A bakery is giving away hundreds of graduation cakes
800 graduation cakes. 12 schools. 5 weeks. That’s what it will take for Hanisch Bakery and Coffee Shop in Red Wing, Minnesota, to fulfill the graduation cake orders they received after a not-so-small act of kindness. Hanisch was thinking of the 200 graduating seniors in his town’s high school whose traditional commencement ceremony was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The thing “to do,” he decided, was to make each of them a free cake: a two-layer, round, 7-inch cake, decorated in school colors — purple and white. Word quickly spread outside Red Wing to neighboring Minnesota towns and across the river to towns in Wisconsin. Soon Hanisch was fielding calls from private benefactors, area businesses and school districts wanting to buy cakes for high school graduates in both states. Hanisch is only charging for labor and ingredients; he’s not making a profit. The farthest call came from Blooming Prairie, a town an hour’s drive away. Its bakery burned down back in January.
