Blessed are the hands of Mike Gann, a man with a heart for the elderly, especially in four Middle Tennessee counties—DeKalb, Cannon, Rutherford and Wilson—places where he has ministered to multitudes with his heavenly carrot cakes.
He’s on track to bake and give away 200 cakes before the end of this year.
“Right now I’m at 160, so I probably will make it to at least 200. Two years ago I made 260, and I made 192 last year,” said Gann, 53, who estimated he has dished out more than 2,000 carrot cakes in the past 16 years.
Born and raised in Lebanon (Wilson), Gann lives with his wife, Sheila, in Alexandria (DeKalb). They are members of Gassaway Church of Christ (Cannon) where they worship two to three Sundays a month. The other two Sundays he preaches at the Sugar Tree Knob (Cannon) congregation. He commutes weekdays to Murfreesboro (Rutherford) to Stones River Manor, a not-for-profit Christian home for seniors founded by Churches of Christ in 1977, where he has worked for 28 years, the past 24 as family services director.
“The first carrot cake I made was Jan. 27, 2005, for my wife,” recalled Gann. “Her mother died on Christmas Day 2004. She used to make Shelia a carrot birthday cake every year. I knew that Sheila wasn’t gonna be able to have her carrot cake again from her mama, so I got the recipe and started making Sheila’s birthday cake. I’ve done that ever since 2005.”
The recipe originated with Shelia’s grandmother and was passed on to Sheila’s mother, who tweaked it a bit. Gann got the recipe from his sister-in-law and tweaked it a bit more.
Sheila, a McMinnville (Warren County) native, is in her seventh year as principal of Dibrell Elementary School, and previously taught there 21 years. She remembers being awestruck when Mike presented her that first cake.
“I was at school, and it was my first birthday without my mom. I didn’t expect a carrot cake at all. He got my fellow seventh- and eighth-grade teachers in on it, and there at lunch was a carrot cake. I thought ‘Why does it look so much like my mom’s?’ And he popped out from behind the drink machines and surprised me. I was thrilled and shocked at the same time,” she said.
Sheila added that she has helped him a little with making the cakes but that “he mainly does it. The first time he made my cake he did not know the difference between self-rising and all-purpose flour. He used the self-rising along with the baking soda and the baking powder, and it didn’t work out, so a lady in the cafeteria at Stones River Manor helped him figure out how to make it, so he made two that day, the second one correctly.”
The evening of this interview, Mike was baking two cakes. Sheila shared, “As a matter of fact, I’ve got two carrot cupcakes waiting in the kitchen for me. Whenever he makes a carrot cake, he generally makes cupcakes for me.”
Gann has gifted his cakes to a wide variety of people, ranging from friends on their birthdays to families mourning the death of a loved one to charities for fundraising events. A number of the cakes have gone to Stones River Manor residents or their families.
“When one of our residents passes away, I give the family a carrot cake for the most part. I’ve given certain residents a birthday cake, and I give carrot cakes to some of the people who have helped me support our local Walk to End Alzheimer’s event. We just had an online auction and sold three of my carrot cakes. They went for $35, $37.50 and $51. At one live auction two carrot cakes sold together for $300,” said Gann, who typically makes two cakes at a time.
Carol Locke, who served the College Hills Church of Christ (formerly College Street) in Lebanon as children’s education coordinator for nearly 40 years, has known Gann since he was a youth and has been a recipient of his cakes on more than a half dozen occasions.
“This year Mike brought one when I had my knee surgery and then another one on my birthday, and that’s not unusual. He is so good,” said Locke. “He often takes one to the funeral home when someone in our church has passed away. When each of my parents died, he brought one, and, when Larry (her husband) died, he brought one.
“I think of how long he has lived away from here and he still reaches back after all this time and comes to help people here. Mike is hard-working and so caring and steadfast, such a good guy and just one of the best people there is.”
Gann’s gentle spirit and kindheartedness goes beyond carrot cakes. For the past 22 years he has been on the planning committee as well as a major fundraiser for Rutherford County’s Walk to End Alzheimer’s. He has been their top fundraiser as an individual for nearly 20 years and over the past five years raised approximately $20,000 each year.
