INDIANAPOLIS — Some of her creations are simple and delicious, like the tasty chocolate chip cookies she has been making since she was 13.
Others are more elaborate and decadent, like the wedding cakes she creates or the snickerdoodle cookies that she fills with caramel cream inside.
And all of Lani Pascual’s creations are part of her recipe for adding extra helpings of joy, faith and love to the world – a generously flavored approach to life that is known as “Bake It Forward.”
While Pascual didn’t create the concept of Bake It Forward, the 47-year-old mother of two has embraced it as a way of spreading and sharing God’s love with others through the gift of baked goods.
That includes the 50 gingerbread house kits that she and two friends made last Christmas for families in need of some extra holiday cheer.
Pascual also has donated earnings from her at-home bakery, The Stacked Cookie, to help a 13-year-old girl diagnosed with terminal cancer. The girl used the money to buy supplies to make bracelets that she sold as a fundraiser for Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis.
And when parents at Our Lady of the Greenwood School in Greenwood, Ind., order cookies from Pascual for their child to share with classmates on their birthday, Pascual tells the parents to make a donation to the school instead of paying her.
“I tell people that God gave me the recipes, so they’re meant to do his good work,” said Pascual, a member of Our Lady of the Greenwood Parish. “I really do try to use them to do good things.”
“There’s something very beautiful about the Catholic faith,” she said as tears filled her eyes. “It’s the tradition of love that was given to me by my grandparents and my parents, and I want to give it to my kids. I love that my kids are in Catholic school and they want to help me with what I do.”"
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