Four hundred kids in the Waikato will get a birthday cake this year thanks to local baker Laura Casey.
She's been making cakes for local kids who live in hardship for about five years, recently via the charity The Cake Detective.
Over the past two years, Laura has donated over 600 birthday cakes to children going through hardship.
It all began when she saw a post on her community Facebook page from a woman seeking a cake for her foster son.
"He was born at 24 weeks and he'd made it a year, which was a big deal. So I put my hand up to do a cake for her and it just sort of… carried on from there."
Laura and her siblings still talk about the birthday cakes their mother made when they were kids.
The thought of her own children missing out on something "so simple but so memorable" is heartbreaking for her.
The Cake Detective connects with their cake recipients through the family support service Parentline and Oranga Tamaraki and also provides celebration cakes for kids finishing their chemo treatments at the local hospital.
This week they have cakes going out to a little girl in hospice care, a child living with her grandparents and the local Women's Refuge safe houses.
The cakes are all themed and suited to what the child is into and often include toys that the kids can keep, Laura says.
"Lots of Paw Patrol and Minecraft and Spider-Man… all that kind of stuff."
Laura says she's so passionate about providing the cakes that she has no plans to ever stop making them.
"When I see those little kids' faces, it's definitely worth it."
