SIS Ingolstadt Baking Club

What’s not to love about baking? At SIS Ingolstadt, the baking club actually started before coronavirus hit our schools. We took a couple of years off because of it but started again this year with a lot of enthusiasm and excitement. What I’ve come to realise is that the primary and secondary students and I have gotten better at it, and that baking has taught them and me a lot of worthwhile lessons about life:

Things tend to get messy
At the beginning of every club session, we talk about cleaning up after ourselves, reading recipes carefully and listening to instructions. We learned that no matter how careful you are or how well you plan everything for a baking session, the cocoa powder gets spilt, the eggs get broken and someone in your crew of three might forget to start the mixer on low, which causes the batter to explode everywhere. What you can expect in baking, and in life, is that you can’t always control things that go wrong, but you can learn from them.

Some accidents are the good kind
In one of the baking sessions, the recipe wasn’t followed properly and students ended up combining the chocolate with the batter instead of separating it into two parts, which led to a chocolate cheesecake instead of a zebra cheesecake. When the students figured it out, they weren’t too pleased, but it ended up tasting just as delicious. We learned that when something unexpected or accidental happens, something good can still come out of it. We read more carefully now. Lesson learned!

Little mistakes will blow over
Baking forgives. If someone accidentally forgets to add the baking soda because they thought someone else in the group did it, odds are that nobody will be able to tell that much of a difference in taste, but it may look a bit different. We have a tendency to beat ourselves up over little things and may even blame others for a mistake, but in the end, it’s just a waste of time. The students figured out that ticking off the ingredient list can help us make sure that no ingredient is forgotten.

Risks are worth taking
Turning kids loose in a kitchen to bake every week can be a challenge. They have to take responsibility for each other in the group, share the tasks and remember that they only have 35 to 40 minutes to get everything oven-ready. In addition to that, each student has to be on a clean-up crew at least once and they have to bake with every member of the group at least once. Not all students are from the same class, so it can be a tricky business monitoring behaviour and cooperation among them, but, as in life, we need to remember that nothing is gained by not stepping out of our comfort zones. Shaking things up a bit can be positive!

You are also fine on your own
At school, baking is a small group activity, but it can just as easily be a solo gig. Students get the recipe after every baking session in the hope that they take it home and try it again on their own. Mixing sugar and butter and following the recipe completely independently from the other bakers helps students develop their independence and ability to do things on their own.

Sharing with others
Baking and eating the goodies for oneself is the best, of course. Our club has to be sustainable, though, and since it costs money to run our club, we have found a way to support ourselves. Once a month we set up a bake sale at school in order to raise money to offset the cost of our baking materials. Here, our bakers are polishing their social skills and getting a little maths practice in at the same time. In total, around thirty students have been inducted into the club. We’ve worked hard and the rewards have been visible. We’ve learned about ourselves, working in a team, sharing responsibility, taking charge, making change and remembering to have fun. If this doesn’t help us all along life’s path, then what does? We’re a popular club in the school. On Wednesdays, when smells of baking travel though the hallways causing mouths to water, we contemplate ways of promoting our club even more. The next step is getting our bakers involved in organising, planning and putting together a cookbook of all of our favourite recipes to share with the SIS school community. We’ll keep everyone posted as we continue to bake it right.



Pamela Bradley-Höllering, Head of Secondary School, SIS Ingolstadt