Kitchen Chemistry

If the theory turns out to be right, that will be tremendously thick and tasty icing on the cake. 

Brian Greene [Not strictly a chemist, but the closest thing to one that I could find]

Hello, my name is Lucy and I love cake.

I’m no chemist. This is perhaps suboptimal considering that I’m a PhD student in a molecular biology laboratory, where I regularly make up solutions of ‘phosphate buffered saline’, ‘triethanolamine’, and other similarly nerdy sounding chemical substances that don’t have any meaning to anyone in the real world.

(Yes, I jumped right in there and startled you with my ‘chemistry knowledge’ in the very first paragraph. Don’t worry, there’s no more where that came from.)

What is a PhD anyway? Perhaps it has something to do with pH. As in the acidity of a substance, which I hear has something to do with hydrogen ions. Then what is an ion? I find it somewhat confusing that this word is phonetically so similar to ‘iron’. As in nails, red meat, or crumpled clothing.

This won’t go on forever. The point is that my knowledge of chemistry is limited. Good thing I’m a biology student!

In theory, scientists (whatever their speciality) should make good bakers. We’re methodical, practical, and good at following a protocol. (I mean recipe.)

I wonder if famous chemists of centuries ago such a Boyle and Mendeleyev could whip up a quick chocolate frosted delight as a late night treat for their poor overly intellectually stimulated wives.

Baking is chemistry. Considering my love of cake, I think there really is only option for me and that is to study ‘Kitchen Chemistry 101’.

It's dessert time!

[Image credit: Philip Turnbull]