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Addicted to Baking – My Favorite Essay on Baking as a Hobby

If you’re like me, you are probably obsessed with baking, to the point that it’s your every-day hobby.

Below is an essay example about “Baking as my hobby” written by Lauren Bradshaw from CustomWritings – personalized essay writing service established in 2008. You can learn from this sample and write perfect college essays.

As the only boy with five sisters, it wasn’t common that I was attracted to the kitchen. I didn’t particularly enjoy cooking except for when I am doing the steaks with my dad. However, there is just one part of cooking that I am attracted to, baking .

Growing up, I used to love cakes. I would cry for hours unending until my parents got me a piece. I was so addicted to chocolate cake, and my mum used it against me. She would tell me to do the dishes, fold my laundry, or even water the garden for a piece of chocolate cake.

I would gladly do all that and more to get my piece, and my mum is great at baking. Her cake is always near perfect, and she knows how to spice them up with fruits and other sweet additives. Watching her bake in the kitchen at special occasions like Christmas, birthdays and Thanksgiving brought me so much happiness. While some of my sisters didn’t like the idea of baking, I was glued to my mum whenever she baked and asked her many questions about the process then, although some of them were annoying.

As a little boy of seven, I could attempt to bake a simple carrot cake. My love for the chocolate was, and carrot cake became my new cool. On my 10th year, I baked my first cheesecake for the family and got plenty of positive feedback from my mum, sisters, and my dad too.

As I grew, my interest in cake decorations intensified. I would go to parties and carefully observe the decorations on the cakes. Then, I would come home and ask my mum what she thought about it. I got my first camera and took tons of cake pictures I found interesting. As my curiosity grew, my family adopted the idea that I was the chief baker. I took up that position with so much joy as I looked forward to pleasing them. I baked all kinds of easy cakes for deserts. I bought cookbooks and learned new ways to make a great cake without fuss.

From cakes to pies and delicious bread, my love for baking grew with me to my teens until I had to get to college. My mum was crying because since I took over the baking responsibility, she has been free and had not baked for years. My family was sad, but I was devastated because I may have to focus on my studies and lose my passion for baking.

Dad didn’t want me to go into the confectionary business without at least getting a professional certificate, and I correctly understood his plight. I got to college, and my first year was hectic, so I had no time for my hobbies, especially baking. I made new friends and found some that lived around. Made a few visits and found out one of my close friends lives with his family and they were open to my visits.

One day we were all having dinner, and I talked about my baking expertise and how I missed doing what I love most. The family suggested I come around and bake for an upcoming birthday. I was so excited to get another opportunity to display my talent.  I showed up very early on the day before the celebration and got down to work with the help of my friend’s family. They were skeptical at first because I was a boy, but when we were halfway into the process, they were amazed at my knowledge and skills on baking. 

The cake turned out better than they expected, to my amazement. I did a unique decoration, and the celebrant never stopped thanking me. I got a few recommendations and did other side baking gigs while in college, and I was happy with the chance I got.

Baking was my way of relaxing. I loved the smile and people’s faces when they taste my cake or pie, and it gave me a strong push to come up with something better. I loved the compliments I get from mum and dad anytime I bake something extraordinary. They were proud I found something I love and could keep to it. 

Each time I bake, I feel a spark of joy in my soul. It felt like I was born to mix flour and make magic from it. I have other hobbies, no doubt, but none can compare to my love for baking. 

At the end of college, I took to another profession but will always bake whenever I got the chance. Baking will always be special to me, and I hope to pass down my skills to my children.

5 thoughts on “ Addicted to Baking – My Favorite Essay on Baking as a Hobby ”

HEY THATS REALLY NICE AND U ARE SAME AS ME I LOVE BAKING

love the essay your love of baking and mine is same

I love your story, appreciate you sharing it.

Yeah! The essay was wonderful, I’m fond of baking and your amazing essay.

BAKING IS THE BEST!!!

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Essay On baking is my hobby

Baking has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember. From mixing ingredients to seeing the final product come out of the oven, the entire process of baking gives me a sense of joy and satisfaction. As someone who has been baking for years, I have developed an in-depth knowledge of the art and science of baking. In this essay, I will discuss the different aspects of baking that make it such a rewarding and enjoyable hobby.

The Science of Baking

Baking is not just about mixing ingredients together and hoping for the best. There is a lot of science involved in the process. One of the most important aspects of baking is understanding the chemical reactions that take place when you mix ingredients together. For example, when you mix baking soda and an acidic ingredient such as vinegar or lemon juice, you create carbon dioxide gas, which causes the dough or batter to rise.

Another important factor in baking is temperature. Different baked goods require different temperatures to cook properly. For example, cakes typically bake at a lower temperature than bread, and cookies require a higher temperature than either of them. Understanding these temperature variations is essential to achieving the desired results.

In addition to temperature, humidity can also affect the outcome of baked goods. High humidity can cause baked goods to become soggy, while low humidity can cause them to become dry and crumbly. This is why it is important to take the weather into consideration when baking.

The Art of Baking

While baking may involve science, there is also an art to it. This is particularly true when it comes to decorating baked goods. Decorating cakes, cookies, and other baked goods is a creative process that allows you to express yourself and showcase your artistic talents. Whether it is piping frosting onto a cake, creating intricate designs on a cookie, or simply sprinkling sugar or cinnamon on top of a muffin, decorating baked goods is an enjoyable and satisfying process.

The Importance of Quality Ingredients

One of the keys to successful baking is using high-quality ingredients. Whether it is flour, sugar, eggs, or butter, using the best ingredients you can afford will always yield the best results. For example, using high-quality butter in your baked goods will result in a better flavor and texture than using a cheaper, lower-quality butter. Similarly, using fresh eggs will result in better binding and rising in your baked goods.

In addition to using high-quality ingredients, it is also important to measure them accurately. Baking is not an exact science, but precise measurements are crucial for achieving consistent results. Using measuring cups and spoons and following recipes carefully is essential to ensuring that your baked goods turn out as intended.

The Joy of Sharing Baked Goods

Baking is not just about creating delicious treats for yourself – it is also about sharing them with others. Sharing baked goods with friends, family, and coworkers can be a rewarding experience that brings joy to everyone involved. Whether it is bringing cookies to a potluck or baking a cake for a friend’s birthday, the act of sharing your baked goods can be a meaningful way to show your love and appreciation for others.

