The Effects of Baking & Pastry On A High School Sophomore

Since I started baking & pastry class at the beginning of the semester, my mom has stopped buying snacks when she goes grocery shopping to try and get me to make stuff as a hobby. She complains that all I do is dance and sleep (which is true to an extent) but she thinks I needed something more. Also, around April break my family discovered a new love for the Food Network, specifically the shows Chopped and Sweet Genius. So basically in the past month my life has been surrounded by food, more so then typically. This increase in the amount of food has impacted my life in several ways. For one, I’ve had to go to the gym a few more times then usual, but usually when I would bake or cook anything it would just be like a one time thing that I would enjoy making. Since my recent baking surge, I’ve had family and friends suggesting/demanding foods for me to make. This has lead me to be so much more creative with my food. It has inspired me to make more fun dishes with more exciting ingredients. For example, I always used to make lemon curd just to eat like a custard or pudding. But after just some sitting and thinking about food (one of my favorite activities) that transformed my lemon curd into lemon strawberry curd in a pastry dough bowl shaped from the bottom side of a muffin pan.  Also, for birthdays and events, I started making cakes and things from scratch because I have learned how much better unprocessed foods are. What all of this expresses is how much I have actually learned in this class; so many practical things that I do use on a weekly, if not daily basis. The information I have gathered in this class is so valuable, unlike how to factor quadratic equations or what year Confucius said something. This course is important to me, and I am still grateful to this day for the choice of it.

-Hope M.