Baking club serves community

Alice McGuire 

Deputy Editor 

The Hearts and Tarts baking club is new on campus, just in time for Valentine’s Day. Upon a candy-coated PowerPoint slide overlooking a plate of sugar cookies, the club’s goals were outlined as follows: learn to bake, help our community, and create friendships. 

Jessica Little, 23, joined the club about three weeks ago after finding it on Campus Connect. Little said that what she gets out of baking is, “the joy of other people tasting what I made and knowing that I just created something with my own hands,” and that she finds the club “pretty fun” and “laid back.” 

The club’s founder Kendall Stacy, 19, a supply chain management major, outlined a wide variety of treats which she hopes to be able to teach members to craft while taking suggestions from members for treats to bake as well as causes to support.

“I wanted to make it so, like, they’re not only harboring the community they live in, but they’re their own community of people,” said Stacy, detailing how the idea of a club came to mind as she thought of how to find a sustainable way to share food with others. 

Stacy was told by a teacher that WCC had once had a “really good culinary program,” which spurred hope that she might find someplace on campus to bake.  

Stacy explained that her love of baking began during her high school career, which she spent immersed in the culinary arts, working as a sous chef via the Career through Education program at Huron High School, where she gained experience running events. She further attributed the wide variety of dishes she has mastered to having spent the majority of her time in her culinary classes–baking for upwards of seven hours a day, five days a week. 

With regards to whether baking is more art or science, Stacy said, “It depends on what you like,” she said before adding, “if you don’t like decorating, then it’s purely science.” 

She went on to say that observing chemical reactions in culinary classes helped her understand them. “You can literally watch it,” she said, explaining, “You can always tell what you’ve done wrong in baking based on what’s wrong with it.” 

Natalie Scarlett, 20, a communication major who woke up one day to find that she had been declared cofounder–though she thinks she’s “just” a member now, has been friends with Stacy since high school.

“Everyone’s super engaged and willing to help each other and even if baking isn’t necessarily your strong suit or something that you’re directly interested in, it’s a great social place to grow, ” said Scarlett. “Because we’re so new, we’re still getting to know each other, getting to know what’s best for us, so it’s an adaptable place that you can make comfortable for yourself as well as the peers in it.” 

With regard to why it is that food brings people together, Little said, “Everybody eats.”

Meetings are held every Tuesday and Thursday from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. in LA 130–until they find their forever room, with a kitchen. 

The group plans to be at the club fair On February 13th from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. with sweet treats to share. 

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