By Maya Bourne
With finals coming up, fun days out with friends turn into late-night study sessions and long library trips, making it hard to find time in the day to relax and unwind. I have found my own relaxing method, a foolproof way to destress and reset after a long day: baking. While others go on walks or hang out with friends, I find solace in the hypnotic whisking of merengue and the beep of a preheated oven. There is truly no better feeling than dancing in the kitchen with noise-cancelling headphones blasting music and a fresh batch of cookies in the oven. The absolute best part of baking is the reward. With a few hours of free time you would have otherwise spent doom scrolling on TikTok or watching another trashy Netflix show, you now have a batch of cookies, brownies, fruit tarts, or pudding. The absolute bliss I experience while baking cannot be expressed in words and must be experienced personally to truly understand it.
Baking is also proven to create life-long friendships. Say you make a batch of cookies and bring them to school. Tons of people crowd around you, hoping for one of your delicious desserts, and one of them makes eye contact with you, thanking you for the treat. Fast-forward 5 years; you guys now sit at the same table together, eating another batch of cookies. Baking has brought me together with countless people, providing them a brief moment of happiness before the trials of school and sports.
Baking tends to have a bad reputation, people claiming it is a “science,” while cooking is an “art.” I tend to disagree with this claim (unless you are making a souffle or macarons, of course). Most baked goods are extremely forgiving with the process, and will turn out delicious regardless of the extra splash of vanilla or late addition of a missing ingredient. You can even just eyeball a lot of the amounts, taking your best guess at the flour and sugar measurements, without disrupting the final product. Now, if you happen to replace your sugar for salt, I can’t help you with that, but just estimating the ingredients will result in the same (and sometimes even better) dessert.
Baking has brought me immense joy, and even taught me important life skills. For example, I have attempted to make macarons about 10 times in my life, and I have been successful maybe twice. Each time I messed up, I took some time to cry and be annoyed, but afterwards, I got online and researched my mistakes, looking for solutions for the next time. I had to learn to let go of mistakes and move on to the next project. This is a skill I take with me into other aspects of my life. If I do badly on a test, I take the time to be mad at myself and whatever book the test was on, arguing mentally with each character on why they have to have complicated emotions. After that, though, I wipe off my tears and pick myself back up while baking a batch of brownies for my sister. Within the 40-48 minutes that the brownies sit in the oven, I devise a new study plan while dancing around the kitchen to whichever artist I am hyper fixating on at the time. I choose to forgive myself and eat some brownies, rather than curl up in my bed. Baking has truly changed me as a person, and I would not be where I am today without it. I will take my pots, pans, and spatula gifted to me from my grandma to college, creating culinary delights for friends and family until my arms fall off. Then, I’ll whisk with my feet.