What did you do during quarantine to eat up time? My fellow journalists and I found ourselves baking. Our favorites are banana bread, chocolate cake, and macarons. What inspired us were birthdays, family favorites, and of course, previous trial and error.

During quarantine 2020, we faced many challenges within our houses as well as outside. First off, there are always new tips and tricks while baking. Maddie Gerth said, “it is important to make sure the macaron batter is the right consistency because it makes the shells get their feet”, a crucial aspect of perfect macarons. Mandi Gravatt made banana bread because it is her mom’s favorite, and during the baking process she struggled with letting the batter bake because it smelled so good. Mandi says a very nostalgic memory, in particular, was, “making small portions to give to the neighbors who enjoyed them as much as we do”. I stumbled upon my favorite chocolate cake recipe in preparation for the multiple birthdays. The hardest part was adding different alcohols to the batter like Guinness Stout, to accentuate the chocolate flavor. These are all recipes that were made several times to ease the feeling of boredom in unfortunate circumstances.

 The most rewarding part of baking was tasting our creations, but there were some specifically fun parts along the way. For me, the most exciting part of making the cake is the assembly, from frosting to stacking up the layers; it becomes a tall mountain of cake. Maddie also said the assembly was her favorite part, “adding the filling and seeing it smush between the two shells makes me eager to eat them”. Throughout all of our trial and error, our quarantine cooks helped us survive and make the most of our time during quarantine. If you want to try any of these three recipes, the links are down below. Happy baking!