Baking is a hobby that is both enjoyable and rewarding. It requires both scientific knowledge and artistic skill, as well as a commitment to using high-quality ingredients and precise measurements. Whether you are a seasoned baker or just starting out, there is always something new to learn about the art and science of baking. And when you share your creations with others, you can spread joy and happiness through the simple act of sharing delicious treats. So the next time you feel like indulging in a little baking, don your apron, preheat your oven, and let your creativity and passion for baking take over.

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• Personal Essays

Wisdom You Knead: What I Learned Baking With My Mother

Baking with my mother taught me how to love what we create—and when to let go.

Serious Eats / Kristina Closs

When I am in middle school, my mom confirms that I am, in fact, a baked good.

“Children are like bread,” she explains to me one night at the kitchen table as we talk about the kind of person I am and the kind of person I will become. “You can choose which ingredients you will add to the mix when they are younger and there is still time to shape them after the dough has risen. But once you put them in the oven, it’s difficult to do much else.”

“You’re already in the oven,” she tells me. “It’s all you now.”

Growing up, my mother was the director in the kitchen, but she always invited me to contribute to her culinary production, especially during the monthly occurrence of what we called Baking Day. Pounding hazelnuts with a small brass hammer for chocolate chip hazelnut cookies; folding the yogurt and semolina flour together for namoura, a semolina cake soaked in orange blossom syrup with sliced almonds on top; braiding four elastic strands of dough into loaves of Swiss bread. These were some of my small but essential tasks when it came time every several weeks to replenish our pantry and freezer with nourishments and treats. 

By the time I wake up on one such Baking Day, my mom is already zipping around the kitchen in her floral cotton house dress, the one with pockets. Framed by a jet black pixie, her fair cheeks (which she often describes as “tahini” colored) are flush from activity. Her mug of Earl Grey with a splash of milk is almost empty, and the determined look on her face has my nine-year-old self sitting up straighter in expectation. She butters me the last slice of raisin bread and pours me a cup of milk with a splash of tea. As I eat my breakfast, we go over the plan. She consults her yellowing spiral recipe notebook, confirming steps under her breath as she flips between pages of her Arabic script and pasted-in photocopies from old magazines. 

Serious Eats / Kristina Closs; Photograph by Natalie Jabbar

I watch as she kneads dough briskly with her pale, veiny knuckles. This dough will become triangle pastries stuffed with sautéed spinach, onions, and sumac, known as fatayer, and manakeesh, hand-sized pizzas painted with olive oil and za’atar that my mother gets from Palestine via a local grocer.

My most important job during all of this is to pay attention and absorb as she narrates each step of the process. Although my mother had a tendency to turn many experiences into a classroom, I had learned from girlhood that the kitchen was at the heart of Najat’s School of Life.   

“Natalie, always remember to roast the nuts before you put them in the batter.”

“This is how I learned to cook from my grandmother, Natalie.”

“Don’t forget: you’re in charge, not the spatula.”

The smell of cookies, bread, and roasting nuts begins traveling through the house. “Natalie, did you close the bedroom doors?” my mother will inevitably ask, reminding me of her conviction that kitchen smells belong in the kitchen.

Each time she slides something in or out of the oven, she notes the time on a piece of paper stuck to the fridge with a magnet. Nothing will be burned under her watch. 

Serious Eats / Kristina Closs. Photograph courtesy of Natalie Jabbar

Hours and dozens of trays later, we sit down to enjoy the labors of our day. Before she raises anything to her mouth, she will hold it gently for a moment, her eyeglasses slipping down her nose as she rotates it in front of her. When I laugh at her, she tells me she has the right to admire her creations. Sometimes I catch her looking at me the same way. 

When I moved off to college, I could only participate in a Baking Day about once a year. A decade later, my mom moved in with me, and we became roommates for a while before becoming the neighbors we are now. When we were apart,  my mother’s dough metaphor developed into something of a touchstone. “I’ve been in the oven for a while now,” I’d say to myself when I needed reassurance on why I can’t stop fussing over some small details like writing the perfect message in a birthday card or un-seeing a tiny, stubborn oil stain from a blouse. I reminded myself of it when I met my partner in our thirties and some of our habits felt intractable. Would he ever get excited about cleaning? Would I ever learn to be spontaneous? I bring the dough metaphor up with my mom when I’m picking up groceries for her and she tells me to check the expiration date and get her the newest product, the package in the back. Every. Single. Time. “You’re pretty much a crouton now,” I joked once. She didn’t disagree.

On other days, I wrestle with my mother’s notion, dismissing it as an unyielding view from a former early childhood teacher who of course believes that childhood is the foundational time in an individual’s life. Can’t I still evolve as the years pass? Have I really not fundamentally changed since I was a young girl standing at my mother’s elbow as she measured cup after cup of flour?

Serious Eats / Kristina Closs; Photograph courtesy of Natalie Jabbar

“Don’t worry,” I now remember her saying, “there’s always time to add a little egg wash in between rounds or some sesame seeds or jam once you’re out.”'

I am now nearly the same age my mother was when I was growing in her womb—a fully-baked 35-year-old. Only recently have I realized that what she was really sharing with her bread analogy was her personal parenting philosophy.

For my entire childhood, she poured her stories, her quirks, her pain, her strength, and her joy into me—her only child—folding each piece together with precision, vitality, and care. She gave me the freedom to rise and take shape in the world, knowing she had given me all the ingredients she had in her pantry, with all the love she brought to every Baking Day. Her metaphor was never about the making and baking of the dough; it was about trusting her work and then letting go.

Tonight, my mom and I sit at her kitchen table together, drinking tea and eating her homemade ma’moul—semolina shortbread cookies filled with dates or nuts and dusted with powdered sugar. I remember how each cookie fell from the intricate wooden Damascene mold that she would press the dough into before thwacking it against the granite counter, and I remember how I used to put my small hand out to catch each one.

These cookies are the only thing she made this morning, her knuckles now swollen with arthritis. I tell her about my week, the projects I’m working on, the meals I’m creating, the friends I’ve gathered. She holds the cookie mid-bite, as she always did, but this time looks past it to my face. In her quick glance I see both pride and a flicker of admiration. She is proud of the adult I’ve become with the ingredients she has given me, her most cherished dough.

More Serious Eats Recipes

Distillations magazine

Stress baking and the comfort of connection.

Baking homemade bread anchors us to millennia-long traditions.

What is it about a loaf of homemade bread that’s so appealing? Is it the loaf itself—the golden surface crackling between your hands, the steam that rises from its center? Or is it something in the process: the gentle rhythm to kneading, the elastic give-and-take of dough, the sense of sinking into the moment? It might be the sense of accomplishment—that moment when the flour is dusted away and the kitchen smells rich and yeasty. Or maybe it’s the breaking of bread, the sharing and nourishing, that touches us most deeply.

