Ever since she was little, senior Audrey Leatham has been captivated by the art of baking. Especially in recent years since the Covid-19 lockdown, Leatham’s passion for baking spiked, and she’s been a fervent baker for the past four years.

Audrey said, “During Covid, I just really had nothing to do, and I had only just become gluten free a year or two before, so I hadn’t really learned how to bake or cook anything gluten free. So, I got a gluten-free cookbook, and me and my mom kind of started looking at it and just doing the recipes from there.”

Leatham started baking with her mom from a young age, but didn’t really get into it until she was 13. She has always enjoyed watching her parents cook and make dinner, and they were the ones that inspired her to start baking more later on.

With gluten-free baking, it can be difficult to have complete control over how the final product is going to turn out because gluten-free flour can be very difficult to navigate. Instead, Leatham often enjoys using different starches, such as potato starch, and almond or oat flour to bake as she found those combinations to work well for her.

To Leatham, baking is a creative outlet where she can have control over the process and go at her own speed.

“[Baking] is so stress relieving, and honestly if I’m baking alone, just putting on some music or podcast and then just sitting there and baking is so nice,” said Leatham, “and though I wouldn’t say it has a super big impact on my day-to-day life, it’s definitely one of the only places that I have a creative outlet.”

However, baking has not always come easily to Audrey. At the beginning of her baking journey, she would often struggle with completing some recipes, and there would be some messes that occur during the process.

“[At the start] I had a cookbook that I was trying to get all the way through, and some of the things were just so terrible, and I just kind of gave up; so they never really turned out okay, but having the patience was definitely like something I needed to work on,” explained Leatham.

Now, after plenty of practice, Audrey enjoys baking a variety of desserts, ranging from cookies and cakes to lemon bars and peanut butter brownies.

“I really like to make vanilla cake, and I like to make cookies, and then put them on the side and then crush them up and put them in the middle,” Leatham clarified.

For new bakers starting out their baking adventures, Audrey’s advice is to not expect perfection right away.

“It definitely takes a lot of time to find a good, solid recipe for things. And just don’t be afraid to mess up or try new things,” Leatham advises.

Over the years, Audrey has gained new understandings of baking, and she is fond of trying out new recipes over weekends.