Community Corner
Boston Bakes for Breast Cancer This Week
Needham restaurants will donate dessert sales to Dana Farber.
If you were looking for an excuse to eat dessert, now is the time to stop by one of Needham's several eateries that are participating in the 12th annual Boston Bakes for Breast Cancer event. From May 2-8, restaurants, bakeries, and cafés all over Massachusetts will bake a special dessert from which 100 percent of sales will benefit breast cancer research and care at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Adie Sprague, head baker at Treat Cupcake Bar, hopes the event will raise public awareness of breast cancer.
For events like this, she said, "You want to get as many people as you can on board."
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Treat's creation this year is the white chocolate raspberry, a vanilla cake with a layer of white chocolate and fresh raspberry butter cream.
"It's delicious," Sprague said.
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Ralph Vitiello, general manager at , emphasized the community-building that factors into events like this. He cites other ways in which the restaurant gives back, including the program Not Your Average Cause.
Not Your Average Joe's will feature a strawberry shortcake this year.
"Come in hungry," Vitiello advised.
According to Peter Dumas, bakery director at , the bakery will sell home-baked chocolate chip cookies in support of the event.
"I feel that it's part of giving back the community," said Dumas, a cancer survivor himself.
At , where dessert is not a main focus, this event presents a challenge.
"We used to do some special dessert, but it didn't go well because when people come to an Asian restaurant they don't really order dessert except the ice cream," Ladda Arakputhanun, co-owner, manager and sometime-cook, said in an e-mail.
However, Arakputhanun added, The Rice Barn wanted to participate nonetheless because of the importance of the cause. This year, the restaurant will be selling brownies with ice cream.
Timed to coincide with Mother's Day on Sunday, May 8, Boston Bakes for Breast Cancer was started in 2000 by Carol Brownman Sneider in memory of her mother, Eva Brownman, who lost her battle with breast cancer. For more information and a complete listing of participants, visit www.bostonbakesforbreastcancer.org.