There are plenty of reasons why homemade bread feels like the ultimate comfort food, especially now that “stress-baking” has become a way of life for many socially distanced Americans. Our social media feeds are punctuated by images of rustic homemade sourdough loaves, tantalizing quarantine cookies, and the occasional baking “fail.” In the high-anxiety environment of the coronavirus pandemic, these traditional and comforting—but time-consuming—methods of food production have abruptly risen in visibility and importance. Their benefits are easy to understand. Amid uncertainty, cooking for yourself or your loved ones creates tangible results; and with more time spent in our own kitchens, the slow processes of rising, proofing, and maintaining dough “starters” can become pleasurable exercises in mindfulness, keeping our thoughts in the present moment.

If quarantine has driven you to experiment with sourdough starter, you’re in venerable company. Pliny the Elder, a 1st-century Roman polymath, described methods used by bakers to make their sourdough-like starter in his Natural History :

Our species’ relationship with starters, and specifically with the yeasts that power them, goes back even further, to prehistory. Leavened bread—as opposed to flatbreads—likely emerged in ancient Egypt, which was also a center for early beer brewing. (Egyptian workers were often paid in bread and beer.) Yeast was considered such an important part of the ancient diet that the 2nd-century physician Galen, best known for his theory of the bodily humors , claimed that “whatever is completely without yeast is of use to no one.”

But leavened bread is more than a tasty throwback: it’s a reminder that cooking is chemistry. Baking is part of a complex system that includes chemical and thermal reactions, biology and bacteria—a system that modern foodways have largely disconnected us from. Eating store-bought bread doesn’t require us to understand the reactions happening in our mixing bowl. But the more we bake, the more we understand the actions and contributions of each individual ingredient, the importance of measurement, the rigor of process, and even the role of documentation: all elements of scientific inquiry. We’re actively learning and experimenting and in the process reclaiming once-common knowledge through our problem-solving.

We need look no further than our ancient friend yeast for an example of this process. Recent shortages of commercially processed yeast —the domesticated strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae —have led more-experimental home bakers to seek out “wild” yeast as their leavening agent. These single-celled organisms consume sugars and excrete carbon dioxide and alcohol as by-products, meaning that they are perfect leavening agents in bread baking and a source of natural fermentation for beer and wine. Wild yeast is present in our environment on a host of different surfaces—grains, fruit skins, and even human skin. Harvesting yeast can be as simple as leaving a bowl of flour and water on a kitchen counter. Naturally occurring yeasts are thought to lend food and drink more complex flavors and even a characteristic tang, hence the term sour dough.

Pliny’s note about using starter left over from bread “made the day before” reminds us that baking bread was a daily chore in a world without refrigeration. Most bread baking in ancient Rome was done in communal or commercial ovens. Working-class Romans, especially city dwellers, didn’t have kitchens: they lived in cramped, multistory apartment buildings called insula . Quickly and cheaply constructed from timber frames, insula had a nasty habit of catching fire and collapsing, and were therefore built without kitchens, ovens, or fireplaces. Romans grabbed their daily bread at bakeries and snagged heartier fare at thermopolia , or hot-food stands. Archaeologists have found numerous thermopolia in the preserved ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum, identifiable by their distinctive long concrete counters with circular depressions, designed to keep cooked foods warm; the setup was not unlike a modern buffet line. These market stalls sold roasted meat, baked cheeses, or hearty lentil stews: antiquity’s answer to fast food.

In medieval and early modern Europe bread was a core dietary staple for both rich and poor, but making it remained the province of professionals. Few bread recipes were recorded during this period; most chroniclers of domestic life assumed their readers would buy, rather than bake, their daily bread. Not until the 17th century did recipes appear in print, with one of the first found in Gervase Markham’s The English Huswife , published around 1615.

Since beer and bread were two of the most important foodstuffs, they were widely regulated. Much of our surviving knowledge of the breads sold and eaten during this period come from assize laws, which set standards for quality and weight and capped the price at which loaves could be sold. In England an assize statute introduced around 1266 identified four primary types of bread—Simnel, Wastrel, Cocket, and Treet—that were ranked by weight, lightest to heaviest, as well as by quality, coarsest to finest. Much like the assize laws, Markham names three primary categories of bread, but he also indicates their typical consumption by social class. A coarse brown bread made with peas, rye, and barley flour was described as suitable for peasants and laborers; next came a more refined bread made of wheat flour, intended for middle-class merchants and their ilk; and finally an extra-fine, fluffy white bread, which was reserved for nobility . . . and racehorses. (Markham’s culinary expertise was apparently matched by his fame as a horse trainer.)

Before the 18th century, standards for measurement varied widely between regions and industries, and most written recipes used comparative references to size and shape rather than exact weight or volume. A recipe might call for “a lump of butter the size of a thumb” or “a wedge of cheese two fingers wide.” Likewise, without timers or temperature dials, many recipes relied on their readers’ knowledge of familiar songs or prayers and their long experience with managing cooking fires. Modern cooks would be stumped by instructions to “recite ten verses” over “ash-smothered coals,” while a 17th-century reader wouldn’t have batted an eyelash. The common measuring cup, a cornerstone of the contemporary baker’s world, didn’t make its appearance until 1896. Fannie Merritt Farmer, a pioneer in late-19th-century American domestic-science education, popularized the modern cup and spoon system as well as the idea of “level” measurement, meaning that containers of ingredients were to be leveled off rather than heaped, which created greater specificity and uniformity for her recipes. Standard measurements combined with other innovations, such as baking powder (invented in 1843) and the electric stove (exhibited at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair), meant that home baking was primed for a major boom.

Bakers’ changing tools and recipes were also shaped by changing ingredients. Once again, our loyal partner in leavening—good old yeast—was at the center of things. Before the 19th century many bakers harvested their yeast from barm, a yeasty foam layer that formed on top of fermenting beer vats. But changes to brewing technology decreased the availability of barm and pushed bakers to cultivate their own strains. Around 1850, Viennese bakers developed a form of “press” yeast that was skimmed from a fermented dough starter, then either preserved as a yeast “cream”—a mix of the yeast and its liquid growth medium—or rinsed and pressed into yeast cakes that could be revived with flour and water. (In that same decade, the famed French pathologist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur revealed that yeast are in fact living, single-celled organisms whose active digestion is key to fermentation. Until his discovery most scientists had assumed that decay produced fermentation; Pasteur’s microscope revealed that yeast’s breakdown of sugar and starch and production of carbon dioxide relied on the action of living cells rather than the decomposition of dead ones.

