Running Out of Time

You know that small dark place in the pit of your stomach that rears it's ugly head when you are about to do something new, it makes you forget what you've practiced, hear things you don't, be afraid when you're not, or even look fate in the face with dark glasses. I came to class that day with very little, a short speech on ratio and proportion, a brief segue way into French baking techniques and a demo on how to butter the small tins that my store had donated to the project. I had started to worry if I would have enough time to pull this off. The mixer and all the ingredients had been preped, a swap out pound cake was waiting in the wings, but I knew these kids would want to see their cakes baked and finished. It's like waiting for Christmas morning. Feeling pressed, I rushed them through the buttering demo and breezed into the kitchen to start the cake making process. Mind you, I am a very didactic person and did not want to omit a single detail on how to make this cake. Of course, I took too long and we had to rush filling of the pans, but we did get them into the oven with 15 minutes to spare. Unfortunately, the oven was slow and it would take not only the 15 minutes but another hour before my little brood of pound cakes would be ready to make their debut. Sadly, my students were long gone and so were the staff. I stayed behind to make sure that all their little cakes were baked perfectly and cooled so that the next day each child would come in to find their overnight treasures. I could see the disappointment on the face of each child as they left and wondered about the fate of their cakes. Sadly, their teacher had run out of time. Continued.