Tis the season for giving, and Jules' Bistro is serving up a delicious slice of cake for a good cause!

Since September, Jules' Bistro in downtown St. Cloud has been creating special cakes to benefit local causes. Called C.A.K.E. (Culinary Acts of Kindness Encouraged), the campaign sees the bistro partnering with local nonprofits, charities and organizations to create a special cake inspired by the partner with profits going to support the partner. In October, Jules' Bistro created a strawberry, cardamom and rose cake with vanilla rose buttercream and edible rose petals with proceeds going to Anna Marie's Alliance -- a Central MN-based domestic violence shelter and a private non-profit that provides safe shelter, support, and referral services for battered women and their children.

Last month, Jules' Bistro partnered with Quiet Oaks Hospice House in St. Augusta for a brown sugar and date cake with maple buttercream, maple toffee drizzle and chocolate leaves.

With December now here, the downtown bistro has now announced its latest partnership and culinary creation -- a chocolate gingerbread cake with cranberry-orange spiced curd, cranberry pastry cream and chocolate ganache, topped with dried oranges, fresh cranberries and cranberry/orange/ginger chocolate bark. The delicious dessert will support Pathways 4 Youth -- a St. Cloud-based youth resource center for youth ages 16 through 24 experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

Pathway 4 Youth's goal -- according to the website -- is "to help the youth finish their education, find a career path, secure employment and gain stable housing." They do that by providing support, computer access, shower and laundry, hygiene products, food pantry items, transportation resources, a mailing address for employment or housing purposes and more. Since launching in St. Cloud in May 2018, the Pathways 4 Youth resource center has served over 400 young adults, seen 24% of youth who visited gain employment and seen 17% of youth who visited gain housing.

With every $20 purchase of a slice of Jules' Bistro's special December cake, $13 will go directly to support the foodservice outreach program at Pathways 4 Youth. A whole kindness cake (available for $136) provides the equivalent of 6.5 meals.