FAYETTEVILLE -- At 9, she asked for a KitchenAid mixer, like the ones chefs used on the Food Network.
At 10, she was making so many muffins, cookies and cupcakes mom Shanda Sloan said she had to give them away to neighbors or sell them. So last summer she started a curbside lemonade stand that has become Gable's Bakery. She gives the sales money to causes important to her.
Cooking tips
Tips from Gable Sloan, owner of Gable’s Bakery
• Fill a sink with hot, soapy water before starting a recipe
• Scraping the sides of a mixing bowl while combining ingredients prevents clumps in cupcakes
• Scooping flour out of a container can result in adding too much, producing a dry cupcake. Gable prefers weighing her dry ingredients. She weighs out 4.5 ounces for each cup of flour.
• Gable’s favorite cupcake: Peanut Butter Cup
• For inquiries, email gablesloanbakery@gm….
Source: Gable Sloan, 11
The summer business turned into a catering and ordering enterprise during the school year and has raised more than $3,500.
On May 17, the day before she turned 11, Gable Sloan stood among grownups handing out awards during the Fayetteville High School Senior Scholarship and Honors Program. She was there to present a $1,000 scholarship and a box of cupcakes to Julia Townsley, who graduated last week.
Gable was happy to give the money she made to recognize Townsley's contributions to the community. Townsley started a holiday gift-wrapping enterprise when she was in elementary school to raise money for her school and other causes and is an active volunteer for Special Olympics.
Townsley, who is going to the University of Arkansas to study biomedical engineering, said Gable is genuine in her desire to make a difference in the community.
Gable received a standing ovation that night. Fayetteville High School Principal Chad Scott introduced each presenter and said Gable made an impression.
"It was a special moment that will stick with many senior students as well as audience members as a demonstration of the value of giving to your community," Scott said.
Gable has received lots of praise from teachers, neighbors and community members, Shanda Sloan said. On Monday, Gable received a bronze medallion as a "Distinguished Finalist for Arkansas" in the 2016 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards at an assembly at McNair Middle School. She is finishing fifth grade.
"That's really not what I do it for," she said. "I really like giving to people. It makes me feel good."
Gable is an easygoing child who sometimes has big ideas beyond her age, her mom said.
The money she raised has gone to Susan G. Komen Foundation, the American Heart Association, Arkansas Children's Hospital and Malala's Fund, an organization started by Malala Yousafzai and her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, to enable girls around the world to finish 12 years of school. Malala Yousafzai, who is from Pakistan, was 17 when she jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 with Indian activist Kailash Satyarthi for their efforts for all children to have a right to an education.
Gable's interest in baking grew from watching cooking shows with her brother, 14-year-old Walden, and pretending to cook. She remembers filling pots with water, adding in spices and stirring it up into what she called potions.
Her passion for food became more serious last summer when she started filling the family pantry with cupcakes and cookies.
"I kept making the kitchen a mess," Gable said. "I needed to do something with them."
McNair teacher Katy Gibbins said Gable's cupcakes are so delicious, including one named "Death by Oreo," which she said is "dangerous."
Gibbins remembers a moment at the beginning of the school year when Gable told her classmates about what she was doing with her bakery and that she didn't keep any money for herself.
"I have never worked with a child who really has a heart for what she does," Gibbins said. "Every kid in our home room had their mouth open."
Gable is learning through experience. Once she made a recipe for red velvet cake that turned rock hard because she forgot to add baking soda and vinegar. Like Food Network personality Alton Brown, Gable has taken an interest in the science of food, including why baking powder and baking soda make foods rise and how flour produces gluten strands in bread.
Shanda Sloan remembers her daughter asking why she sears meat before placing it in a slow cooker, she said.
For now, her parents buy her ingredients. Shanda said she and her husband, Bill, have taken moments to teach Gable about economics, but it's a process. At first when they suggested Gable use some money she earned to buy her ingredients, she was concerned because she promised her customers all the money she received would go to a charity.
They continue to talk about the cost of goods and the importance of a quality product, Shanda Sloan said.
But the bakery supports what Shanda said she and husband are teaching their children. "The only real reason for us to be here is to care for one another and to take care of each other."
NW News on 05/24/2016