The cupcake icing at Tate’s Bake Shop is about to turn a royal shade of purple, but the temporary palette change is more than just the proverbial icing on the cake.
The Southampton Village bakery is planning this month to participate in the Great Purple Cupcake Project, an initiative by the Anita Kaufmann Foundation, whose goal is to foster awareness of epilepsy, a disorder that results from the generation of electrical signals in the brain that cause recurring seizures.
Trays of freshly baked chocolate and vanilla cupcakes topped with a generous dose of lavender—the color of epilepsy awareness—will be sold at the North Sea Road business for one week, from Sunday, March 20, to Saturday, March 26, to promote the effort. March 26 is deemed Purple Day.
Tate’s rolled out the purple sweets last year as well, but this time around there is a possibility that Tate’s will be expanding its participation—and it could even receive some television coverage for it, according to the foundation’s executive director, Debra Josephs.
Kathleen King, owner of the bake shop, has accepted an invitation to join the reality television star Buddy Valastro, the “Cake Boss” on the TLC Channel’s series of the same name, at a “Cupcakes with Buddy” fundraising event in Hoboken, New Jersey, on Sunday, March 13. The Cake Boss is expected to host a cake-decorating demonstration and prepare a special cake for the event, which is to be held at the W Hotel. Ms. King said she is planning to whip up some mini-cupcakes to be sampled at the event, along with about 13 other bakeries from New York and New Jersey. She will color her icing purple, noting that she may use vanilla, lemon or even a coconut flavor.
Ms. Josephs said the event is to be televised on News 12 and possibly another channel as well.
“I don’t have any epilepsy in my family, but it’s always great to bring awareness to people of a disease that afflicts people,” Ms. King said. “If I can do my share by making purple cupcakes, why not?” she asked, smiling, while seated in an upstairs office at her business this week, an issue of Modern Baking magazine under her elbow. Beside her loomed a bookshelf packed with titles such as “Cake Bible,” “The Professional Pastry Chef” and “Larousse Gastronomique.”
It was her business’ baking reputation that led to Tate’s connection with the epilepsy initiative.
Ms. Josephs, who is based in Teaneck, New Jersey, said she became enamored of Tate’s chocolate chip cookies. She then approached the baker behind them, Ms. King, about spreading the word about epilepsy via her baked goods.
“She is one of the most incredible, generous entrepreneurs I have ever met in my entire life—and you can quote me on that,” gushed Ms. Josephs about the Tate’s owner.
Ms. Josephs said she started her foundation in memory of her best friend, Anita Kaufmann, who developed epilepsy following a horseback riding accident. Ms. Kaufmann, who died more than seven years ago, was a New Jersey girl who enjoyed summering on the East End, Ms. Josephs said.
She said her friend was once discriminated against when she suffered a seizure while at a spa and was asked to leave because of it. “Misperceptions are worse than the condition itself,” she said.
Key to the foundation’s mission is to dispel the public’s fears of epileptic seizures, she said. The disorder affects more than three million people nationwide and 50 million people worldwide, according to the foundation.
Early this week, Ms. King pulled out a tray of three cupcakes topped with purple, in a flower pattern. Soon, she expects purple cupcakes to blossom throughout the shop displays.
