Coronavirus Update: Former Nurse Makes Cakes & Cupcakes For Hospital Workers
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — A former nurse is stepping up to help medical workers fighting the coronavirus pandemic. While she can't join them on the front lines, she is giving them a moment of sweetness.
Cake designer Edie Connelly felt powerless as the majority of orders for her Hell's Kitchen business dried up.
Weddings and other parties canceled, leaving her with cupboards and freezers full of ingredients.
But she got to work anyway, making close to a dozen large cakes and masses of cupcakes for the heroes staffing our hospitals.
"It's my way of saying thank you," said Connelly in an interview with CBS2's Dave Carlin. "And I know what they're going through. I was a nurse for 10 years before I did this."
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Connelly wants to lift their spirits with sweetness and something quirky. Atop the buttercream icing is the word "CORONAVIRUS" with a cartoony image.
If some people find that design a little off-putting, the cupcakes are more traditional.
Connelly considered going back to her old job as a nurse as a volunteer, but she's in her early 70s and her doctors and her family don't want that, so she bakes and stays isolated, using volunteers to make deliveries.
"It's a great thing that she's doing, donating cakes to a lot of hospitals in the area," volunteer Dulce Tinel said.
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Connelly says that she'll be closing her shop for good at the end of April, grateful for a long run doing something that makes so many people so happy.
"I started at home as a hobby and I did that for 15 years," said Connelly. "Then when the children went to college, I opened my first store on 39th Street between 9th and 10th ... Seven years later, I lost my lease like so many people and then I found this place and I've been here for 15 years and it has been wonderful."
Her thank yous are etched in frosting, so much gratitude to be gobbled up.
