Let them eat cake

While there is nothing like Mom's chocolate-chip cookies, members of the University's newly revived baking club are connoisseurs when it comes to creating delicious treats that satisfy any sweet tooth. Every Wednesday night, the group fills kitchens around campus with the scents of banana bread, apple pies and brownies.

Club founder Ed Tufaro '01 said the club began when he started baking for his roommates in 211 Gauss last spring. "People would come, and it started being a social thing," Tufaro explained. It became a weekly event, and by March, the University had recognized the group as a club, he said.

The club's activities slowed down in the fall, but this spring, Tufaro said students pressured him to revive it. "A bunch of seniors were giving me a hard time about how they needed a study break and wanted it to get started again," he said. "So a couple of weeks before Spring Break, we got together again and started with chocolate-chip cookies. Gradually, we've been trying to get where we were last spring."

Just like Mom

Chris Gonzales '02, a member of Tufaro's RA group, said he is excited to have an opportunity to bake. "I used to bake a lot at home with my mom, and I just like baking," he said. "I haven't done it in a long time, and I kind of miss it."

Rob Holmes '01 began visiting the kitchen Wednesday nights when he smelled cookies while sitting in his room in Henry Hall. Though he admitted his cooking skills are "minimal," he said he comes to spend time with others. "It's really nice to come relax and chill with my friends."

The club — which now uses the Pyne Hall kitchen as its headquarters — has tried everything from cookies to chocolate chip cheesecake brownies, Holmes said, adding that, "Ed is the master here."

Tufaro first began baking with his mother when he was a child. "It was a bonding time for my mom and me," he said.

His passion for baking continued in high school, when he and three friends founded a baking club. Tufaro's best friend had a crush on a senior girl and wanted to spend more time with her. "I said we should invite them over and bake with them," Tufaro said. Though the baking did not charm the girl, it seduced more than 150 students to join the club. "We baked for athletic banquets, homecoming and other functions," he noted.

Interest in the University Baking Club continues to grow as new people show up each week, Tufaro said. There are about 500 students on the e-mail list, many who are members of other activities in which Tufaro is involved, from his eating club to the men's track team.

"The best part of the baking club is that it brings together completely different groups of people that don't already know each other," he said. "But everyone can come and just put aside everything else that they have to do and just enjoy people's company and meeting people. Everyone just has a good time."