What’s your favourite chemical element? That’s what people were asking in the Department of Chemistry April 25 as they admired Barbara Goodall’s cupcake creation.

The first-year master’s student in chemistry baked 118 cupcakes, one for each element on the periodic table. She then frosted and labelled each one with its element name. The cupcakes sold for $2 each as a fundraiser for the United Way.

“I was thinking I would buy the arsenic one,” joked Prof. Glenn Penner, Department of Chemistry. “I’m going to have arsenic for dessert.”

That’s exactly the reaction Goodall had hoped for when she came up with the idea of a chemistry-themed bake sale.

“Everyone always does bake sales,” she says, but hers is different. “People can pick out their favourite element. It’s more exciting than the traditional bake sale.” She expects most researchers will pick the element they’re studying.

So what’s her favourite element? “Gold,” she says with a laugh. After spending several hours baking eight boxes’ worth of cupcake mix, maybe she’ll get a gold medal for her efforts.