The Vienna process gained popularity in the United States during the 1876 Centennial Exposition when Hungarian-Jewish immigrants Charles Louis Fleischmann, his brother Maximillian, and their business partner James Groff exhibited a model bakery under the banner of the Fleischmann Yeast Company . The same company’s Active Dry Yeast, a shelf-stable granulated form invented during World War II, quickly became a best seller thanks to its longer shelf life and ease of use. Fleischmann’s laboratory-cultivated yeast strains were selected for their consistent performance, sweeter taste (as compared to barms or starters), and quick rising action. Packaged yeast freed both professional and home bakers from the need to maintain starters, but it also led to a major change in flavor: the new strains lacked the characteristic sour tang of wild yeasts. The specialty loaves we now call sourdough are much closer to what 19th-century Americans called their daily bread.

Not everyone shares the need to knead, and cooking has never been just a pleasant hobby. Especially for poor women, servants, and enslaved people, it was and, in some cases, still is an endless drudgery. Our current fad for slow, thoughtful, demanding cooking methods is in a sense an ironic contrast to the 19th and 20th centuries’ emphasis on labor-saving kitchen devices and preprocessed foods. While canned goods had been cutting meal preparation time since the 1860s, the rapid expansion of supermarkets between the 1940s and 1950s meant that American consumers (at least of the middle-class, suburban variety) were increasingly buying nationally branded processed foods, such as Swanson’s TV dinners. These frozen meals were introduced around 1953 and could be heated and eaten in their own disposable, oven-safe tray.

While the ancient Romans may have invented takeout, 1950s and 1960s entrepreneurs perfected it, applying emerging industrial technologies—chemical preservatives, assembly lines, and high-volume pressure cookers—to fast-food production. This era’s bread of choice? Plastic-wrapped, pre-sliced white bread made from bleached flour—Wonder Bread. The bread first appeared in 1921, but its sales boomed after a 1940s advertising campaign promised consumers added nutrients, such as thiamin and riboflavin. (These nutrients exist in whole-grain flour but are stripped out by the bleaching process.) White bread’s success was fueled by a mix of convenience and marketing, as well as an undercurrent of American prejudice. Traditional, immigrant-run bakeries were often falsely portrayed as less sanitary than the gleaming factories churning out shrink-wrapped, snowy-white loaves.

White bread became a lightning rod for the counterculture movements of the 1960s and 1970s, not only for the food’s lack of nutritional value and its industrial origins, but also for what it represented: homogeneity and conformity. Quicksilver Times , an underground activist magazine , called on readers to reject corporate food along with corporate ethics: “Don’t eat white; eat right; and fight.” The growth of the environmental movement, along with increased American awareness of global food traditions, also led many to seek out unprocessed, organically produced “hippie foods,” such as tofu, flax seed, and ancient grains, as well as—you guessed it—homemade whole-wheat bread. But after almost two decades of dominance by store-bought bread, many young freethinkers found themselves making homemade brown bread that was as dense as a brick and just about as tasty. Part of the problem lay in the core difference between white and whole-grain wheat flours: wheat bran, when not removed during the refining process, cuts through the longer strands of gluten that form in dough, leaving the finished loaf less chewy and airy. Enter 1971’s Tassajara Bread Book , written by Edward Espe Brown, a young cook living at a Northern California Zen monastery. Brown’s best seller helped a generation rediscover a love for home baking and, through gentler kneading and longer rises, create a softer, chewier brown bread.

The resurgence of homemade brown bread during the 1970s’ social upheaval and economic crisis has parallels to the ascent of sourdough as a pop-culture touchpoint during the social isolation of the coronavirus lockdown. Countercultural bakers were looking for connection: connection to their ingredients and their origins (the closer to nature the better) as well as connection to a greater community of fellow bakers and eaters and their historical and cultural memories.

Can engaging in a process that would have been recognizable to our great-grandparents or our great-great-great grandparents reassure us of some basic social continuity? Maybe. And maybe mastering those processes and regaining some of that technical knowledge—lost long ago in the supermarket aisles—is one of the reasons pandemic bread making feels so rewarding right now. We’re not only feeding ourselves, we’re increasing our understanding of how the world works, one loaf at a time.

Of course, baking can’t solve all our problems. The politics of food are as fraught as ever, and not everyone is lucky enough to have the time, energy, or capacity for homemade sourdough. But this moment reminds us of the resilience and elasticity of dough, the toughness in those glutenous bonds: how it’s kneaded and rolled and pounded flat, how it rises back again and again. In baking, as in science, as in life, we learn as we go. And we can only hope that tomorrow we’ll know more than we do today.

Elisabeth Berry Drago is director of visitor engagement at the Institute and cohost of the Distillations podcast .

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My Passion For Baking

I have always felt that “passion” is a really strong word. Who can actually feel something so strongly to do something? According to dictionary.com, there are quite a few different definitions for passion but the following definitions are that that I am discussing for my context, as quoted from dictionary.com, passion is:

“1.  any   powerful   or   compelling   emotion   or   feeling,   as   love   or   hate. 2.  a   strong   or   extravagant   fondness,   enthusiasm,   or   desire   for   anything”

Being untalented in most things, I am extremely surprised to know and feel when I actually developed a passion for baking.

Like many other things, I weren’t successful at all ( no shame 😔 ). I was really bad at sport, and the only things I can excel in is at academics. Even in my co-curricular activities ( CCA ), symphonic band then in secondary school, I definitely didn’t excel in being a tubist although my hard work and diligence were definitely recognized.

But here comes the difference . When I failed in baking, I feel an inner sense of motivation to improve myself and succeed. Even should I succeed, with my friends and family acknowledging my success, I want to continuously improve myself and never give up. 😊 I will always be thinking about what I to bake next, how am I going to improve my skill of baking.

Even with limited time now during my service as a full time National Serviceman ( NSF ), leading to me having a really short two days during the weekends to catch up with my hobby, I am going to use this time wisely to dedicate a huge portion of it into baking ( and now, this blog!) . This is simply because I don’t want to stop progressing. I can’t wait to keep improving and mastering this skill.

Time waits for no one!

Yet this passion might actually be harmful . It plunged me into a career dilemma in choosing between something unconventional, and something that I know will definitely provide me with security.

Today, I am going to post the two images that I captured of my acknowledged essay on my passion of baking in a writing competition.

This writing competition was organized by the Think, Write Learning Centre in conjunction with SG50 to provide a glimpse into the next chapter of Singapore’s narrative. It is a writing competition for the youth of Singaporeans with a five topic questions provided. The one I have selected is ” What do you value most? “.

