“Happy Friday! Would you like a cookie?” is the greeting you will hear every Friday around 2 pm in Chapman Hall, home to the Robert D. Clark Honors College, on the University of Oregon campus.
Photo by Hannah Giardina
Known as the Honors College Cookie Princesses, seniors Carolina Reid, journalism, and Hayley Shapiro, international studies, can be found every Friday afternoon wearing tiaras and baking cookies in the Chapman Hall lounge kitchen.
Hayley Shapiro (L) and Carolina Reid (R) test cookies to see if they are done. Photo by Hannah Gairdina
Mixing up a batch of peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, half coated in coconut and half plain, Hayley explains her tiara motto, “If you have an opportunity to once a week put a tiara on, you are doing something right with your life. Princess title is neither here nor there.”
Photo by Hannah Gairdina
Their reign as cookie princesses began four years ago during Fall Rush of their freshman year. Carolina wanted to participate in rush, but would be missing a week’s worth of her scuba diving class. Carolina soon found herself baking cookies on a Friday in Chapman kitchen to give to her instructor as a trade for excusing the absences. Hayley was chilling in the lounge and asked if she could help, despite being only acquaintances. Soon, the mix of the sweet, intoxicating baking cookie smell and crowd of students in the lounge loving them led to Carolina and Hayley coming back the next week to bake more cookies. “It really was the cliché expression of one thing led to another,” said Hayley. Now, the princesses are great friends as well as roommates.
Carolina Reid mixes peanut butter into batter. Photo by Hannah Giardina
In the history of their cookie baking, documented on their blog, they have only repeated five of the cookie recipes, otherwise is it a new flavor each week. Usually, the princesses come into the kitchen with an idea in mind, but end up not having a key ingredient. Missing ingredients do not stop them and they “always have something lying around to make cookies with,” said Carolina. The princesses also take requests and alter recipes for different palates and leave cookie dough for those who prefer cookies in the raw.
Hayley Shapiro delivers cookies to the staff, professors, and dean of Robert D. Clark Honors College. Photo by Hannah Giardina
The princesses have a tradition of giving the cookies a name and then a selling tag line, the peanut butter chocolate chip coconut cookies were sold as “It’s a haystack, some hold the hay!”
Photo by Hannah Giardina
If you find yourself in Chapman Hall on Fridays around 2 pm, follow your nose to the lounge and indulge on one of their mouth-watering cookies. You will not regret it.