March Baking Madness

It is a live baking workshop with bracket-season attitude. A professional chef leads on Zoom while a Rockoly host runs the room, and the free team-building games that come with every event, trivia and a mini scavenger hunt, give the session its competitive edge. Sessions run 60 or 90 minutes depending on the menu. Nobody sits on the sidelines watching other people play, which is rather the point in March.

Five March menus, covering both the tournament and St. Patrick's Day:

• Irish Soda Bread, 60 minutes, with a zesty orange compound butter. The St. Patrick's Day pick.
• Cinnamon Rolls, 90 minutes, finished with a buttermilk glaze.
• Donuts, 60 minutes: a dozen shallow-fried cake donuts and donut holes, decorated however your team likes. The virtual way to bring donuts to the office.
• Cheddar Chive Scones, 60 minutes: savory, golden, and good at any hour of the day.
• Rainbow Filled Cupcakes, 60 minutes, vanilla with sprinkles and buttercream, plus an optional sweet surprise filling.

Add a beer tasting of three beers alongside the soda bread, or a coffee tasting or champagne pairing with anything sweet.

Chemistry and geography, and it is a genuinely good story. Ireland's damp climate suits soft wheat, which is low in the protein that builds the gluten structure a yeast bread depends on. When bicarbonate of soda became widely available in the nineteenth century, Irish bakers finally had a leavener that needed neither strong gluten nor time: soda plus the acid in buttermilk releases carbon dioxide the instant the two meet, so the loaf rises in the oven rather than on the counter.

The cross slashed across the top is practical before it is symbolic. It opens up a dense round loaf so heat reaches the middle, and it makes the bread easy to tear into quarters. Tradition has attached its own meanings, from blessing the loaf to letting the fairies out. And when it is studded with raisins, as ours is, Irish bakers will often call it spotted dog rather than soda bread at all.

Practically, that is why a whole loaf, from flour to sliced and buttered, fits inside a 60-minute workshop. Nothing has to prove. The same trick is why the cake donuts on this page are chemically leavened too.

Not remotely, and March is the right month to prove it. Baking runs on weights and timers rather than instinct, so the chef can keep 40 people on the same step at the same moment. These menus in particular were picked because they are forgiving: soda bread and scones want a light hand and no mixer, and cake donuts and cupcakes want a bowl and a whisk. The chef will tell you to stop working the dough before you overwork it, which is the one mistake that actually matters here. Cameras can stay off, and family can join free on the same screen.

An oven, mixing bowls, a whisk or wooden spoon and a sheet pan cover most of this page. Cupcakes need a muffin tin. Donuts need a pot with an inch or two of oil, since these are shallow fried rather than deep fried. Soda bread and scones need nothing but hands and a baking sheet, no mixer required, which makes them the easiest menus for a team scattered across small kitchens. All ingredients are delivered, and your planner confirms the short equipment list for your menu well before the date.

Yes, and a bracket-shaped month is the right excuse for it. Rockoly runs events for groups from 3 people to 600 and beyond, and very large groups are usually split by department or across days, which suits a month built around a bracket: one group takes the soda bread, another the donuts, and everybody gets a turn before the final. The per-person rate is tiered by group size, stepping down at 31 people and again past 50, so give your planner the full headcount early and let them work out how the sessions and the rate fit together rather than guessing at it yourself.

Groups under five book a flat event rate of $695 to $745 depending on menu. Groups of 5 to 30 run $139 to $149 per person, with cinnamon rolls and rainbow cupcakes at the top and donuts, soda bread and scones at the bottom. From 31 to 50 people it is $129 to $139 per person, and above 50 it drops to $119 to $129.

The virtual event rate includes the personal chef, a dedicated event planner, ingredient delivery, gratuities and all service fees, alongside the Zoom host who runs the games. US shipping is free and insured against loss, delay or damage. Free customization and free dietary adjustments are part of the rate, not upsells.

For a March event, start in February. Cooking events want about three weeks of lead time so kits arrive everywhere on schedule, which puts a St. Patrick's Day booking in the first half of February. Rush dates are sometimes possible depending on chef availability, so ask before you give up on a tight window. Send the inquiry form on this page and a planner will confirm menu, headcount and date. A $250 deposit holds it; pay by credit card, ACH transfer or check. Cancel 21 or more days out and you are refunded what you paid less any nonrecoverable costs already committed; 8 to 20 days out you choose between a 50% refund and a 100% Rockoly credit; inside 8 days payments are nonrefundable, though one complimentary reschedule is yours if you ask 14+ days ahead. Every event is covered by the Love Your Event Guarantee. Call (617) 939-9732 or email events@rockoly.com to talk it through.