With the entire King Arthur digital team working from home right now, I’ve gotten an unexpected peek into my coworker’s home lives. Through video chat apps like Slack, Teams, and GoToMeeting, I now know who owns an entire wall of cookbooks, whose cat is living his best quarantine life snuggled up as close as felinely possible, and whose 3-year-old takes pretend business calls – complete with a hoodie drawstring in his ear mimicking headphones. (That would be community manager Jesse Cloutier and fellow bloggers PJ Hamel and Kye Ameden. I’ll let you guess in which order.)
Face-to-face time is important, but not everyone wants to give such an honest view of their shelter-in-place lifestyle. That’s why the video app Zoom lets you select custom backgrounds. Want to look like you’re calling from the King Arthur café? Or working in a parallel universe of enormous cinnamon rolls? We’ve got a baker’s dozen of baking-themed Zoom backgrounds for you — from the subtle to the downright silly.
Download any of the images below, or grab all 13 backgrounds as a ZIP file. During your next Zoom meeting, click the up arrow next to the camera icon in the lower-left corner. Select “Choose Virtual Background,” then tap on the small plus sign on the right to choose your image.
#1 — Rekindle the coffee shop vibe from the comfort of this virtual King Arthur café. #2 — Journey to a realm of golden-brown valleys and sugar-frosted peaks. Cinna-bon voyage!
#3 — Video files work as Zoom backgrounds, too, so indulge in this glorious halo of chocolate frosting and falling sprinkles. (Download the video.) #4 — Your throne awaits! Turn in your chair just a little and you'll be the monarch of your next Zoom call. Don't let this power go to your head.
#5 — Warning: In our tests, we discovered that this video background results in an overwhelming urge to bake cake. Use at your own risk! (Download the video.) #6 — Early morning call? Let these short stacks set the mood. #7 — Have a low-key lunch hour chat with peanut butter and honey slathered on soft sandwich bread.#8 — Call running long? Deploy this one when you need someone to wrap up. Much like the orchestra at the Oscars, this background sends a firm but tasteful reminder that, "This has been great, but we need to get going. I have baking to do."#9 — Do you think people will believe this is your walk-in pantry? (Uh, if only we each had a personal King Arthur store.) #10 — Get to work alongside Martin Philip in the King Arthur bakery. Just remember to bring a hair net. #11 — Who needs a little quarantine sugar high? #12 — Recline outside our digital King Arthur Flour Café, Bakery & Store.#13 — Innovative ideas flow from strong cooperation, like chocolate with vanilla or vanilla with chocolate. Oh, or all of the above!
We hope you enjoy these backgrounds half as much as we have. Remember that you can download the full set as a ZIP file. Now go share the joy of baking.
Chris McLeod is a recovering journalist who caught the baking bug after moving from Boston to Vermont. He serves as King Arthur’s Editorial Operations and Strategy Manager, where he ensures that the company’s recipes, videos, baking blog, website, and print publications sing as loudly as possible, a...