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Culinary Arts

Baking & Pastry

Where chemistry meets dessert.

From cookies to enriched doughs, students learn how leaveners, fats, and ratios turn flour and sugar into bread, pastry, and showstopping desserts.

What students do

Every session is hands-on and project-based. Students collaborate with a vetted teaching artist, work through structured challenges, and leave with something they made — a model, a recording, a portfolio piece, a finished dish, or a performance.

Who it's for: Students who love dessert and want to understand why a recipe works.

What's inside

  • Baker's percentages and ratios
  • Mixing methods: creaming, folding, kneading
  • Leavening: yeast, baking soda, baking powder
  • Decorating with piping and glazes

Session-by-session breakdown

  1. Week 1

    Cookies & Bars

    Compare chewy vs. crisp cookies and learn the role of fat.

  2. Week 2

    Quick Breads

    Bake muffins and banana bread, exploring chemical leaveners.

  3. Week 3

    Yeast Doughs

    Mix, knead, and bake a soft pretzel or focaccia.

  4. Week 4

    Pie & Pastry

    Make all-butter pie dough and assemble seasonal hand pies.

  5. Week 5

    Cake & Frosting

    Bake layer cake and pipe buttercream decorations.

  6. Week 6

    Pastry Showcase

    Design a dessert table for a family tasting.

Outcomes students leave with

  • Understands the science behind baking
  • Bakes bread, pastry, and cake from scratch
  • Decorates with confidence

What you'll get

  • • Curriculum scoped to your group size, grade, and season length
  • • Vetted, trained, background-checked teaching artist
  • • All materials and kits — no prep work for your staff
  • • Attendance + engagement reporting, plus family-facing recap
  • Bench scrapers, scales, piping bags
  • All ingredients provided
  • Take-home recipe binder + apron