Seniors Jocelyn Hurh, Alicia Villanueva Guzman and Elm Houglum all share a passion for baking that started when they were young. Once COVID hit, their shared passion turned into something more, whether it’s building a baking business for the Libertyville community or sharing bread with the school.
Jocelyn Hurh
Senior Jocelyn Hurh was first inspired to start baking after she made cupcakes for her 8th grade graduation, and has been doing it ever since. When COVID started in 2020, she started baking at her house to relieve her boredom.
Eventually, she got better and started taking orders from neighbors, soon leading her to create an online business.
Hurh originally started her business, “More Than Matcha,” because there was “a lack of what [she] wanted to see.”
“I wanted to incorporate more Asian flavors to like this area,” Hurh said. “I have matcha [and] ube. And…[I have] flavors that are not very common here but are common in Asian cultures.”
Hurh manages most of her orders through social media.
“I [get orders] through direct messaging for the most part, or [through] people I know, so they just reach out to me and text me,” Hurh said. She also bakes for a lot of events, which is one of the ways she markets her business. But, mainly, it’s through a lot of word of mouth.
Hurh’s signature cake is a four-layer matcha chocolate cake with two layers of matcha, two layers of chocolate, but strawberries in between and a chocolate ganache on top.
Alicia Villanueva Guzman
Senior Alicia Villanueva Guzman has been baking since about first grade but started baking more seriously in 8th grade.
“I’ve always watched baking shows,” Villanueva Guzman said. “And I used to do it for friends and family and for gatherings and I just kept doing it. I really love it.”
Ever since she started baking more seriously, and getting better at it, her friends and family encouraged her to start a bakery. She eventually opened her own Etsy page. When it was safe for her to serve others, she officially started her business, “CalaDulceBakery.”
“I liked the idea that I was establishing something myself and that I would take control with it and I could have fun with it. I could make logos for the boxes that I would deliver all these baked goods with,” Villanueva Guzman said. “I wanted to do it more professionally and since it was a hobby of mine, I decided to just take it into a job instead.”
After mainly selling through her Etsy page, Villanueva Guzman expanded her business to social media, taking orders through Instagram, direct messaging and different payment methods.
Villanueva Guzman makes brownies most frequently, but also enjoys making Oreo cheesecakes and graduation cakes. A few years ago, her hot cocoa bombs “were a really big hit and promoted [her] bakery more locally.”
“I also have a yearly bake sale I do that I donate all the proceeds to Feed My Starving Children,” she said. “At the end of the day, I’ve always loved to bake for others, and I didn’t really want to do it just for the money. I also just wanted to keep giving and this was a way where I could give to my friends and family locally, but also donate that to an organization that I do really enjoy going to.” She also raised $500 for Feed My Starving Children at a bake sale last summer.
Elm Houglum
Senior Elm Houglum started making bread during COVID after getting bored with online learning. They were first inspired to start baking bread after going over to a woman’s house for daycare when they were younger where they watched the woman bake.
“She was really creative [with] the recipes that she would do and how she would break away from those recipes and do her own thing,” Houglum said.
At the end of the semester, Houglum brings bread in to celebrate everyone working so hard that semester and to get ready for finals.
“It’s a good way to show how much you care for other people,” Houglum said. “I love giving people bread and I love baking for my friends to show how much I care about them because I feel like when you’re able to produce like a homemade good for people, [they] recognize the amount of work and time that went into making that.”
For Houglum, making bread is a fun thing for them to do with family. And, out of all the breads that they make, their favorite kind of bread is sourdough, specifically an herb crush and rosemary sourdough.
