10 — Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022— North Pointe
LIFE
History in the baking: Baked by Elizabeth BSA back in action By Kyleigh Egli & Lauren Veitengruber INTERNS In November of 2020, following encouragement from friends and family, senior Elizabeth McMahon took her hobby of baking and turned it into a business, Baked by Elizabeth. McMahon has always been drawn to the oven, and baking has been an integral part of her life since she was young. “I started baking for close friends and my family and I started doing bigger things and selling it in November of 2020,” McMahon said. “A lot of people were recommending that I started selling because they really liked the cakes.” McMahon not only uses her personal creativity, but also gets inspiration from other bakers, like her mother and grandmother. Along with other influences, she takes a lot of inspiration from one of her favorite shows, “How to Cake It”. “[The Host] is a Canadian baker and she makes a lot of cool cakes,” McMahon said. “One of the first cakes I made was inspired by her.” Running a business can be very demanding, especially around the holiday season. With each cake taking around two hours to bake from start to finish, it’s a major time commitment for McMahon. “The week before Christmas 2020, I had around 30 cakes,” McMahon said. “It gets discouraging because it's a long time on my feet, but it's worth it.” On top of being the sole employee at Baked By Elizabeth, McMahon is also the captain of the girls swim team. With all the business she gets, it can be difficult to balance school, swim and baking. “It's definitely overwhelming because I want to do things — it's a huge commitment and takes lots of time,” McMahon said. McMahon mainly advertises on Instagram, @eliz.bake, and through word of mouth from customers. She enjoys helping clients design their cakes, cookies and cupcakes. There are many different, unique cakes featured on her social media accounts, but the most popular is the carrot cake.
By Arei Swain & Allie McIntyre SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR & INTERN
COURTESY OF ELIZABETH MCMAHON
HOLIDAY SPIRIT | Many of senior Elizabeth McMahon’s cakes for her business include intricate designs. “I'm pretty open about decorations if someone wants complicated things,” McMahon said.
“I like carrot cake, it's super easy and anything with cream cheese frosting on a baked good is super good,” McMahon said. Through the pandemic and everything surrounding it, motivation can be difficult to find. Though there is a lot of stress involved with starting and managing a business, McMahon finds the hardest part is getting started with something she hadn’t necessarily done before. “If anyone were trying to bake, the main thing would be patience,” McMahon said. “Trying new things looks easy, but it's actually really hard.”
The Black Student Alliance held their first in-person meeting for the 2021-2022 school year on Jan. 11. Since the beginning of the pandemic, BSA meetings have been held online. Now, BSA is back to providing a safe space for African American and allied students to talk about race and other social issues. The student-led club is advised by social studies teacher Brent Maynard, who believes BSA is a very important club for the school. “I think it’s an incredibly important club here at North,” Maynard said. “It was started by students that felt there wasn’t a club that represented African American student voices in school.” The club discusses topics that the members feel are important to them. Senior and vice president of the club Kym Harbin expresses how the club has been a community to her as a Black student. “It’s just a spot that I feel like I can fully be myself and relax, and have conversations with people that understand what I am going through, and what it’s like to be Black in society, specifically at North,” Harbin said. A new member of BSA, sophomore Avani Davis, feels that the club has a lot of potential to grow and make significant strides at North. “I feel like if we’re able to bring this to the attention of people that can make change, then I feel like we can really come together and solve racial inequality in the school and the district,” Davis said. Although the name of the club is BSA, Maynard says that the club focuses on a wide variety of issues that affect teenagers. “I think that’s what is misunderstood a lot of times based on the title of it,” Maynard said. “But, it’s open to all students to share perspectives, to learn new perspectives and to be open to hearing a diverse array of voices.”
