Baking for paws: Spreading love through pastries with Sugarface Foundation

Photo: Lexie Larson // Neighbors of Park City.

Park City resident Laura Francese has found the perfect recipe to make life sweet. Between her confectionery treats created at her in-house bakery and her nonprofit dog rescue, Sugarface Foundation, Francese brings a commitment to making life just a little bit sweeter for homeless dogs and residents alike.  

Like many in the rescue world, Francese’s foray into a full schedule saving dogs happened accidentally, and springboarded from a particular dog who stole her heart. A big fan of the Weimeraner breed, of which she had fostered many over fifteen years, she saw Boston online, whom she described as looking like “walking death.” “I saw him, and I was like, we have to save this dog,” she said. Her husband diverted a flight he had scheduled to travel to Colorado and drove him back to their home in Pinebrook. 

Over the course of several months, Francese brought him back to life only to have a veterinarian diagnose him with multiple brain lesions, from which he couldn’t survive. “It was devastating,” she recalls. “I was so angry at the universe. He finally got with a family who loved him, and now he has cancer?” Following his death, Francese could have let her heartache get the best of her, but instead it motivated her to do more.  She said, “I have to keep doing this. I have to suck it up and ignore my broken heart and save more and do more.”

And so, in 2020 during the height of Covid Francese applied for her 501 c3 and her nonprofit, Sugarface Foundation, was born. Its name implies older dogs whose faces have started to turn grey with age, but Francese offers a different take. “Sugarface means a lot of different things,” she explained. “It can be the frosty faces of older dogs, but every dog has a sweet face, which to me is like sugar.” She went on to explain that her rescue tends to help dogs who are harder to place, whether that means a senior in a shelter or a dog who needs expensive medical care and was surrendered for its owner’s inability to pay. “I always try to do what’s best for the dog and I find a way to pay for it.”

That financial burden can be daunting, even with public donations and grant funding when it’s available. With a truly entrepreneurial spirit Francese uses funding from her other business to help make ends meet and that business, too, is steeped with sweetness. From her professional baking studio in her Pinebrook home Francese whips up confections from custom cakes and cupcakes to other pastries and sells to the public, as well as local hotels whose guests are needing a custom order. Her Park City Cakery has been in business for about 7 years, and the proceeds help to fund Sugarface Foundation. “With Sugarface I was never really asking for donations from the public and so I was basically baking cakes and selling cakes and cupcakes and cookies and pies to pay for the dogs,” she laughed. 

Through only word of mouth and social media she has found great success with the business. “I’m so thankful I’ve been able to live out that dream,” she explained. “My mom has pictures of me making up recipes and baking from the time I was four years old,” she laughed. She went on to say that she has never paid for advertising and that was intentional. “I want my cakes to speak for themselves and that’s how its’s always gone and I feel very fortunate for that. “It has kept me really busy.”

Francese is quick to point out that although both her rescue and her bakery business keep her busy her number one priority is her family and raising her ten-year-old son. After experiencing fertility difficulty for many years, at 42 she gave birth to Dominic and Francese calls him her “miracle” baby. “I had a less than 5% chance of having a healthy baby at that age and here is this most incredible human ever. He makes me better every day.”

Finding that balance can be tough she admits. “I literally do not have any downtime especially in the winter with my bakery orders, but I feel like I’ve been successful with juggling it all.”

Despite a schedule that might make someone want to take a nap, this former Buffalo Bill’s cheerleader finds the energy to continue her mission of helping as many dogs as possible. “I think one of the greatest things is matching a dog up with a person or family that makes it like it is just meant to be and that the dogs and its owners are so enriched beyond what I can imagine,” she said. It becomes this incredible experience for everyone, and it just makes my heart burst.” To be sure, for both people and dogs, Francese is keen to provide the sweetest endings.