Frosted Hospitality

Categories: Student Profile


The Hanegan family



Bella’s cake


In addition to the difference their cakes have made in others’ lives, the Hanegans are also overjoyed by the effect cake-making has had on their family. “It’s helped our children recognize that there are lots of ways to bring gifts to the people you care about,” Michael observes. Krystal concurs, adding that it’s “shaped them to welcome more people into our lives not as guests or visitors, but as family.”

Indeed, she is clear that she views this mission of welcome as something that far exceeds concrete offerings of flour and sugar. “We have to stop thinking about hospitality as a program, or something that is just a ‘gift’ to certain people,” but instead rethink gift-giving within the larger frame of what it means to live in community.

Throughout, the Hanegans have discovered their art’s ability to transform gatherings and enrich the lives of those around them. “Birthdays get buried in birthday presents,” Michael notes. “The thing I’ve enjoyed the most is watching the way that the center of gravity shifts back towards the person we’re celebrating and towards each other.”

“It’s about intentionally shaping our communities,” Krystal agrees, “towards sharing, caring, providing, and concrete practices of welcome and inclusion.” Indeed, as Michael notes, all gatherings should aspire to foster this atmosphere of mutuality and love. “Host and guest become really blurry, which is just good theology,” he says. A testament to how this one family is making the world a better place, one cake at a time.