Goodies for a good cause

There isn’t anything much sweeter than a beautifully decorated cupcake. Except maybe a cupcake that also supports a good cause. At gourmet bakery Sweet Wishes, cupcakes go a step beyond tasty to help local groups raise much-needed funds.

Owner Sheetal Verma-Bueche is a Baton Rouge native and social worker by profession. Since opening the bakery in 2010 on Perkins Road, she has been operating a campaign called “Cupcakes with a Conscience.” The campaign is open to any group or individual with a personal or community cause. There is no waiting list or limit to campaigns served, as long as you can prove that you have a goal.

Sweet Wishes creates a special cupcake reflecting the beneficiary’s mission and sells them for a span of about six weeks. The organization or individual receives $1 per cupcake sold. Past campaigns have included Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center, Locks of Love, Companion Animal Alliance of Baton Rouge and other community-based projects. One of the campaigns benefited a student raising funds for a mission trip to Kenya; the cupcake included an Africa-shaped chocolate candy painted in the colors of Kenya’s flag.

Verma-Bueche, who is a mentor in her free time, operates the bakery through her own personal goal of “just being able ?to better someone. We want to be able to grant the wish; we knew going in that’s what we wanted to do.”

But why cupcakes? “Cupcakes make people happy,” Verma-Bueche says.

Cupcake lovers of the world agree. sweetwishescafe.com