Baking for a cause

The aroma of cinnamon and fresh-baked bread overwhelm the senses.

Following the blissful smell, leads one to Janice Castillon who is busily working in a sort of secret area behind the Golden Hour Senior Center's main kitchen.

Castillon is busy rolling out dough for her ever-so-popular cinnamon rolls on a wooden surface before placing the cinnamon, brown sugar, raisins and walnuts on the dough. She then rolls up the dough, trapping the sugar, cinnamon, raisins and walnuts inside.

She proceeds to slice the rolled dough and place it on a tray.

She then takes the tray and puts it in the oven. When the heat hits the cinnamon rolls, the aroma starts to fill the air.

All of this is done in such an effortless fashion it is no wonder why Castillon is well-known for her cinnamon rolls. On this day in the kitchen, Castillon was making her cinnamon raisin and walnut cinnamon rolls. She also made almond and Craisins cinnamon rolls later that morning.

Just mixing the dough for the rolls takes about 20 minutes. Castillon was busy making the various kinds of cinnamon rolls for the senior center to sell at the city's Farmer's Market.

Once the batch of dough is mixed, she lets it rise for an hour.

Even though four trays with 20 cinnamon rolls on each one were already done by 9 a.m. Castillon continued working on more. The huge stainless steel bowl she had the dough in was overflowing as she would remove the dough she needed to make another batch. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays starting at 6:30 a.m., Castillon is busy in her secret hideaway baking all of the items that will be sold at the market.

Her movements indicated this is something she is used to doing every day, but Castillon wasn't always whipping up mouth-watering goodies for residents and seniors to eat. She started out about four years ago as the kitchen's dishwasher. She then worked her way into the title of kitchen aide. It was during her work as an aide that she started to learn great baking tips from the center's baker.

Baking was nothing new for Castillon and so she gravitated toward learning more about baking.

"I baked at home all of the time," Castillon said. "I already know how to make bread so I already know what to put in there."

In fact, she uses a lot of her own recipes for the baked goods. Some of those baked goods are cookies, cinnamon rolls, cream puffs and bread.

"I never knew I would be a baker," she said. "I really love my job."

The unexpected career wasn't a bad change for Castillon. When the baking position opened up about three years ago, Castillon decided to apply for it since she was already doing a lot of the baking anyway and didn't have anything better to do.

"I got this job when I was cleaning houses," she said. "It's much better than cleaning houses."

When Castillon wants to try something new, she sifts through cook books she has around her house or she searches online for something she thinks will go over well.

As with anything, it is a learning process. One time, Castillon decided to try baking coffee-flavored cinnamon rolls. She thought they would go over well with the folks at the center who like coffee, but the rolls weren't as successful as she thought they would be. She hasn't made them since.

As for cookies, Castillon makes the classics, including oatmeal raisin, but she also makes ranger, root beer float, coconut oatmeal, pumpkin raisin and Rice Krispies cookies.

"It's not the same every day," Castillon said.

She likes to vary the breads and the cookies, but she makes sure to have the classic cinnamon rolls. She said the cinnamon roll ends are used for her sticky buns, which have also become one of the favorites among seniors and farmer's market attendees. She just adds a caramel sauce to them.

When Castillon is not busy baking, she helps with the center's Meals on Wheels program.

"They don't stick me back here all by myself all of the time," she said.

When it comes to baking, Castillon doesn't have a favorite, and she is getting used to making and baking cinnamon rolls, which is good since it is one of the senior's favorite baked treats. Cinnamon rolls and the cream puffs are the market's best sellers every week.

They usually go first, however, the center hasn't taken any left overs back to the center for weeks.

"They have sold out every week," Castillon said.

Some of the breads Castillon makes include lemon, banana, zucchini, lemon poppy seed and white.

"It varies on what I want to bake," she said.

No matter what she bakes, it sells, which means a lot to her and the center. Castillon said she has no part in the selling process. All of that is handled by senior center volunteers. However, she knows the fundraising wouldn't be possible without her baking.

"It feels really good because we've been needing some funds coming in," she said.