From Gangs to Cakes: An Unusual Career Path

Kelly Lindquist took the long way to being a pastry chef. From graphic design to mentoring gang members to social work, her road has been full of twists and turns, ultimately leading back to her Connecticut roots as the owner of Sweet Rewards cake shop.

Lindquist's love of all things sweet began in her grandmother's kitchen. Growing up in New Fairfield, Lindquist said her grandmother taught her to enjoy baking.

Leaving baking behind, she graduated from Endicott College with a degree in graphic design and marketing and took a job as an art director for a Boston newspaper. But in the early 1990s, her desire to help others led her to a grassroots effort called Gang Peace.

This non-profit group worked out of a house in a rough neighborhood south of Boston. Lindquist lived and worked among Gang Peace's clients, starting a newsletter and encouraging the boys she met to use their creativity in productive ways.

Although it took a long time to gain the gang members' trust, Lindquist, 37, says, "the boys loved writing rap, which is poetry."

But when she was expecting her daughter, who is now 13, Lindquist headed home to Connecticut.

She took a job with Danbury's Family and Children's Aid as director of a day treatment program. But Lindquist found that working for an agency supported by the state was too limiting, so she took a break from social work and began baking for a caterer friend.

While working for the Danbury caterer, a couple requested an unusual cake for their Halloween wedding. And Lindquist obliged, creating a four-foot mummy cake served on a casket-shaped board. Word spread, and soon Lindquist opened up her first shop in an old house near Brookfield Lanes.

Now living in Sherman, Lindquist was thrilled to find a more modern facility in her new location at 18 Old Route 7, near the Hearth Restaurant.

"Considering the quality of work that we are doing, we wanted [the space] to reflect that," says Lindquist.

With more space and updated appliances, Lindquist and her team create cupcakes, cookies, wedding cakes, birthday cakes and sculpted specialty cakes, as well as her famous Cakeballz.

Cakeballz are small, truffle-like bites of cake mixed with frosting then dipped in semisweet chocolate. Sold individually or in boxes of six or 12, flavors may include Marble Bavarian, marble cake mixed with Bavarian cream and dipped in chocolate; Elvis, banana cake mixed with peanut butter frosting and dipped in chocolate; or Chocolate Raspberry, which features chocolate raspberry cake blended with raspberry buttercream then dipped in chocolate.

Along with the Cakeballz, the demand for cupcakes has been "ridiculous" since the move. Red Velvet and Chocolate Raspberry are the most popular cupcakes, but other flavors include Banana Split, Toasted Almond and Tiramisu.

Lindquist still keeps in touch with some of her "boys" from Boston. And as she reflects on the path she has taken and what her past has in common with her present, she muses that "some brides can be just as intimidating as gang members!" 

Sweet Rewards will celebrate the opening of its new shop at 18 Old Route 7 from 10am to 2pm on Saturday, May 8. The phone number is 203-775-9898.