My New Hobby: Baking

Everyone loves baked goods. From pies to cakes to cookies, the possibilities are endless. While I am a lover of sweets, I was also unfortunately born with a peanut allergy. This allergy has basically made store-bought treats non existent in my life. For holidays, birthdays, and celebrations it was necessary that I bring my own, homemade baked goods. Baking was always something I enjoyed because it allowed me to experiment in a safe way and try new foods that I had seen in stores but had never been able to taste. When I went to University I stopped baking. Living in a student house, I didn’t have the supplies necessary or the space to store baking equipment. However, during COVID-19 I have begun baking again. Below are three baked goods that I have enjoyed making during the pandemic.

CAKE IN A CUP 

TASTE: 7/10
DIFFICULTY LEVEL: 2/10
​CLEAN UP REQUIRED: MINIMAL 

Cake in a cup is one of my favourite things to make, because it takes a maximum of five minutes but yields a great result. I simply threw all my ingredients into a mug, mixed it, and then popped it in to the microwave. I’m not sure the science behind it but somehow this creates a delicious cake. I made vanilla, but the flavour possibilities are endless. For the recipe click here.

WACKY CAKE 

TASTE: 10/10
DIFFICULTY LEVEL: 4/10
CLEAN UP REQUIRED: MINIMAL 

Wacky Cake is the perfect baked good to make at the end of the week, when there is nothing left in the fridge. This cake was developed during World War II when rationing food was vital and milk and eggs were scarce. Wacky Cake does not have any milk, eggs, or butter and yet still comes out moist and delicious. Better yet, the cake is mixed together and baked, all in one cake pan, so clean up is easy. While I love to eat baked goods, like many I don’t enjoy the clean up and I have found different tricks over the years to make clean up easier, so when a recipe already does this for me, I’m a fan.

One clean up tip I added to this recipe was putting parchment down in my baking pan. Because I mixed all the ingredients in the pan I could not spray it first, so parchment paper made it easy to remove the cake when it was done cooking. This cake is simple and delicious, for the recipe click here.

CINNAMON ROLLS 

TASTE: 9/10
DIFFICULTY LEVEL: 5/10
CLEAN UP REQUIRED: AVERAGE 

With great taste, comes greater difficulty, and that can be said for cinnamon rolls. However, this recipe is easier than most and requires only 2 ingredients. During the early days of the pandemic a baking bread craze occured and it was impossible to find yeast, making it difficult to make dough. This cinnamon roll recipe requires only 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of plain Greek yogurt be mixed together, in order to create dough. I was skeptical at first regarding this dough concoction, but I am now a believer. The flour and yogurt somehow came together and created an easy to work with, flaky dough. I added in the brown sugar and cinnamon and had delicious cinnamon rolls in under 30 minutes, the long process of waiting for dough to rise left in the past. For this cinnamon roll recipe click here.