Beyond the page: Baking your PhD

by Rafaela Rabello


After I started my PhD programme I decided to adopt strategies to keep me sane throughout this enriching, yet introspective journey. It all started years ago with my passion for cakes. I have always been very passionate about wedding cakes. I think I got this passion from my mother, who would count the seconds for the ‘cake-moment’ at wedding parties. 

When I had my daughter, Helena, I was living in the Amazon. The Amazon is REALLY VERY far away from my hometown - where my parents reside. For Helena’s first birthday, I thought of relieving the pain of living so far away from mom and dad and decided to surprise mom! So, I made Helena a big cake that was designed like a wedding cake, but it was thematic. The theme was wild life. The result of this bold experience was a really cute cake! I took lots of pictures of that cake and sent it to Mom, who was extremely excited about it. That cake was special – it surpassed all physical boundaries and distance. It connected directed to my mother’s heart.




For Helena’s second birthday, I had already moved to New Zealand and started my PhD. So, I decided to adopt the same strategy to shorten the distance between my Mom and I: making cakes. At that time, Helena was in love with the movie ‘finding Nemo’ and I decided to make her a Nemo cake. This was the first cake I made after starting the PhD journey. I had so much fun making that cake that I completely forgot about the worries of writing a chapter, or recruiting participants, you know? It was THE sacred, relaxing moment of just having fun and being creative. 

After the Nemo cake, I began asking my friends if they would want me to make their kids’ birthday cake. I found making creative cakes a great way of relaxing and having fun. So, a friend of mine, Roberta, asked me to make a cake for Bianca, her eight-year-old daughter. Bianca said she wanted her cake to be pink with lots of animals’ prints. While making Bianca’s cake, I was so relaxed and having so much fun that, interestingly, ideas for the PhD started blooming in my mind! The week after I made that cake I wrote half of a chapter! I was amazing! After Bianca’s cake, I made Antonio a Lego cake. And again the experience was very enriching. I was extremely productive in my PhD and had lots of relaxing time, altogether. 

Nevertheless, nothing compares the excitement I had when Another friend and colleague told me about her son’s wish for his birthday cake: a futuristic building! Wow, what an imagination!! That was superb and super fun! My mind went wild! Thinking of a futuristic building was thinking of trying different elements and patterns for cakes. I ended up projecting this challenge into my PhD chapter. Thinking of a different way of approaching my literature review – uhuuuu. 

Unfortunately, I got too creative, which did not go quite well. Maybe it was too confusing; 
nevertheless, it was definitely liberating and I had much, much fun being creative in my PhD! The experience of making this cake was wonderful and he loved it, which was very rewarding as well. Now I am ready for my next challenge: Alice in the wonderland! Seriously? It couldn’t get any better! I cannot stop thinking about it. My mind is bubbling with new ideas, textures, shapes and colours! And so is my PhD! What a nice way of baking, oopsy, sorry, making a tasty, colourful and creative pHd, sorry: PhD!