Today I won’t be sharing any recipe with you guys. Because, today I’m going to tell you a story. A story with a bold moral lesson. A lesson that was learned the very hard way, unfortunately.
It’s a story about a girl – a baker who was perfectly running a home-based bakery and selling customized cakes and other party food items on a regular basis. Business was good, she was receiving ravishing reviews about her cakes and she was pretty happy and content with her life.
She had three customied cakes orders for three consequetive days. Two went absolutely well, the client left a wonderful thank you message after the party, the other client took time out to give her a thank you call for her lovely cake – her lovely effort. And now was the third day – third cake.
The customer was a bit particular about the taste and the overall feel of the cake and she was super excited. She baked her perfect chocolate cake, the oh-so-amazing chocolate frosting and then the perfect yellow icing to go on top. It was a Pac-Man theme cake. Everything was going perfect. The chocolate cake looked amazing, got frosted and filled and was now chilling in the refrigerator. Then came the yellow icing for the top. She made her regular fool-proof icing, dyed it yellow, cracked open a fresh bottle of vanilla essence, took a teaspoon of it, mixed and voila!
A Day Before
The day before when she was giving a final check to her ingredients list, she found out that she had run out of vanilla essence. She rushed to the super market and got herself two bottles of vanilla essence. It was a new brand, a brand she hadn’t used before, so it’s good to start with less. “After all when we can’t find our favorite brand of butter, well we find another brand and that is good enough. And besides, I’ll only be using a tsp of it in the icing, so any brand would do,”, she thought to herself.
Anyways, the cake was made well before time, got frosted, and was then delivered to the client. Did I mention it was the month of Ramadan and she was fasting. So, she kept the shavings and a spare layer of the chocolate cake along with the leftover frosting for iftari. The cake was delieverd, everything went well.
And then came the moment of truth. On Iftari she made tea so, she could enjoy the chocolate cake with a hot cuppa cha. Grabbed a magazine and started reading an article while she took a bite of the cake. Emmm “wait a second“, she exclaimed with eyes popping open. Threw the magazine on the ouch and took another bite. And then another, stick her finger into the frosting on top and licked it with her finger. Something was wrong, she had wrnkle between her eyes, as she rushed to the kictehn and started throwing things into a bowl.
Testing after adding every ingredient that went into the bowl. Nothing seemed to be bad, all was good, it was her perfect, fool-proof recipe, that she always makes.”What went wrong then“, she said to herself. What could it be. She looked awfully worried. And then she added the last ingredient, the newly bought vanilla essence. Tasted it after adding the vanilla and there, it was the moment of truth. The vanilla had a slight taste to it and previously she had been using a tasteless vanilla essence. The culprit was caught and brought to justice. She was never going to use new products on her business cakes without testing them before at home.
But still she felt guilty. Didn’t have the guts to call the client and apologize. Instead she wrote a post about it and e-mailed him. With a hope that he will not hold it against her. The customer was not related to her, it was his first time. She could have easily looked over it and carried on but, it was not just about cakes and business, it was much more than that. It was about trust. Trust she couldn’t afford to lose. It wouldn’t let her sleep at night.
Moral of the story
Never, ever, ever, EVER use new products into what-so-ever you are cooking especially cakes even if they are to be used in small amounts.
Bad things happen to good people also.
Good story. But: HOW DID THE CUSTOMER REACT??
it wasn’t pleasant as expected :S
Huh, mere sath bhi aesa ho chuka hai, i had used baking soda instead of baking powder 🙁
really? What did you do then, I am planning to return the money :S
its good..but hard 4 a person like amber…i m toooo much careless..a medium cook..can b perfect…but cant get rid from my carelessness..careless in whole life….. but i mst sy..its nice…eid mubarik to u n ur family…from me n my family…allah hafiz
Hmmm Khair Mubarak to you and your fanily as well.
So, did you cook something special this eid?
yapp..sheerkhurma..channachat..dumlings(saudi sweet dish)..haleem..and v fast n easy kulfa..yammmi
ap lhr men kahan hoti hen?/in sep i ,m cming pak(lhr)
Araaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay wah! I’m in Cantt. Will definitely meet 😀 do lemme know when you’re in town and available 😀
Eid Mubarak! Hope you had a wonderful Eid with your family!
Khair Mubarak Asiya. Eid this time was packed with love and eidi hehehehe I’m lovin’ it! 🙂
Awww…it happens! Don’t worry, lesson learned 🙂
hmmm :S
Assalam u Alaikum
Thanks for sharing it with us. It’s nice meeting you, hope your Eid was good.
Take care.
Walaikum mussalam Rashida,
Eid was great, yes, alhumdolillah. Thank you for asking 🙂
ohh this must have been pretty embarrassing 🙁
I know :S 🙁
insahAllah…do pry for my journey as i m cmming along with 3 kids…alone:–(
Hurray! Wish you all the luck in the world. May Allah’s guidance be with you, ameen!
When are you reaching Lahore? When you do, lemme know I will send you my mobile number so we can be in contact 😀
Ms. Leemz, I always try your recipes and the dish comes out very well every time thanks to all this – but one thing always worry me that when ever I try to made a cake – it always turn me embarrassing in front of my children because I follow all ingredient but when I put the better in the oven, it get all well but when I took out the cake it get pusssss, all cake got down I do not understand why? temperature is all fine but I donot understand plz. plz. help me – I hope you understand my problems
Pl reply me soon I will be waiting.
Regards
First of all, maybe you open the oven door too soon because if you open the oven door less than 25 minutes the cake has been popped in, the cake falls down. So try not to open the door at least 25 minutes after the cake is baking.
Secondly, once you pop the cake into the oven, close the door gently, smashing the oven door also affects the cake texture.
When testing the cake for doneness, be very gently. Take it out of the oven very softly, insert the skewer and if un-cooked, pop it back into the oven very gently.
Is that the case?
Which cake recipe you trying, try my black magic cake, it’s super easy and simple but before that get your oven checked.
Hope this will help 🙂 http://thechefinme.com/black-magic-cake/
Jazak Allah!