Hallie Bubczyk, 12, baked all of the 210 cupcakes that rewarded donors at the Carroll Hospital Center Auxiliary’s annual gala.
Written By Anne Blue, Photos by: Phil Grout
Guests at Carroll Hospital Center Auxiliary’s Annual Gala last November were treated to an elegantly tiered display of “Sweet Rewards” vanilla cupcakes, nestled in frilly black wrappers, topped with white butter cream icing and dusted with blue sprinkles and delicate white sugar stars and pearls, baked by 12-year-old Hallie Bubczyk, a seventh grader at the Montessori School of Westminster.
The 150 cupcakes rewarded gala guests who made a donation to benefit Emergency Services at Carroll Hospital Center. Their prize was a cupcake and an entry in a drawing for a jewelry prize. The cupcakes helped raise almost $5,000.
Sixty more cupcakes served as favors at the tables of the gala’s major sponsors. All told, 210 cupcakes graced the event.
The baker of all the pastries was Hallie, the daughter of Jen and Jeff Bubczyk of Manchester, who honed her interest and her skills during a one-week internship with Snickerdoodles Bakery and Coffee House in Hampstead last year.
In doing so, she was following her family’s legacy of philanthropy and support for the hospital. Her grandfather, Martin K. P. Hill, is on the Board of Directors for Carroll Hospital Center, and Martin’s wife, Kelly, serves on the Carroll Hospital Center Foundation Board as the president of the Auxiliary.
“Hallie was the perfect choice to be the cupcake baker,” said Kelly Hill. “Her grandfather and I are so involved with the hospital, and Hallie was born there. She is young and I thought she could be a good example of how even kids can give back. She was up to the challenge.”
Making all the cupcakes for the hospital gala was no easy task.
“You definitely have to plan it out,” said Hallie. “You have to research recipes and think about your designs and colors for icing and sprinkles. The decorating is my favorite part.”
“I try to find recipes that sound interesting and have ingredients I can find at my local store,” said Hallie. “I tested a chocolate and a vanilla recipe [for the gala cupcakes]. The chocolate cupcakes didn’t turn out right; they were too dull. But the vanilla recipe turned out nice and sweet. The cake was moist and you could taste the vanilla in them. I decided to use that recipe.”
The hardest part for Hallie was figuring out all the measurements and making sure she had enough ingredients. She baked and decorated the 210 vanilla cupcakes over a two-day period in her kitchen at home, enlisting help from her parents and her 8-year-old brother, Josh.
Thanks to her planning and hard work, and with help from her family, all of Hallie’s cupcakes turned out beautifully.
“I think I made a good contribution,” said Hallie. “Philanthropy is just in my family. My mom and my grandparents sponsor lots of events and help with lots of charities. Philanthropy is just doing things for others without expecting anything in return.”
