Eagle Scout Candidate Bakes Coffee Cakes for a Good Cause

What’s for breakfast? How about a freshly baked coffee cake, topped and layered with cinnamon-streusel, and delivered warm to your front door?

The cakes, baked and delivered by 14-year-old James McGinnis, taste even sweeter because all funds raised through their sales support a good cause: McGinnis’ Eagle Scout project benefitting Juliette Fowler Communities.

McGinnis has wanted to earn the rank of Eagle Scout since he joined the Cub Scouts as a first grader.

He decided to focus his project on Juliette Fowler after completing a service project in the nonprofit’s memory care garden. “It was a great organization,” McGinnis said. “I just loved it, and so I wanted to do something with them again.”

After McGinnis noticed that residents preferred folding chairs under a canopy to nicer seating in the sun, he decided to build a pergola so they would have a shaded place to relax. He drew on the experience of his mother, who funded a childhood trip to New York by selling coffee cakes, to raise the $2,000 he needed for his project. 

McGinnis and his mother tried about 10 recipes before they settled on the perfect breakfast treat: two fluffy layers of cake and cinnamon crumble, a combination which smells of cinnamon sugar when warm.

McGinnis initially aimed to sell 100 coffee cakes. But he’s blown past that goal and delivered more than 200. Some of the cakes are sold to new customers, and others to customers who have tried them and want more. Each cake comes in a 9-inch by 9-inch pan and costs $20.

McGinnis said he’s been very surprised by his success. “We expected to do well, but this is much, much better than we thought this could have done,” he said.

McGinnis makes fresh coffee cakes when they’re ordered, bakes the cakes in the morning, and delivers them still warm to homes just in time for breakfast.

He plans to build the pergola with his grandfather and other Scouts in Troop 82 around Labor Day. With his additional funds, he’ll add vines that crawl over the structure and provide extra shade, as well as an ADA-compliant seating area. He’ll donate any leftover funds directly to Juliette Fowler.

Coffee cake connoisseurs can click HERE to place orders. McGinnis plans to continue baking through early August.

“I think it’s a very good cause, and that the seating will be very beneficial,” he said, “and I think that the coffee cakes are a good value for $20. They’re very tasty.”