THE CHALLENGE

I've baked for fun for years, but this time I'm getting serious: I acquired the third edition of the Culinary Institute of America's Mastering the Art and Craft: Baking and Pastry. This gigantic tome contains more than 300 recipes and wonderful step by step technical instructions to learn the proper way to make every delicious treat. This blog will document my journey to learn and refine my baking skills as I work through every recipe in this book. I always have other "go-to" favorite recipes and will continue to document these fun creations as well. Lastly, don't forget to check out my 'In the News' page for interesting new baking-related news articles.

ABOUT ME

Growing up, there were a few baked goods that appeared in my stomach like clockwork each year, all part of long traditions on the paternal side of my family. On your birthday, Grandma would make you a cheesecake. Lucky for me, having two other siblings meant we got her cheesecake three times a year! In December, my mother would champion my paternal great-grandmother's Christmas cookie recipe, Melting Moments, making what seemed like thousands of these tiny cookies to give to teachers, friends and family for the holidays. And on Christmas Eve, my Grandma would distribute to the extended family each a full set of Nativity cookies. Some in the extended family to this day refuse to eat the baby Jesus, but in my house he rarely made it home from Grandma's.

When I was in middle school, I knew I wanted to be a baker when I grew up. It started like it does for most kids: the joy of eating the end result. But soon my enthusiasm for consuming sweets crept into the process of creating them. I loved the assembling and precise measuring of ingredients, the methodical following of recipe instructions, and the time spent in front of the oven waiting for the perfect moment to pull out my treats. I was so in love with baking, my maternal grandmother even bought me a KitchenAid mixer for my 8th grade graduation!

In high school, my academic interests shifted, and I started to gain interest in engineering and biology. However, I've always felt that baking in middle school was my introduction to scientific principals and the tools like organization and time management that make you a good scientist. Moreover, baking as a hobby remained a constant while majoring in Bioengineering in college and graduate school. I would often bake for my resident advisees in my dorm in college or for my lab mates in graduate school. As part of group baking effort, my graduate lab even won the department holiday party baking contest two years in a row!

Today, as a project manager in the biopharmaceutical industry, I am proud to support innovative teams that bring life-saving therapeutics to people who need them. I am still deeply excited and professionally motivated by the science driving these new medicines. However, I recognize that the skills honed while planning scientific experiments and supporting the progress of teams advancing new anti-cancer modalities has clear implications for my private hobbies. I love planning out my next bake and learning why the recipe works scientifically, but of course I also love sharing the treats with friends and family.