I am definitely not the perfect writer, scoring a C in my General Paper in JC2 and also scoring a B during my O Levels. English was never my strongest subject.

However, when I actually write about something I enjoy, it suddenly comes naturally to me. I do not need any extra effort because I am writing from my heart.

In this essay, I have expressed my struggles deciding my future career path between the mainstream jobs in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers that are possibly more lucrative and secure and also baking (because of my passion).

Witnessing the rapid rise and fall ( turnover rates ) of cafes in neighbourhood areas that I frequented, I am extremely worried about my personal success should I choose the path of being a baker.

So why have I started this blog? Another reason is because this is my first step out of inertia. I have decided to give this career path a try even though I am an amateur baker who is only here because of my hobby. I am NOT  going to give up without even trying in the first place.

Without further ado, here is my essay ( two images ).

Being in a pragmatic society where many people choose to pursue conventional careers that can possibly secure a “better” future, I won’t deny that I am not influenced by the mindset. Starting out a baker can be very challenging.

Currently, having four years of university and one year in National Service still ahead of me, I have ample time to think. A compromise between passion and reality that I can think of is probably that I work a mainstream career ( that I still enjoy of course ), while keeping baking as a hobby. There are endless possibilities afterall and I will consider my choices thoroughly and decisively.

Also, for all the NSFs of Singapore out there or people having the same situation, don’t give up on your hobbies during NS! Take this time while you’re in NS and having not as much academic pressures ( unless you’re retaking examinations or taking up new tests ), to develop a new skill or a continue to nurture your hobby! Do what you enjoy and explore skills that you have always wanted to pick up! Just so that you know, I can always help with baking 😝.

I always believe that every step counts, and here is my first baby step. May more steps progress me towards a happier me! 😺

From, – Bakeomaniac, Javier!

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• Jul 24, 2021

The Science Behind Baking

Updated: Mar 5

Author: Dalin Try

Editor: Kaitlyn Ma

Artist: Tiffany Gao

Through this pandemic, we have explored many different activities to keep ourselves occupied; however, one of the most notable quarantine activities has been baking. In the first few weeks of the pandemic, there were many shortages that occurred ranging from toilet paper shortages to baking supplies where groceries found their entire baking shelves empty. We have made treats ranging from dalgona coffee to banana bread, through this, there are multiple different recipes with different preferences with some prefer using brown sugar or white sugar for baking their banana bread but no matter what the recipe usually calls for the basic ingredients which are sugar, flour, extracts, and eggs. However, not many know why we use these ingredients and how combining them together leads to creating delicious baked goods for you and your family.

Firstly, starting with flour gives the base and structure of the dessert because there are two types of proteins called glutenin and gliadin as water is added to the flour, the proteins come together and form a new protein called gluten. As the mixture is heated in the oven, the proteins and starches in the flour turn into a sturdy structure. Secondly, baking soda or powder makes baked goods rise, because when they are mixed into the batter it makes carbon dioxide bubbles that help the cake to rise. As the baked goods are baked the bubbles get trapped in the batter which makes it light and fluffy. Thirdly eggs are used to help bind the ingredients together because they contain both hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties which are great when mixing oil-based and water-based ingredients together. Lastly mixing together ingredients —especially oil-based and water-based liquids —requires egg yolks to create an emulsion because egg yolks are both hydrophilic and hydrophobic. Hydrophilic means they like water, while hydrophobic means they do not like water in the hydrogen bonds in egg yolks.

Although sugar does not necessarily play a big role in baking as its use is only to moisten and give it some more sweetness, it helps tenderize the cake by preventing gluten from forming. Sugar also holds moisture in the finished product as the sugar crystals cut through solid fats like butter which helps form the structure of the cake by making small holes filled with carbon dioxide as the leavening agents react. Leavening agents are baking soda and baking powder which form the carbon dioxide, as too much of them can make the carbon dioxide bubbles too big.

Overall, these baking ingredients all have an important role in forming the finished products. However, through baking, we also see a different side to the science behind how the ingredients work together. Without this understanding, we would not be able to produce delicious baked goods and understand how sometimes our recipes don't work.

28, 25pagea September, et al. “The Science Of Baking.” Youngzine , 31 Dec. 2020,

youngzine.org/u-write/u-report/science-baking#:~:text=Baking%20is%20a%20

both%20a%20science%20and%20an%20art.&text=In%20any%20baking%20recipe

%20every,sweetens%20and%20keeps%20it%20moist.

Larsen, Linda. “Learn the Science Behind These Ingredients and Become a Better Baker.” The

Spruce Eats , www.thespruceeats.com/baking-ingredient-science-481226.

perspectives96. Molecular Gastronomy , 21 Jan. 2013,

bakingmoleculargastronomy.wordpress.com/.

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50 Reasons Why I Love Baking

I’m sure I could find more than 50 reasons, but baking is really is one of life’s sweet and simple pleasures.

Did you enjoy this post? If you did, your likes and shares are most appreciated. If you haven’t already, please check out the rest of my blog at andrebegin.blog . From there, you can click on the “Follow” button to receive future posts directly in your inbox. Sincere thanks for reading! Have a great day, André

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Pesonal Narrative Essay about Baking

Baking has always been something my momand I do together. Looking back, I can see how patient she always was with me in the kitchen. My small hands would take forever to mix the batter, and I always wanted to be held up so I could see the over the countertop. As I got older, my mom would teach me more and more about baking. I learned to separate eggs using the shell, how to make sure a cake was cooked through, and how to frost a perfect cupcake. Baking had become more than something my mother and I did together: it had become a part of me.

Eventually, I was able to do lots of the baking myself, and I was determined to show her that I had no need for her assistance anymore. The truth was, she had taught me so well, that I was and still am perfectly capable of baking on my own. In fact, I'm pretty good at it. However, I quickly learned just how much I really needed her. 

Because of my love for baking and an upcoming school field trip to Washington DC, I decided that I would bake and sell treats to pay for the trip. Now, those who know me know that I am both extremely optimistic and even more forgetful. This unfortunate combination led to me completely panicking one morning when I received a call from a woman who had ordered cupcakes from me. The phone rang, and a voice asked, "You can still deliver the cupcakes today right? Three dozens carrot cake with cream cheese frosting by 11:30 like we discussed?" My heart sank. It was already 10:00 and cupcakes were the furthest thing from my mind. If not for the phone call, I would have forgotten them completely. Of course I was determined to fill the order though, so I replied with a cheery, "Of course! I'll have them decorated and ready!" I spent the next hour baking like a madwoman and begging my brother to fetch me ingredients from the store. I finally got the cupcakes into the oven, but I knew I couldn't possibly decorate them in time. Under stress and covered head to toe in flour, I sat on the floor of our kitchen and cried. Baking was supposed to be something that I loved, but now it was the last thing I wanted to do. As I sat there, I felt my mother's hand touch my shoulder and then lift me from the floor. My mom, whose help I had rejected in the past because I wanted to prove that I could bake by myself, stood there wearing her apron, ready to help me. Together, we were able to complete the order and get it delivered just a few minutes before the deadline.

