How an HIV/AIDS fundraiser turned into Darnel's Cakes, brick-and-mortar bakery
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A bakery and breakfast shop in Philadelphia's Old City neighborhood is more than just cookies and breakfast sandwiches. Every day, it's working towards raising awareness for the HIV and AIDS epidemic.
In the lobby of an office building, Darnel Scott's name is in lights.
"He said he wanted to see his name in lights and it's literally getting lit up," Kyle Cuffie-Scott said. "Yeah, Darnel was a vibrant soul -- always singing, always cracking jokes. Just kind of the life of the party."
Cuffie-Scott is Darnel's older cousin, as well as the founder and co-owner of Darnel's Cakes.
The bakery and breakfast and lunch spot opened three years ago at the very beginning of the pandemic but has quickly grown into a community staple.
This year alone, Darnel's Cakes had a pop-up shop at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and even made popstar Janet Jackson's birthday cake.
The sky is seemingly the limit for the founder and co-owner, but to understand Cuffie-Scott's passion for it all goes back to who the business' namesake is.
"It's something we can't forget. It's something that gets swept under the rug," Cuffie-Scott said. "It's something that people don't talk about."
Darnel passed from complications with AIDS back in January 2013. He was 21 years old, with plans to go to a university.
Two years later, Cuffie-Scott honored his cousin through a fundraiser selling baked goods.
"Then, one day, I kind of had an epiphany," Cuffie-Scott said. "You kind of need to start this now. It's a now or never thing."
One hundred cupcakes for World AIDS Day became the beginning of Darnel's Cakes.
The mission to inform, support and simply keep the conversation going around HIV and AIDS holds true today.
Four years, and many farmer's markets later, the brick-and-mortar shop opened on North 3rd Street.
"There aren't many food businesses -- Black food businesses here in Philly -- and to be one of the few, one, I'm honored," Cuffie-Scott said. "But two, also there's a lot of pressure to keep going, to make sure you make it and hopefully set an example."
Darnel's Cakes is looking to expand to a second brick-and-mortar place in the city.
For now, the shop on North 3rd is open weekdays, 9 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.