Baking in review

This year has been a whirlwind. The only constant has been my baking. Everything else in London was up in the air. I found comfort in baking. When I was stressed from exams, I baked. When we had birthdays in the group, I baked. And when we left each other after one of the best years of my life, I baked. My last baking project in London was chocolate chip cookies.

I baked chocolate chip cookies in the middle of dissertation madness. We had to have a break from writing, researching, and cursing the gods to enjoy chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches. The rest went toward getting Luuk to Washington DC without starving because I wasn’t sure he was going to make it… (That story is for another time and place).

Here is the list of recipes this year and the many memories we made!!!

Yannik’s Birthday—Double Chocolate cake pops

Richard’s Birthday—Pumpkin Pie

Aurore’s Birthday—White Chocolate Almond Cupcakes

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hugo’s Birthday—Cheesecake

Dominik’s Birthday—Blueberry cheesecake

Study session—Pumpkin Bars

Rebecca’s Birthday—French Silk Pie

Josh’s birthday—Chocolate Cheesecake Cupcakes with Ganache

One of my favorite memories was my first night out with Rebecca and Pamela, and that amazing chocolate cake from Waitrose. There is absolutely nothing wrong chocolate ganache cake shared between three friends.

Other great memories that I find bittersweet are the times when others have pirated my baking skills—a sacrifice I am willing to make for my friends to gain favor with our professors.

Aurore’s birthday is a for instance. The next morning was a rough one. We had a great night, but Yannik and Aurore has an early meeting with our professor to review their presentation for the next week. They had nothing prepared. Nothing. So they bribed her with a cupcake I baked. I gave Aurore two gifts—birthday cake and that meeting. Because I love her, I let it slide.

A few short weeks later, I was hoodwinked again! It is a tradition I carried over from the family and undergrad. I bake pumpkin chocolate chip cookies to take to the last day of class every Christmas. But this year, we had a lot of fun the night before our 9am class. Very few of my classmates showed up, I won’t name names. It wasn’t until the afternoon seminars that the cookies came out and yet again, my cookies were pirated to gain favor with a preferred professor of the program. That was worth it though. I would bake thousands of cookies just to see Aurore take credit for them because it was so hilarious.

Any other stories are welcome but the reminiscing is getting in the way of my packing. I’m off to a new city. Off to new beginnings, new people, and new opportunities, but I will never forget the people I met, the lessons we learned together and the comfort I found in taking care of them by cooking and baking.

This is why I bake—to see the look on Hugo’s face when he eats cheesecake. Luuk’s smile after chocolate ganache anything. Or the glee on Deborah’s face when we make cake pops together.

I’ll miss these people and baking for them.