The whole event, while it felt horrible at the moment, reminded me of why I fell in love with baking in the first place. I love it because it's something that I do with my mother. The little girl who was determined to prove that she was independent now cherishes her mother's presence. I may love frosting cupcakes and getting souffle to rise just perfectly, but more than that, I love spending time in the kitchen with my mom.

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Learn, connect & share through a love of baking

My make me a baker diary, baking my way: reflections and final thoughts on my make me a baker journey.

My Make Me a Baker Learning Journal

By hannah scott.

Just over 6 months ago, I joined fellow Make Me a Baker 7 (MMAB7) students to set foot in the Bake Club Kitchen for the first time. I was a barrel of nerves, but also excited about what the next 6 months would hold. 

So many things I know now, that I did not know then. There’s being able to bake, and then there’s knowing how to bake, and Make Me a Baker has shown me that. 

Before Make Me a Baker there were some things I would have never attempted. Puff pastry was one of them, and now puff pastry is something I make often when I feel like a few therapeutic hours in the kitchen.

The most valuable thing I learnt in the course was the science behind baking. Knowing how ingredients work together has made it so much easier to follow recipes and to develop my own. What used to be trial and error is now more deliberate making and experimenting in the kitchen, having lots of fun. 

Now let’s talk about graduation.

When I first started Make Me a Baker, graduation seemed a long way away, but it was surprising how quickly it snuck up. Graduation was our opportunity to showcase our skills to family and friends and bake something that before Make Me a Baker we might not have attempted. 

Because of my newfound passion (or perhaps obsession) with puff pastry I knew that my bake would have to feature this and it’s the skill I’m most proud of learning. 

I made Chia and Cardamom Spiced Custard Tarts for graduation as I also wanted to make something that I love to eat, but until now, hadn’t attempted to make myself – Portuguese custard tarts came to mind. It’s one of those pastries that I just can’t go past and I love their rustic beauty. 

My chia and cardamom spiced custard tarts sitting pretty on graduation day. (Recipe coming soon).   ( Photo   Alan Benson )

I was pretty happy with how my tarts turned out, but even more impressed with the other creations my MMAB7 baking friends made.

A spectacular 'Golden Croquembouche' made by Cindy Fyfe. 

Beautiful Hazelnut, Honey and Lavender Tarts made by Rachel Hunt. 

What an impressive spread and a great bunch of people. ( Photo   Alan Benson )

To see more of our graduation celebration, view the photo gallery here .

For any future Make Me a Baker friends out there, I thought it might be useful to share my top tips for preparing for graduation. Equally, these same tips could be applied to prep for your next dinner party, or Christmas lunch, (which eekk is only 11 weeks away)! 

Hannah’s top tips when baking to impress:

• Practice, practice, practice! Don’t attempt to make a dish that you’ve never made before when you’re baking for a crowd. Failure to prepare is preparing to fail as the old saying goes. 
• Make something that you enjoy making as it will make the whole experience more enjoyable. This means that when your guests arrive you’ll be relaxed with a drink in hand. MMAB7 totally nailed this (see pic below). 
• Stick to your skill level. Yes you want to show off your skills, but simple done well beats complex that doesn’t quite hit the mark. 
• Presentation goes along way. Think about how you’re going to plate your dish in advance and how people are practically going to eat it. 
• My last tip is probably the most important of all, and that’s to prepare a timeline for your bake. Think about what you can you prep the day or night before, and if you’re making multiple dishes, what order you need to make them in. Each time we baked in the Bake Club kitchen Anneka prepared us a timing schedule down to the minute. This meant we would sometimes have four bakes on the go at once, all at different stages! 

Celebrating before our guests arrive.

I couldn’t sign off my last Make Me a Baker journal without giving a few thanks.

Thank you to my MMAB7 friends for making the time spent in the BakeClub kitchen so enjoyable and for sharing this journey with me. Thank you to Vanessa and Neela for the support you provided us in the kitchen, and of course for doing all our washing up! Thank you to SBS for this amazing opportunity. When I found out I was the lucky winner of the Make Me a Baker SBS Food scholarship, I had no idea it would be such a life changing experience. And a huge thank you to Anneka who not only was incredibly generous with sharing her knowledge but who also provided genuine support and guidance throughout. 

While my Make Me a Baker journey has officially come to an end, I know this is just the beginning of baking my way through life.

Until next time, Happy Baking. X

Hannah Scott (aka   @thefoodstoryteller ) won a scholarship to BakeClub's Make Me a Baker program thanks to   SBS Food . Her rustic approach to baking is partly to thank for winning her the top spot in the competition. We followed her over the last 6-months of her journey, stay tuned to   Instagram   and   the blog  as she graduates from  Make Me a Baker. In the meantime,   click here   to get to know a little more about her. 

To find out more about how you can be part of a future Make Me a Baker program,   click here .

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How to Make a Cake Step by Step

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Words: 628 |

Published: Feb 12, 2019

Words: 628 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

How to bake a cake (essay)

Works cited:.

• American Psychological Association. (2020). Suicide.
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021). Suicide prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/suicide/index.html
• Harjo, J. (1983). The woman hanging from the 13th floor window. In She had some horses (pp. 53-55). Thunder's Mouth Press.
• National Institute of Mental Health. (2021). Suicide prevention.
• Pilkington, E. (2018). ‘It’s not going to solve anything’: Joy Harjo on why we need poetry in our lives. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/nov/09/its-not-going-to-solve-anything-joy-harjo-on-why-we-need-poetry-in-our-lives
• Reckin, R. (2019). The power of poetry: Joy Harjo named first Native American Poet Laureate. National Endowment for the Humanities.
• Sacks, J. (2019). Joy Harjo, the first Native American Poet Laureate, on the importance of literary and indigenous voices. Time. https://time.com/5613967/joy-harjo-native-american-poet-laureate-interview/

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What Can You Learn in Baking School?

Are you curious about what baking school can teach you? Here are some of the skills and techniques you may learn to help prepare for a career or promotion.