He chose to support this charity because the disease has some similarities to an illness that runs in his family and because of his work with Stones River Manor residents and their families who also deal with Alzheimer’s. Every year Gann calls upon nearly 100 friends either in person or with letters asking them for donations.
“I send out 50 to 60 letters and then and go and visit a lot of people, knocking on their doors. When they see me with my carrot cake, they know I want money for Alzheimer’s, but there are times I do not ask for money,” he said.
Gann spends his Sundays worshiping with and serving two churches in Cannon County. He has been preaching twice a month at the Sugar Tree Knob congregation for 16 years. And he has preached and led singing at his home congregation in the Gassaway community.
“Mike and Sheila started worshiping here when they got married and lived in Liberty,” said Gary Hancock, one of the leaders of the Gassaway Church of Christ. “He started leading prayer, then led singing, and then the Sugar Tree Knob church needed someone to preach, but we’ve hung on to him, and they do too. We claim his home congregation is Gassaway.
“Mike is a people person and caring and always wants to participate. He is one of the first to suggest that we need to have fellowship meal or a birthday baby get-together every few months.
He also cleans the inside of the church building once a week and helps prepare the Lord’s Supper.”
Like hundreds of others, Hancock also has partaken of Gann’s famous dessert. “He loves making those carrot cakes. They’re delicious to perfection. We’ve had some of his cupcakes too,” added Hancock.
A 1986 graduate of Lebanon High School, Gann was 10 when his father died. He and his family’s life was positively impacted by the College Street church bus ministry during his formative years as he, his mother and three siblings were provided transportation to services. He compares many of the older members as being like second parents to him.
“I waited two years after high school to go to college and worked at Dick’s Food Mart in Lebanon. I took a lot of older peoples’ groceries out (to their cars). In college I started working at Stones River Manor and that’s where I fell in love working with older people. I started out as an education major, but I decided after working for a year-and-a-half at an afterschool program that I not want to be a teacher,” said Gann, who noted it took him eight years to earn a degree in social work at Middle Tennessee State University.
About what compelled him to keep on the right track, he said, “The biggest thing was God, and then I met Sheila in college, and she encouraged me. I lacked one semester when we got married, but I did finish it in the fall of 1996.”
Sheila, his mate of 25 years, said, “We met at Middle Tennessee Christian Student Center in the fall of 1988. We had our first date on Feb. 23, 1994. We were friends at first. He even asked me advice on dating other people, and I helped him out but hoped that I was a better choice.”
About his heart for seniors, Gann said, “I didn’t get to know my grandparents when I was very young. I just have compassion for older people, and I have preached many a funeral and been a pall bearer for our residents at Stones River Manor.”
Stones River Manor CEO Kirk Mason noted about Gann’s role, “There’s not enough I can say to describe how important he is here. The residents love him. Their families love him. He takes very good care of them. I’ve heard Mike described as being the face of the manor before, but he’s not the face, he’s the heart of the manor.”
In the meantime, carrot cake chef continues to bake away, making at least four cakes a week.
“Tonight, I’m making two, and both cakes are going to the local Wilson Bank and Trust branch bake sale for the volunteer fire department in Alexandria,” said Gann, who has won blue and red ribbons over the years for his cake at the DeKalb County Fair and nabbed best of show in the dessert category in 2019.
Has he ever baked a carrot cake for himself?
“I actually did, one time, for my fiftieth birthday. I had a celebration for turning 50 because a lot of my family members died before reaching 50. I made two cakes,” recalled Middle Tennessee’s carrot cake crackerjack. “The funny thing is I was visiting with so many guests that it was all gone before I could get a piece.”
CARROT CAKE RECIPE
Sift together:
2 cups sifted flour (all-purpose)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
Combine:
1½ cups salad oil
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
Mix your dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. Add 3 cups finely chopped baby carrots.
Mix well. Turn into 9X13 cake pan or glass pan which has been greased. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes. Cool and remove from pan (or leave in) and frost with the icing.
Nut icing
½ cup butter or margarine (room temperature)
1 package 8-ounce cream cheese (room temperature)
Beat until light.
Gradually add while beating:
1 package (1 pound) confection sugar
Add: 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans
Mix well
