Bakers of OHS
The first few weeks of school have probably been stressful for you. Many OHSers decide to combat the stress with baking. If you’re a baker, Pixel Journal has some recommendations and tips for you. If you’re hesitant to try baking or just aren’t a fan of it, we have some compelling reasons why students bake and explanations of how it helps them, which will hopefully convince you to try out baking!
I haven’t been baking since school started due to schoolwork. But over the summer, I baked cinnamon raisin bread, blueberry muffins, chocolate cake, red velvet cupcakes, brownies, cinnamon rolls, and more. I highly recommend trying to bake cinnamon raisin bread. The combination of sweet from the cinnamon sugar and a hint of sourness from the raisins is a perfect flavor match. I bake because it relieves stress and makes me happy. Whenever I have an overload of homework, I always head to the kitchen and bake whatever comes to mind, whether it’s brownies or cupcakes. I love watching my family eat what I’ve baked as soon as it comes out of the oven (and yes, I do warn them that it’s hot). Their favorite dessert is my cinnamon raisin bread and one loaf never seems to satisfy my family.
Other students have been pursuing their own baking projects as well. Freshman Dashmi Singh says that she has been baking milk and honey cake, lemon sabayon tarts, brownies, waffles, and much more. During the first few weeks of school, Emma Dreispiel has been baking cheesecake, vanilla pudding, and flan. She enthusiastically recommends key lime pie. 8th grader Vienna Wyler has been baking many delicious treats, ranging from chocolate chip cookies, chocolate torta caprese, congo bars, to blackberry lemon stripe cake. Freshman Damian Musk has been baking a wide variety of desserts from Europe. During the first few weeks of school, he has been creating masterpieces such as floating island, cremeschnitte, fudge brownies, and meringue cookies. He has also recently been “investigating more Central European desserts, beginning with Germany and cremeschnitte, which was delicious.” He also wants to bake more Hungarian and Slovak dishes, “beginning with mézeskalács and orechovnik.”
Rumor has it, there is an OHS student in a secret kitchen who has been cooking up a lot of Japanese cheesecake and egg tarts during the first few weeks of school. When they find time, this student also plans on baking rooibos tea based sponge cake. 7th grader Sylvia Perrin has been baking deconstructed lasagna and cinnamon rolls while she’s “stuck inside all day due to smoke” because she’s near Portland. Another 7th grader, Zoe Chong, says that she baked very frequently at the beginning of quarantine and baked no-bake cookies, crepes, and artisan bread. Eighth grader Isabel Gerber has been baking coffee cake, muffins, cookies, and cinnamon buns. Isabel shares one of her baking tips: “Whenever I bake a big cake, I always make a miniature version of both the cake and the frosting to make sure that the combination will taste good as well as lets me know if I need to tweak the recipe.” Finally, another anonymous OHS student says that they like to make banana cream pie, homemade passion fruit frozen yogurt, and peanut butter cookies, but say that they are “more of a cook than a baker, since I cook more often than I bake.”
All OHS students have many reasons why they bake during the first few weeks of school, whether it’s because they use it as a form of procrastination or because it makes them happy. Dashmi bakes because “it’s an excuse to not do homework,” so she “clearly bakes several times each week.” However, Dashmi doesn’t eat sweets, but she bakes because she’s “happy to see her very large family agree over one thing.” Like other students, Emma bakes because she’s hungry and because eating sweet things make her happy. Vienna bakes whenever she feels “very overwhelmed, partly as a form of procrastination and because it's a stress-reliever” because “the step-by-step process and the comforting ingredients and smells trigger nostalgia.” Damian bakes because he has always “ enjoyed baking and sharing recipes with others for years” and he is glad that Stanford OHS still allows him to bake often. An anonymous OHS baker noted that they “bake to make [them] not fake” because “it brings meaning to [their] life.” Zoe says that “baking is fun”; when quarantine began, she would Zoom call her friend and they would bake together. Similarly, Isabel bakes because it “helps [her] relax and it's almost a sort of meditation because [she] can focus on something other than what's going on in [her] life at the moment.” Another anonymous OHS student says that baking “is really fun and rewarding, but it’s definitely a good way to de-stress.”
I want to thank everyone who contributed in this article! I hope that you have found treats you can bake and share with family and friends that you have never thought of before. Even if you’re not a baker, hopefully you’ve been convinced by some of the reasons featured in the article!