How to Become a Chef: Get the Career guide!

Have your sights set on wearing the chef’s hat? Discover the steps that may be required to start your culinary career and earn the title of ‘chef’.

Clicking the "Get the Survey Now" button constitutes your express request, and your express written consent, to be contacted by and to receive automated or pre-recorded call, texts, messages and/or emails from via phone, text, and/or emails by Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts at the number(s)/email you provided, regarding furthering your education and enrolling. You understand that these calls , texts, messages and/or emails may be generated using an automated or pre-recorded technology. You are not required to agree to receive automated or pre-recorded calls, texts, messages or emails as a condition of enrolling at Escoffier. You can unsubscribe at any time or request removal of street address, phone number, email address via Escoffier website .

Maybe you’re an experienced baker who knows the difference between a poolish and a biga, but you’re looking to refine your baking skills. Or perhaps you’re just getting started with baking, and your technique and knowledge don’t quite match your passion.

No matter the case, you’ve started exploring the option of a formal education. However, before you commit, you might like to know more about what baking school can teach you.

Here are some subjects that students in Escoffier’s Baking and Pastry program can explore.

The Science of Baking

If you’re interested in baking school , you might already know that baking is more of a science than cooking. Sure, there are still some artistic elements involved, but understanding the chemistry behind a dough rising or what makes a cookie chewy vs. crumbly can allow for successful experimentation.

Escoffier baking students can explore this type of science during the Fundamentals of Baking and Pastry course. By spending time creating various doughs, sauces, crusts, and custards, they can practice their ability to recognize how precise measurement and temperature control are crucial to the success of a dish.

“School can teach you each ingredient’s function and the science and chemistry so that you understand what’s happening. And when something does go wrong, you can recognize it and prevent that from happening in the future.”* Anne Lanute, Escoffier Executive Chef

Not only can baking school provide the opportunity to see what success looks like, but it also can offer a safe arena for failure. Imagine you overmix a batter and end up with a dense rather than fluffy cake. If you make this mistake while working at a bakery, it may cause panic or upset customers. However, in baking school, it’s just another opportunity to learn!

If you have a hard time understanding the nitty-gritty details of the chemistry, biology, and physics of baking, you’re not alone. However, rather than struggle and become frustrated, you can turn to your Chef Instructors for insight and further explanations.

“As a former student here I learned early on that baking is actually a true science. Learning the ‘why’ behind the ingredients being used, understanding why a certain technique is being used, allows you as a student to strengthen your skills. Understanding all the ins and outs of ingredients and techniques allows you to take your skills to the next level and even allows you more creative freedom to start creating your own recipes. So never stop asking ‘Why?’” Chef Jen Gross, Pastry Lead Chef Instructor

How to Handle Different Doughs

Whether you’re interested in the sweet or savory side of things, baking school can introduce you to different types of doughs as well as the intricacies of each one.

Students in Escoffier’s in-person and online baking school can discover how to mix, shape, proof, and bake various types of yeasted breads, including brioche and whole grain loaves. However, they don’t just complete the steps, they can also explore the why behind each action.

Since bread can be mysterious and intimidating, students dive into details such as percent hydration levels, gluten formation, and the differences between cold proofing and warm proofing.

“I went into that class with such an incredible desire to learn how to make bread while also having a paralyzing fear that I was never going to figure bread out. Not only did I get over that fear from the first week on, but I am so passionate about bread now that I am planning to incorporate it into my business plan.”* Megan Acurso, Online Pastry Arts Graduate

Along with exploring the individual steps required to produce a tasty loaf of bread, students can also practice a crucial skill for bread bakers: time management . For example, students may explore how to execute time-sensitive steps like shaping and baking loaves while also making the most of their time when the dough is proofing.

While bread is a crucial part of baking, any baker knows it’s just one type of dough. That’s why Escoffier’s Baking and Pastry Arts program also introduces students to puff pastry, laminated doughs, and cookie doughs.

The Essential Culinary Career Survey

What's your ideal culinary career: Fine dining? Your own restaurant? Pastry? Get our self-evaluation survey to find out!

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How to Design and Decorate a Cake

If you have dreams of using cake as canvas, you may enjoy Escoffier’s Cake Design and Decorating course. In this class, students can practice layering and frosting a cake as well as complete decorating techniques such as fine line piping and fondant work.

Along with developing these decorating skills, students can also explore emerging cake trends from professionals such as Chef Instructor and wedding cake designer Chef Steve Konopelski . Not only can this help you become familiar with what modern customers are looking for, but it may also give you the confidence to experiment with new cake decorating styles.

“Other schools don’t offer students the ability to try different flavor profiles, work on the presentation aspect, and bring your own personality into it. Because I had the opportunity to try anything in school, I was more confident in bringing different flavor profiles to my cakes and pastries in the shop.”* Lezlie Mills Gibbs, Austin Pastry Arts Graduate and Head Pastry Chef at La Pâtisserie by Luxe Sweets

How to Create Treats Like Ice Cream and Truffles

Not only can baking school introduce you to the methods used to bake a cake and a loaf of bread, but it can also expose you to the skills needed to produce non-baked (and equally delicious!) sweet treats such as decadent chocolate truffles, creamy ice creams, and rich semifreddos.

By practicing how to make these various treats, you may discover you’re interested in becoming a chocolatier rather than a wedding cake decorator !

No matter where your pastry career takes you, being familiar with a wide variety of sweets may help you increase your options.

Explore Baking Styles From Around the World

Regardless of what kind of baking you’re interested in, it can be beneficial to dive into a diversity of flavors, ingredients, and techniques. And that means experimenting with and tasting treats from around the world.

Even if you’re not a globetrotter, baking school can help you travel to foreign lands by introducing you to a wide array of breads, desserts, and pastries. Once you recognize the various baked goods available, don’t be surprised if you find yourself aiming to try treats such as the crispy, sweet, fried jalebi from India, spongy canelés from France, and custard-filled sonho from Brazil.

Menu Design

Just because you’ve perfected a classic macaron or developed a decadent signature cupcake, it doesn’t mean customers will come flocking to try your fare. Instead, you’ll have to utilize a menu to communicate your baked goods’ appeal to the public.

Escoffier can show students how to view the menu as a communication tool as well as a way to assess financials. Baking school courses like Menu Design and Management can give you the chance to explore how to articulately describe your dishes and set prices that make financial sense.

Cost Control and Accounting

Even if a baker produces the city’s flakiest croissants and fluffiest layer cakes, they can still fail if they don’t know how to track and control their income and costs. That’s why Escoffier introduces students to these concepts in the Food and Beverage Cost Control course and the Foodservice Math and Accounting class.

