“Fighting hunger with every bite.”
That’s what Taylor Frazier hopes to achieve with her nonprofit, The Cupcake Brigade, and her catchy, effective motto.
The 2011 Bothell High graduate, who began baking cupcakes during her sophomore year, recently launched her business and has sold her treats at the Bothell Farmers Market at Country Village and at family and friends’ events. She also sold a few dozen at a Starbucks gathering.
Frazier, 19, will donate all of her profits to the FEED Foundation. She’s been in contact with the U.S.-based organization and hopes to send a check for about $500 its way soon.
“The FEED Foundation really caught my eye because their approach to fighting hunger is providing school lunches for children who normally don’t get even one meal a day,” Frazier said. “I really liked how they did that because it encourages the kids to go to school and get an education, which I believe is one of the only things that can get them out of poverty and end the cycle of poverty.”
FEED does a lot of its work in Africa and Asia and it also provides school lunches in the New York area, Frazier added. The Bothell resident said that if she was going to sell food, she should help others who need food.
“I really have a heart for underdeveloped countries. I’ve been on a few missions trips that have built that desire,” Frazier said of her trips to Mexico and Nicaragua.
Frazier, who works at the Hillcrest Bakery in Bothell, hatched the idea for her nonprofit while attending a business course at Concordia University in Portland. She made 300 cupcakes for a school event, and since she’s been back home, she’s been baking in the Northshore Baptist Church’s kitchen.
At a recent Bothell Farmers Market, Frazier was armed with 75 regular-size cupcakes and 75 miniatures. Her cakes of the day were vanilla with white chocolate frosting, chocolate peanut butter, salted caramel and more.
Some day, Frazier hopes to open her own shop, but she’s not into hitting the TV circuit on popular shows like “Cupcake Wars.”
“I don’t think I could handle that stress,” said Frazier, who will attend the University of Washington, Bothell in the fall. “They have to make 1,000 cupcakes in two hours, and this takes me about four already.
“It’s a creative thing for me to do,” she continued. “There are different ways to decorate them and package them. It makes people kind of feel like a kid again when they’re eating a cupcake.”
For more information, visit www.facebook.com/TheCupcakeBrigade and www.thecupcakebrigade.wordpress.com
