If you’re like me, you enjoy a sweet treat while studying or catching up with friends, and it becomes that much sweeter when you make it yourself. If you’ve never baked before, this is your sign to try it this fall! It’s easier than you might think to make something delicious. When I have a million readings and assignments to work on, it’s easier to buy treats instead of making them, but it’s not quite the same experience. The next time you go to the grocery store and think about picking up a snack, consider buying baking ingredients instead! Bonus points if you turn baking into a date night or a night in with friends.
For me, I don’t always want to go out on weekends. Sometimes, after the chaos and deadlines of the week, I want something relaxing and rewarding to do at home, and baking is both! Baking is a project but it’s one that can be started and finished in an hour or two that you can make completely your own. According to Psychology Today, baking is associated with positive emotional health and decreased stress, and giving food to friends can also make you feel connected! Especially when it’s cold and dark outside, baking is the perfect indoor activity that doesn’t involve scrolling.
Picture this: A flour-covered counter, on it sitting a cookie recipe. Baking ingredients line the table. One friend combines dry ingredients while another mixes butter and sugar. Maybe there’s a fall-themed show on in the background and leaves littering the grass outside. Then, as you mix the dough, one of the best parts of the process begins: you get to choose what you mix into the cookies! It could be chocolate chips, other cookie pieces, peanut butter cups, sprinkles, or countless other goodies. Then, after your cookies leave the oven, the process doesn’t have to be over. If you like to decorate, baking is a great way to use your creativity. With cookies, you can apply a glaze or icing followed by small chocolates or sprinkles and with cake you can go as simple, intricate or silly as you would like. You can write fun messages or draw. On a cake for my friend last year, I tried to draw possums, and they were basically unrecognizable to the point where I had to tell her what the drawings were (she loved it).
It’s also important to know that there’s no pressure for anything to be perfect. Mistakes are part of the process and funny looking desserts make a great story! Although I’ve made them many times, chocolate chip cookies are one of my favourite recipes, and I still love making them years after I started baking. A few months ago, I made my usual recipe but replaced the chocolate chips with a singular Oreo cookie plopped in the center of each glob of dough. As the dough expanded outward, I bet you can picture what those cookies ended up looking like. But, as you might imagine, they were still very good.
When it’s grey and cold outside, baking and decorating make life that much more whimsical and exciting, and friends and classmates are always happy to get free food. You can bake together or bake alone, whatever works best for you! There is no set way to go about baking, and it never has to be perfect. If you’re looking for a new activity to try, I highly recommend baking!