Through these courses, students can dive deep into the numbers involved in running a successful business. By understanding how to scale a recipe, read a profit and loss statement, and raise your prices to account for higher ingredient costs, you may be better prepared to run a successful business.

While these skills are especially valuable if you want to open your own bakery , they can also make you a more valuable team member, no matter where your career takes you.

“Knowing how to order and process food gives me an advantage in this industry. I think my future employers will see that, know this is a great program, and observe that I put extra effort into building my career.”* Breanna Ortiz, Pastry Arts Graduate

Advance Your Knowledge at Baking School

If you’d like to pursue a career in baking and pastry, a quality education is a great first step. With both online and in-person options, Escoffier’s Baking and Pastry programs may fit into your schedule better than you imagined.

To learn more about which program can match your aspirations and interests, contact us today.

To learn more about baking and pastry, read these articles next:

• Do You Need Pastry School to Be a Pastry Chef?
• Six Skills Every Baker Should Have
• What Are the Baking and Pastry Arts…and Is It a Career for You?

*Information may not reflect every student’s experience. Results and outcomes may be based on several factors, such as geographical region or previous experience.

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The popularity of the Cornish pasty, a meat pie eaten by hand like a sandwich, is a legacy of the gold rush.

By Soumya Karlamangla

In a charming former mining town in the Sierra Nevada foothills, you can taste pieces of California history dating back nearly 175 years.

Their crusts are buttery and flaky, with steaming layers of meat and vegetables inside. These are pasties, crescent-shaped hand pies that originated as a lunch food for miners in Cornwall, England, and have become a mainstay in Grass Valley, 60 miles northeast of Sacramento.

The pasty — pronounced “pass-tee,” rhyming with “nasty” — arrived in California with Cornish workers who began emigrating to the gold fields in the 1850s to toil in the rich mines near Grass Valley, like the Empire mine. By the end of the century, three-quarters of Grass Valley residents were of Cornish descent.

Though that’s no longer the case (and the last of the mines closed decades ago), their Cornish traditions live on.

Grass Valley, which is home to roughly 14,000 people, hosts an annual festival for St. Piran , the patron saint of Cornwall, and celebrates Christmas with Cornish carols and folk tunes written long ago by homesick miners. And, of course, the town still cherishes and serves up the pasty.

“It’s our heritage food,” said Gage McKinney , a local historian who is descended from some of the earliest Cornish immigrants to Grass Valley. “You bite into a pasty, it connects you with all this legacy, which is only vague in your mind, but becomes visceral in your mouth. Any place where the Cornish heavily settled, you can find a good pasty.”

The pasty spread all over the world in the 1800s with the Cornish, who were in high demand for their hard-rock mining know-how: Cornwall, in the southwestern tip of Britain, had been mining for tin and other metals since pre-Roman times. Pasties are now a favorite food in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where copper mines attracted Cornish workers, and in Mineral Point, Wis. , where zinc and lead mines were a draw. In the former silver mining town of Real del Monte in central Mexico, pasties caught on so well that there is now an annual pasty festival and a pasty museum.

In Grass Valley, there’s no record of a pasty shop being in business before the 1900s, most likely because families were baking them at home, Comstock’s Magazine reported . “But after the last mines closed in the 1960s,” the magazine said, “Grass Valley began to capitalize on its mining history instead of its minerals.”

Two shops in Grass Valley specialize in the pasties today: Marshall’s Pasties , which has been cooking the savory turnovers since 1968, and Grass Valley Pasty Co., which opened in 2019. The trendy Corvus Bakery in town sells gluten-free hand pies, and the neighborhood church bakes more than 1,000 pasties once a month as a fund-raiser.

Though local shops make all kinds of flavor variations now, the traditional Cornish recipe calls for diced skirt steak, potato, onion and rutabaga. In the old days, McKinney told me, miners’ wives would sometimes bake a sweet filling like apples into one end, so miners could finish their meal with a little dessert.

In the mines, Cornish men, known as Cousin Jacks, would light a candle and use it to heat a lunch pail with two compartments: Tea in the bottom compartment would steam the portable pie on top. The pasty’s crimped crust served as a handle that miners would discard after eating, to avoid consuming any arsenic or other metals that may have been on their fingers.

“They had this full meal in a crust that they could take underground,” said McKinney, a fifth-generation Grass Valley resident. “The Cornish pasty was very much part of the wherewithal of this industrial work force that brought industrialization to pristine places like the foothills.”

As I was waiting to buy lunch recently at Grass Valley Pasty Co., where you can watch cooks shape dough into half-moons, an older man in line ahead of me told the cashier that his grandfather had worked in a mine in nearby Amador County. He said his family had its own passed-down pasty recipe, but it was easier to pick some up from the shop.

After surveying the options, he decided that the closest flavor to what his family made was the Cousin Jack, stuffed with skirt steak, potatoes, onion and parsley. He left clutching a paper bag with two warm pasties inside.

The rest of the news

A new rule adopted by the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee will prevent landlords in the state from increasing residential rents by more than 10 percent a year , CalMatters reports.

Numerous small colonies of ocean creatures called by-the-wind sailors have been spotted along the California coast this season, The Guardian reports.

Southern California

The Long Beach police arrested a minor in connection with four shooting incidents in the city , The Los Angeles Times reports.

A former president of the discount retailer Big Lots has put together a group of investors to try to save the 99 Cents Only stores in Southern California from closing, Los Angeles Magazine reports.

Northern California

Apple is laying off 614 workers from eight offices in Santa Clara after abandoning its self-driving car project, The Guardian reports.

A farmworker is suing a mushroom farm for failing to keep him safe during a mass shooting there, The Associated Press reports. The owner of the farm did not respond to requests for comment, the news agency said.

Kate Coleman, a Bay Area journalist who alienated her left-wing allies with exposés critical of the Black Panthers and the environmental movement, died on Tuesday in Oakland. She was 81.

And before you go, some good news

Elementary school students in Santa Cruz were playing by a creek near their school last spring when they noticed what looked like a bone on the ground.

It turned out to be ancient — a fossilized arm bone of an immense prehistoric sloth that probably weighed around 2,000 pounds. Now the children’s lucky discovery is on display for all to see at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History, NPR reports.

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow. — Soumya

P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword .

Maia Coleman and Briana Scalia contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].

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Soumya Karlamangla reports on California news and culture and is based in San Francisco. She writes the California Today newsletter. More about Soumya Karlamangla