond her years,” says her mom, Bree Rowand.
But at 19 months, Kylie was diagnosed with stage 4 high-risk neuroblastoma. She spent over 200 days in the pediatric ICU, where she was also diagnosed with vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP). “It took two months for them to figure out what was wrong with her,” Bree says. At the time, Kylie was the only child ever seen with VIP in stage 4 neuroblastoma.
While Kylie was fighting for her life — there was a tumor in her abdomen and attached to her left adrenal gland, a dozen small tumors on her liver, over two dozen on her lungs, and lesions that spanned from the top of her skull all the way to her ankles — her parents started a Facebook page to update family and friends. Over 275,000 people would come to follow Kylie’s story.
“She brought so many people together,” Bree says. “It was more of a movement. This powerful movement of love and togetherness.”
Bree heard about Icing Smiles through Barbara Zobian with Candlelighters NYC and thought it would be a beautiful way to celebrate. “We always tried to bring joy and laughter into her hospital room,” she says.
A Power-ful Cake
The cake wouldn’t only be Kylie’s second birthday cake — it would also be Icing Smiles’ 5,000th cake delivered. We reached out to one of the top cake artists in the industry: Kate Sullivan of Cake Power.
Brought into the Icing Smiles orbit through her friend and fellow baker (and now Icing Smiles board member) Elisa Strauss, Kate is one of our original vision carriers. A blog post she wrote about her first call to action went viral. She knew she wanted to do something special for Kylie.
The week before Kylie’s birthday party, while walking in New York City, Kate was hit by a car. “It happened in slow motion,” Kate recalls. “My first thought was, ‘What am I going to do about this cake?’”
Despite breaking her leg in two places (“It wasn’t a big deal,” she swears), Kate, with the help of her assistant, finished the cake, which incorporated all of Kylie’s favorite stuffed animals, and delivered it to the hospital — via her wheelchair. “It was so beautiful,” Bree recalls. “I didn’t even want to cut into it.”
Although Kylie was in and out of sleep during the party, it was meaningful for her family, especially her parents. “Those memories of that day are something that we will always remember,” Bree says. “In the midst of our world spinning and darkness around us, Icing Smiles bringing us together was such a special moment.”
Kylie passed away on Feb. 7, 2015, but her legacy lives on. Her parents started the Kylie Rowand Foundation, which provides support for children and their families directly affected by childhood cancer. It funds research, provides financial assistance to families through its Kylie Cares program, and takes kids on field trips through its Love Like Kylie program.
Today, Bree and Luke live in Arizona with their four children.
Picking the 2023 Ornament
Last year’s ornament featured a replica of Super Sibling Christopher’s cake. Sales helped us raise over $3,000, which has helped make the over 2,011 cakes delivered so far in 2023 possible.
“Our leadership team brought to the table many incredible cakes as ideas for this year’s ornament,” says Icing Smiles’ Development Coordinator Chelsea Boog. “It is always hard to pick just one. Kylie’s cake was chosen for its fun colors, incredible story, and the impact the cake made on all who were a part of it. We are honored to use this ornament as another way to honor Kylie and her fight and to carry on her legacy.”
Bree says she’s grateful for Icing Smiles:
“It was her last birthday that we got to celebrate together. Just having the baker there in person with us to celebrate and love upon us was really special. It wasn’t just the cake; it was also the baker and what she brought to that room for us. That room was so full of love.”
Give the Gift of Smiles
The beautifully designed ornament is 2.3 wide and 2.5 inches tall and is available for purchase online. Yes, we know the form says tickets, but we can’t change it. One “ticket” equals one ornament. The price includes shipping, and all ornaments will be shipped beginning of December.
