Wow. What a semester. My Free Inquiry project; Food For Thought, was lots of fun.

I definitely enjoyed baking every week, as I felt like that was something I had put on the back burner when I started school again because I was just too busy, but allotting time for it on the same night every week and telling myself it was for marks made it easier to put aside other things to complete.

I really enjoyed making new things every week. That was definitely a challenge for me as I usually stick to the classics or the things I know I make pretty well. It was also really interesting to be my own worst critic every week and go into every week with a little bit of disappointment in what I had made, but then have my classmates tell me everything was great. I think some of them were just trying to be nice because of how distressed I was hahahaha, but I appreciated it anyway.

I came to our Tuesday morning class with sweet treats- ED-D 408, every week. Some people even told me that the only reason why they came was for the sweet treats. It kind of became a staple, so when Free Inquiry Blog posts kept getting omitted or not required, I kind of felt bad stopping, so I actually continued to bake things every week and share them with everyone, which was kind of nice.

Some advice that I would give myself at the beginning of the semester is DON’T OVER MIX. And, just because you’re not happy with it doesn’t mean that it isn’t good. I obviously hold myself in high regard, so it is only natural that I get disappointed with what I have made, but in reality, it’s actually good, I’m just being to hard on myself… What’s new really.

Some advice I would give the next 336 students who are choosing their topic is to pic something they enjoy doing. It is hard to do something consistently over the course of a semester that you don’t like to do, so if you can find something you are passionate about, or want to continue growing in or learning, do that. This project isn’t about being perfect, but rather seeing how you over come things if they don’t go the way you want- as we saw with my lemon bar situation… I think something that worked well for me was that I tried to make something different every week- I tried to not have too much overlap so I could keep it fresh and exciting.

My favourite sweet treats that I made this semester included Coffee Cake and Brown Butter Mini Egg Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies, neither of which I actually got to post about, but will add photos below.

Food is something that just brings everyone together- whether you like what you’re eating or not, it’s a conversation starter, something to connect over. I was asked multiple times about recipes for things I made or techniques I used to make things as my classmates would tell me they struggle with certain things. I was even told I inspired some people to bake more because they realize how much they love it. My prof even asked me for my Coffee Cake recipe- that feels like a win.

I am lucky that I came out of this Inquiry Project feeling good about my baking abilities. Obviously it is nice to hear how great I am- even if it is just because I bring sweet treats every week 😉

OH! I even got asked by someone if I would make their friend cupcakes for their friends’ birthday. How fun is that? I really got inspired by all of the baking shows that I watch and tried a new piping technique for the frosting- I “painted” 3 stripes of raspberry down the side of my piping bag and then carefully filled the bag with cream cheese frosting so when pipped it came out in a swirl. Took me longer to get that right than for people to eat them, but hey, I had a good time.

Here are all of the sweet treats I made over the course of the semester:

Seeing all of these together like this is so much fun. I think one of my favourite parts of this whole project was taking photos and seeing just how good my iPhone camera can really be.

It’s funny because “blogging” seems so old school to me- not like it’s not relevant now, but it’s just not something that a lot of people do these days, but after doing this project, I feel like I could start a blog. About what? I don’t know. But I feel like I like being behind the keyboard that makes people laugh, or connect with things, or even tryout new things. Maybe if teaching doesn’t work out, I will start a blog 🙂

In case any one is interested, here is the link to my Pinterest Board where most of the recipes I made are. I sometimes decided to go rogue and add things that weren’t actually in the recipe (like mini eggs), but it all turned out okay, so you do you! Do your thing.

Until next time!