For the physical portion of my Capstone Project, I decided
to make and decorate pastries, which primarily include, but are not limited to:
cakes, cupcakes, and cookies. A majority
of my project consisted of me working individually at home, making and
decorating different pastries for different occasions. For example, during the winter, I decided to
make Christmas cupcakes as well as a cake decorated to look like a
snowman. However, I also constantly
contacted my mentor, Mr. Todd Galli, to update him on whenever I created
something new as well as to schedule dates and times for me to physically come
in to the bakery. I worked with several
different people when I was in the bakery, learning new techniques and working
with technology that I’ve never used before but are common and necessary for a
successful bakery. Whenever I came
across an appealing pastry design, I would have to figure out how I would go
about re-creating that piece of art.
Throughout the project, not once did I research how a design was
created, so I had to decipher how I could make the pastries look as best as I
can make them. Furthermore, whenever I
came across a recipe, I would typically somewhat alter the recipe, usually reducing
the sugar.
For the written portion of my Capstone Project, I decided to
discuss about how baking has become an innovative method to opening up the
topic of mental illnesses. When first
deciding what I wanted to write about, I had some difficulty because I didn’t
want to resolve to writing about genetically modified foods. As a result, I conducted some research until
I stumbled upon my topic about how pastry making and decorating has increased
mental illness awareness. I did
extensive research on my topic because the idea behind my thesis was relatively
modern. However, doing so simply
increased my interest in my topic and I became much more aware of how common
mental illness really is.
The Capstone heightened my awareness about mental illnesses and
I now want to do as much as I can in order to help those who are suffering from
any form of mental illness, regardless of how severe the case is, feel as
normal and happy as possible. I will
definitely use what I learned from this project in my future career as an
educator as I try to create new teaching techniques to accommodate those with a
mental illness. Furthermore, going in to
the bakery made me recognize how difficult the food industry can really be,
especially for a small, family-owned bakery, as bakers must get up at extremely
early hours several times a week to prepare and make the many different
pastries which they will then have to determine prices for that will bring
customers in to compete with the bigger food industries. I’ve always loved baking, but physically
working in the bakery made me realize how much baking has become a part of my
life. I absolutely loved every minute
that I was working in the bakery, and working alongside different people in the
bakery made the once-in-a-lifetime experience that much more amazing. This project definitely confirmed how central
baking has become a part of my life as I continue to expand my knowledge of the
baking to create pastries that will spread my happiness from the kitchen to
others.
When first presented with this project, I became overwhelmed
with the idea of the workload, especially when first deciding what I wanted my
topic to be since I would be actively working on my topic throughout the course
of my senior year. To prevent myself
from having to suffer from anxiety, I planned out a schedule that I maintained
to reduce the stress to minimal levels. In
addition, I originally wanted to do lion dancing because I wanted to gain a
better understanding of my culture, but unfortunately, I wouldn’t have been
able to work with a lion troupe. Instead
of letting myself succumb to unfortunate timing and circumstances though, I
decided to be flexible and switch my project to pastry making and decorating,
which has really been a gratifying experience.
Not only was I able to do something that I already knew that I liked,
but I was able to give others some of the finished products, such as the
cupcakes and cookies, which simply spread my happiness to others to brighten their
day.
