Cookbook

Mina jumps on my bed in a violent attempt to wake me up. I look at the clock in our small room: I've slept up until lunch. I groan.

"Mina...get off my bed, it's the weekend..."

"Nuh uh! You said you'd make cake yesterday!"

Did I?

"...prove it."

Mina hands me a folded sheet of paper from her pocket. I unfold the paper: It's a kid's interpretation of what a contract is, written down in crayons of different colors, with my signature at the bottom of the page.

"Haha, you win, Mina."

"Attorney Mina wins again!"

Mina proceeds to strike a victory pose.

"Alright, get off my bed you goose. Let me get dressed"

...

Mina and I enter the kitchen. I search through the old wooden cabinets for a few minutes until I find mom's dusty cookbook. She left it to us before she passed years ago.

I flip through the pages and eventually end up finding a page related to cakes a few minutes in.

"How about this? A nice lemon cake."

"Bleh! I hate lemons!"

"Mina, you've never had lemons before."

"That's not true! I eat lemons all the time!"

Mina takes a lemon and proceeds to take a bite into it. She regrets it instantly.

"I don't think you're supposed to eat them like that."

"...I know that!"

I pat Mina on the head.

...

"Okay so we need around 2 cups of flour. Mina can you get that for me?"

"Mina, that's a lemon."

"Yes."

...

"Make sure you keep mixing while I add in the eggs..."

Mina does a thumbs up.

She immediately drops the hand mixer right afterwards.

...

"The recipe doesn't specify how long we need to keep it in the furnace for..."

"We'll wing it!"

"...yeah!"

...

We spent around an hour just following the recipe to questionable success. The result was edible at best.

The cake was burnt and ended up stale on the edges.

It was my first time baking a cake after all. However, i'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the taste.

It was far from perfect, yet I think that might have been the best cake I've ever had. At the very least, I doubt I'd forget the taste.

As for Mina and her hate of lemons, it was very short-lived. She ate most of the cake and fell asleep right afterwards. I ended up having to carry her to her room.

"Sweet dreams, Mina."