She takes the cake and gives it away

By PAUL QUIRINI- | Comments: 0 | Leave a comment

Ginny Scavuzzo has the perfect recipe for welcoming newly baptized babies into the family of St. Peter's Church in Saratoga Springs: a heaping tablespoon of faith, a cup of hope, a pound of love -- and plenty of frosting.

The family of each infant at the parish receives a homemade layer cake baked by Mrs. Scavuzzo at her Gansevoort home. She began her cake-baking ministry two years ago, using her experience in running a bakery to make moms and dads feel special on the day of their child's baptism.

"The process is an emotional one. There's not a time that I'm making the cake that I'm not thinking of the baby's name and family," she said.

Ingredients

Mrs. Scavuzzo has been a parishioner of St. Peter's since 1970, and the families she bakes cakes for remind her a lot of her own family when they first became parishioners.

She also remembers her own baptism vividly: on her 23rd birthday at St. Brigid's Church in Watervliet. Attending Mass at St. Mary's Church in Albany with co-workers during Lent and Easter had convinced young Ginny, who had no religious affiliation, to join the Catholic faith.

"Birthdays have always been special to me, but that was the most special birthday I've ever had," she said.

Blending

Her husband died in 1974, but she remarried the next year and became a mother of six; she had three children from her first marriage, and her second husband, Al, had three of his own.

To avoid a job transfer he didn't want, Mr. Scavuzzo suggested that they take over R & M Bake Shop on Grand Avenue in Saratoga Springs. She was reluctant because she'd be "beginning a new marriage, family and business at the same time," she said. But she agreed, and Scavuzzo's Bake Shop opened in 1976 with a flourish.

"Sunday mornings at 6:30 a.m., we would open the door, and people were lined up outside," Mrs. Scavuzzo said. "We were taught the business by experts from day one."

Let it rise

Having an experienced baker in the shop was helpful, but the clientele gradually changed because it had been run by Jewish owners. The Scavuzzos, realizing they had to adapt their business, concentrated more on supplying wholesale baked goods to the Gideon Putnam Hotel, Saratoga Race Course and other local restaurants.

Baking proved to be a valuable growth experience for the Scavuzzo children, who performed various duties and socialized with the adult customers. It presented Mr. Scavuzzo, however, with a big problem: He became allergic to yeast and flour in the early 1980s, which led to the sale of the bakery.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Scavuzzo had been attending daily Mass at St. Peter's and got involved as a parish council member and Eucharistic minister. But she wanted to do more. She admired the way in which Rev. Robert LeFevre, pastor, incorporated baptisms into the Mass and homily, and how parishioners joined in the celebration with prayer and music. She saw this as her opportunity to get more involved.

"I was joyful to be part of welcoming a new life into our Church, but my heart was telling me we needed more," she said.

New recipe

Since Mrs. Scavuzzo still enjoyed baking cakes, she asked Father LeFevre if she could put her skills to work by baking and decorating a cake for each newly baptized baby at the parish. He loved the idea, and for the past two years, Mrs. Scavuzzo has been getting a lot of use from her oven as she fulfills her ministry of love.

She bakes each round layer cake and spreads it with whipped cream frosting a day or two before the baptism. Each cake is decorated with white roses and the phrase, "God Bless You," followed by the child's name. There's nothing about the cake that's unique to a boy or girl, but the gift box it comes in has blue or pink trimmings depending on the child's gender.

Father LeFevre presents the cake to the child's family, along with a card welcoming them to St. Peter's Church.

Last year, there were 48 baptisms at St. Peter's, and Mrs. Scavuzzo baked as many cakes to welcome these children into the Church. It's the least she can do for her parish, considering everything the Church has done for her, she said.

"I have been blessed by numerous expressions of love and appreciation by so many of the families," she said. "My prayer is always that they receive the grace that I did. I'm only giving back what I've received over the years from the people who have touched my life."

(05-06-99) [[In-content Ad]]