When I came to Oberlin, industrial-scale baking was not exactly on my bucket list. However, in my second semester at Harkness Coop, I decided I wanted to contribute in a more unique way than my normal cook shifts. A lot of members feel this way, which is why we have a wide range of elected positions ranging from Garden Coordinator to Coffee Coordinator. I came to the conclusion that Tasty Thing Maker sounded like the perfect win-win situation; I get to spend my hours baking desserts, and the coop gets to eat them.
Though I have been baking for as long as I can remember, before Oberlin, the scale of my treats had never surpassed a layer cake. In all honesty, I’ve always been more of a flavor specialist than an extravagant presentation kind of guy. So, when I learned each week I would be producing desserts for 125 people to each get two to three servings, I knew there would be a learning curve involved.
Each baking project typically starts with four pounds of butter. While fancy ingredients aren’t always available (though they can be requested from food buyers), I’ve found that for coop baking, simple and delicious is the way to go. So, I like to take extra steps like browning my butter to achieve a more complex flavor in a simple cake or blondie. That being said, if Tasty Thing Makers, Bread Makers, Granola Makers, or anyone else in the coop feels particularly inspired to make something out of the box, we can always put in special ingredient orders.
Whenever I’m up late in the kitchen finishing my tasty things to be presented to the masses, there is always a trickle of excited coopers waiting for the treat to come out. First, people who are downstairs and in the kitchen get to try, but once I send an email to the coop announcing the tasty thing drop, people quickly stream in. It feels so rewarding to get to provide so many people with tasty things every week. Because we don’t always have treats like in a dining hall, it makes the baking, the coop, and the contribution feel so special.
