Oak Forest HS Baking Basics Class Caters for Jazz Night

Oak Forest High School Seniors Kelly Cowgill, Natalie Ramsey, and Natalie Mendez pull green crackle sugar cookies off a baking sheet and slide them carefully into a catering tin to preserve them for use at Jazz Night, held last weekend in the Oak Forest High School Cafeteria. Oak Forest High School Baking Basics teacher Vicky Vogel said that she was approached by a music booster, Jeanine Marcheschi, who asked if her class would like to cater cookies for the Fine Arts’ Department Jazz Night. Vogel jumped at the chance for her class to have real world applications for their building cooking skills. As a result, a partnership was created. The OF music boosters bought the ingredients and Mrs. Vogel’s classes baked and baked and baked cookies. They baked enough cookies for at least 400 people to eat. Varieties cooked were green crackle sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, all lovingly made from scratch from fresh ingredients. The girls enjoyed making the varieties of cookies but mostly, they enjoyed “tasting the cookies,” according to Natalie Ramsey, to the laughter and general agreement of the rest of the group. Kelly Cowgill is the head baker of this particular baking group. “I enjoyed learning new recipes and learning from our mistakes and improving them,” she said. Jazz night patrons enjoyed the cookies that the Baking Basics class produced. This partnership definitely enjoyed sweet success!