Since January, the Bowdoin Bake Shop has used 28,080 eggs, 10,900 pounds of all-purpose flour, 7,080 pounds of granulated sugar, 4,290 pounds of margarine, 2,625 pounds of chocolate chips, and 1,740 pounds of blueberries.
"We go through a lot of stuff," said Joanne Adams, who has been working for five years as the head baker at the Bake Shop. "It's just an incredible amount of stuff."
For Homecoming Weekend, the Bake Shop, which provides baked goods for Thorne Hall, Moulton Union, the Pub, the Cafe, and the C-Store, produced over 3,500 cookies in two days.
Along with Adams, the bakery is staffed by Assistant Baker George Alexander and Baker Dan Williams, who have been there for five and 15 years, respectively. When Williams arrived at the age of 21, he was the youngest employee of Dining Service.
"When I was a kid, I used to spend a lot of time at my grandmother's. We were always baking things there, from cookies, bars, to family favorite Italian holiday items. When I was older and able to bake by myself, I would always have a cookbook out making something," said Williams.
All of the bakers studied culinary arts at Southern Maine Technical College before coming to work at Bowdoin.
The Bake Shop also employs six students. Typically, student employees get to help with all aspects of baking, from mixing to frosting to scooping cookies.
"We try to keep it to they're doing something different each time," said Adams.
Student employees sign up for a position in the Bake Shop at the beginning of each year after they have been hired by the Dining Service.
An average day for the bakers begins at 5 a.m., when they make the breakfast items: muffins, cinnamon rolls, and coffee cakes. Eventually, Williams moves on to the breads: focaccia, French bread, and Kaiser rolls. Alexander starts making cookies and Adams begins the dinner desserts.
"It was really hard to wake up in the morning, but it was tons of fun to work with Joanne, Dan, and George," said Hilary Imai '09, who worked in the Bake Shop last year.
There are often two or three people working on a single project at one time, which makes the work more fun for both the students and their mentors.
"We're constantly talking to each other," said Adams. "We like to have fun with the students."
Pictures of student employees hang from the bulletin board, and country western plays on the radio.
"We have sing-alongs," said Adams, adding that the students' favorite song to sing is the "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk."
"They love singing that song...they only listen to country music, it's on 24 hours a day, " said Imai. "Joanne sings really loud."
The student employees have few other complaints.
"It's hard to stand for three hours, but I learned new recipes and techniques," said Imai. "Sometimes you'll scoop cookies for a long time...it makes me want to eat the cookie dough."
The kitchen is centered around a large wooden island. The huge industrial rack oven holds 20 sheet pans at a time. Each sheet pan holds 15 cookies; each batch of cookies takes 13 minutes to bake. In under an hour, the bakers can produce 1,200 cookies.
The Bake Shop also owns six electric mixers, ranging in size from five quarts (the standard home-kitchen size) to 60 quarts (big enough to hold a person).
Adams noted that while they are "pretty open to student ideas and comment cards," a recipe has to be practical when it is being reproduced thousands of times.
During the summer, when there are fewer students to feed, Adams said, "We find it difficult to bake in these small quantities!"
"I don't think all the students realize that they make almost everything from scratch," said Imai.
The bakers plan for every week in advance. Each kitchen provides a menu and the Bake Shop picks desserts to make according to what entrees are being served.
"Generally, there's a lot of flexibility," said Adams.
Nutrition is a concern for the bakers. This school year, they have incorporated 25 percent white whole wheat flour into every recipe. Produce from the Bowdoin Organic Garden is used when possible; they often incorporate it into the zucchini bread or carrot cake.
"We try to buy as much stuff local as we can," Adams said.
The bakers say they appreciate Bowdoin students as much as Bowdoin students appreciate their desserts.
"We have had students working in the Bake Shop for the past four and a half years, which we never had before during my time at Bowdoin," Williams said. "This has been so much fun getting to know them and work with them. What a great group we have had."
"They really put a lot of love and care into the recipes," said Imai. "They really love the students."