April 6, 2016

The young women of Seton Home and Couderc Home were in for a sweet experience during their spring break, thanks to a visit from Eddie Downs.

Downs owns FBG Cookies & Company and was recently a contestant on ABC’s “The Great Holiday Baking Show.”

A Chicago native himself, Downs wanted to give back to our young ladies by teaching them something new: how to bake.

“I decided it would be something fun to engage the girls and give them a new skill,” he said.

The visit was set up by Seton Home’s Youth Care Supervisor Nikki Coffey, who is a longtime friend of Downs. She said that lessons in things like baking helped set the girls up for success later.

“I really want to teach the girls independent living skills,” she said.

Another bonus of Downs’ visit was that it provides the girls with a positive male role model, which many of them lack at home. It also helped that Downs came from the same place as many of our kids.

“I’m excited for them to meet people who come from the same place they do,” she said.

The Seton Home girls learned the ins and outs of making red velvet cupcakes from scratch, right down to the frosting.

From mixing the batter to baking the cupcakes to learning how to make roses out of frosting, the girls had a great time immersing themselves in this new activity.

Many of the girls agreed that icing the cupcakes was the highlight of the day, but were also eager to share new knowledge they gained about the origin of red velvet and baking tips.

Kasmir of Seton Home was excited to have her first experience of making the sweet treats from scratch.

“I’ve never made cupcakes homemade, always out of a box,” she said.

After the baking was done, the girls even got to enjoy
their tasty creations and share them with the other girls!

In the future, Downs also hopes to teach some of our young men some cooking and baking skills.

Thanks to Eddie Downs for taking time to teach our girls some new skills, and thanks to Nikki Coffey for setting up the visit!