This Thursday, my literature class went to a bakery shop together to make a birthday cake for Dr. Byers, our literature class teacher. Her birthday is this Saturday, and we decided to give her a birthday surprise by baking a birthday cake for her and give it to her the next day. Due to the minimum spending policy that regulates that 2 people must make at least one dessert, we split up into teams of 2 to make the raspberry cake and an additional oreo Panna cotta. Romele and I were in charge of making the cake. We were very scared of messing up as it’s both our first time making a cake, so we made sure to follow the directions very carefully. Baking really is hard, I’d say. There are a lot of steps involved and a slight error in one could directly affect the taste of the product. For example, if we whip the cream for too long, the texture of the cake can get too flabby, and if we put the cream onto the cake before it fully cools down, the flavors of the cream and the cake can not blend in well together. Reflecting on this experience, I learned that just like a cake, there are a lot of unseen efforts that go behind things that look pretty or glorious. It’s a human nature to judge things; we like to take things the way they appear to be and envy over its glory. It’s like how we always want to show the best side of us online. Instead of admiring the final look of things, we should aspire to the level of hard work.

It’s weird how a single baking experience can get me thinking so much about life. Well, after all, it was really fun, and Dr. Byers really appreciated it, so all was worth it! So glad that I chose this class and have Dr. Byers as my teacher. 🙂