A Blind Baker’s Story: How a Dad Inspired His Daughter’s Pastries
Despite her blindness, Cake ni Maria’s Cristina Cunanan continues to bake to support her dad.
It’s heartbreaking for a child to see their parent get sick. So what’s a daughter like Cristina Cunanan to do when her father needed to undergo a procedure and had no choice but to change his diet and lifestyle? With a whisk, baking brush, and pastry tools in hand, she opened her online bakeshop — Cake ni Maria — and began sculpting custom vegan cakes. “I usually get up around three in the morning if there are pick-up orders. 6 AM on a slow day,” she shares.
As a one-man baking team, it’s amazing what this daughter accomplishes even if she is legally blind!
Living with filters 24/7
Unlike other handicaps, legal blindness is often overlooked. Cristina laughs sheepishly as she recalled the many judgmental looks she would get from the grocery whenever she used her PWD card. “I met a lot of people who have heard of my story who still can’t believe I have an eye problem. But that’s one myth I’d like to debunk: you need to look like a PWD — na kailangan naka-wheelchair ka or naka-baston ka para maging PWD.“
It was in 2017 that her blindness reared its ugly head. What she believed was just a migraine soon affected her eyes. “Unfortunately, it’s hereditary,” she shakes her head. “The doctors said it was, and they didn’t know why it started at an earlier age.”
Left with a “grainy, grayish, curvy, and patchy” filter over her eyes 24/7, Cristina copes with a schedule to make sure that each cake she paints still stays a work of art. “I always keep a 5-minute break interval whenever I paint cakes. A lot of times, it gets hard because I usually become nauseous, dizzy and, I can’t distinguish the floor if it’s sloped or kung hagdanan ba siya.”
But that filter didn’t stop her from helping her dad who needed an angioplasty seven years ago.
Cake ni Maria: A daughter’s dedication to her dad
She considers his recovery a second chance at life and as a daddy’s girl, she makes him the inspiration for Cake ni Maria’s goal to be a bespoke vegan bakery. As her dad’s assigned “food police,” Cristina also makes sure that he still gets to enjoy the sweet treats in life. “Kaya siya [my dad] talaga ang inspiration ko para gumawa ng mga dairy free, gluten-free, at low in sugar cakes. Because I never want to make him feel bad for eating a dessert, I never want him to get left behind whenever someone is enjoying their piece of cake. I don’t want anyone to feel excluded when someone is celebrating a birthday, a win, o kung anumang celebration.”
Although he stays in another country with her sister these days, she feels assured that he can now afford better healthcare for his heart condition. “Right now he is with my older sister outside the country (medical benefits for him are way, way better there thanks to their government) but he comes home from time to time.”
And when he does come home, she’s there with a kitchen ready to bake him a sweet treat that he can enjoy without any guilt.
A child’s love for a parent is just as strong
There are many stories that speak volumes about a parent’s unconditional love for a child. But a child can love just as much. Some parents will find it hard to bear especially when their child has to do the sacrificing but, Cristina echoes the sentiment of most children who love their ailing parent. “In the process, sobrang daming sacrifices, financial difficulties, madami akong pangarap na binitawan, kabilang na rin ang pag-aaral ko, etc. But I wouldn’t trade it. Masaya ako dahil buhay siya. Yun ang importante at ang pinaka-magandang reward ni God sa aming pamilya.“
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