A long line stretched out the doors of the Scripps College’s Motley Coffeehouse on Friday, Sept. 22, as students waited patiently to try baked goods their classmates had prepared for the coffee shop’s biannual bake-off. Their task? To determine what tasty treats the Motley would be selling this semester.
“It’s a cool way to have students be a part of the Motley,” said Motley Product Manager Emma Snyder SC ’18, who organized the event and is in charge of working with vendors. “It’s fun to see this side of people’s talents … [and] a more creative facet of our student body.”
Although only Scripps students can work at the Motley, students from all 5Cs were able to enter the competition. Students were instructed to vote for their top three favorite goods and indicate their dietary restrictions on a slip of paper after trying the snacks.
Olivia Gleason SC ’21 and Priya Thomas SC ’21 teamed up to bake four diverse items: raspberry blueberry muffins, cookies and cream peanut butter bars, orange cookies with citrus glaze, and vegan sweet potato brownies.
“We just wanted to bake things that were easy to grab in the morning with coffee,” Gleason explained. “It was kind of hard since we didn’t have any storage, [and] we made it all this morning. It was kind of crazy, but fun too!”
Gleason runs a food Instagram account and bakes frequently whenever she has the time. Thomas especially enjoys baking breakfast pastries, such as scones. The two met through running cross-country for CMS and decided to enter the bake-off together.
Although many were there just for the food, some were there to support friends as well.
“I really liked the pumpkin bars [that] a girl in my hall had been practicing making the whole week and letting us sample, so I felt the need to come and support her,” Kate DeMarsh SC ’21 said.
Kerry Taylor SC ’21 explained why she chose to bake pumpkin bars for the competition. “Fall is my favorite season, and [pumpkin bars are] very fall-like,” Taylor said. “It’s my mom’s recipe, but I’ve never made it until now. I’ve always loved it.”
It was undoubtedly a lot of baking, but with the help of her roommate, Taylor was able to bring a large number of her delicious pumpkin bars to share with everyone.
When asked about the time commitment of baking for the Motley, Taylor remarked, “I think it’s really cool that I have the excuse to bake once a week because I really enjoy it.”
A total of 12 bakers participated in the bake-off, and there were over 15 different desserts to try from. Some of the other baked goods included chocolate chip zucchini cake, vegan chocolate cupcakes, chocolate chip banana bread, and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.
Based on votes, unit price of products, availability, variety of flavors, and dietary accommodations, a winner was picked to bake for each coming day of the week except Saturday, and two were picked for Sunday. Bakers were then compensated for the cost of the ingredients.
Finally, below is the long-awaited list of the winners that will be selling their baked goods this semester. Look out for their delicious treats at the Motley!
Monday: Citrus cookies (Olivia Gleason SC ’21 & Priya Thomas SC ’21)
Tuesday: Pumpkin bars (Kerry Taylor SC ’21)
Wednesday: Quinoa-pumpkin seed granola (Sydney Sibelius SC ’18)
Thursday: Gluten & dairy-free chocolate pumpkin bread (Olivia Butze SC ’18)
Friday: Oatmeal scotchie bars (Maddy Blumer SC ’19)
Sunday: Cookies and cream cookies (Akshaya Amarnath SC ’21) and vegan cupcakes (Laura Kent SC ’18)
Jaimie Ding SC ’21 is from Vancouver, Washington. She previously served as one of TSL’s news editors.