Kendra Paasch finds baking brings out smiles

Kendra Paasch recently shared home baked cookies with the residents at St. Joseph’s Retirement Community. She received the expressions of thank you from those who were in the activities room to play cards.
Kendra has learned some of her baking skills through 4-H, but also from her parents and grandmother, who she occasionally bakes with. There is one thing about baking she has learned on her own.
“Baking is sometimes the simplest way to put a smile on someone’s face,” she said.
Kendra is in the sixth grade at West Point Elementary.
As a member of the Get-Along-Gang 4-H Club she has been in 4-H for four years. She started baking when she was eight years old.
She has baked a lot of things including cookies, muffins and cupcakes for 4-H exhibits at the fair and for her family. Her favorite is baking cakes to decorate.
Her parents and grandmother helped her when she first stared learning about baking. Since then she is usually on “her own”  in the kitchen.
When trying new recipes, she has learned that although something is homemade, it is not always healthy.
“You really need to watch what you make,” she said, “it might be really unhealthy.”
For her Bake N Take involvement Kendra baked sugar cookies, cut them into rounds and frosted them white. She sprinkled green sugar over the cookies in celebration of 4-H and the baking skills she is learning.