A Final Flourless Farewell

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.