1⁄2 teaspoon salt
2teaspoons baking powder
1⁄2 cup butter, softened
3⁄4 cup sugar 2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Chopped twizzlers (as many as you want)
1 tsp mint extract

I poured in my mint extract and mixed the batter with my lucky spatula. My friend Hannah got it for me for my birthday. I never bake without it and no one else is allowed to use it. The baking spatula was blue and said Keep Calm and Bake on, with a little white crown on the top. I treasured it.

I pulled out my cupcake sheet and popped cute, little, flower cupcake liners inside. I started to fill the sheet with the batter. I put them in the oven and started to make my icing.

3 cups powdered sugar
? cup butter or margarine, softened
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
1 to 2 tablespoons milk
½ tsp mint extract

I whipped together my ingredients. I sighed. The icing wasn’t getting fluffy, like I wanted to. It was white, glossy and very, very thin. It was nine thirty. I didn’t have time to make any more. I added more powdered sugar and even some more flour, but the icing didn’t want to rise.

Beep. Beep. The cupcakes were done. I shrugged. At least the icing tasted good! I took the cupcakes out of the oven and started to ice them. It wasn’t working. The icing was running down the sides of my cupcakes, drenching it in clear, sticky icing. I groaned.

Then it came to me. I took a cupcake and carved a small circle out of the middle. I poured some icing inside it. Some icing still dripped down the sides, but it didn’t look that horrendous. I  was proud of myself!

The next day, I brought my cupcakes into GATE class. They were for my independent project, I had to make my own cupcake recipe and bring it in. I put my cupcakes down at my station and listened to the teacher.

“Okay guys! Today we are going to check out everyone’s projects. After you view a person’s station, please put a coin near their station so they know how many people went to there.” Mrs.Updegrove handed out five coins to each person. “Alright, GO!”

I rushed to my station and apparently, everyone else did too. Almost everyone in the class came to my station to try my cupcakes. I had a whole mountain of coins on my table only let people have less than a half of a cupcake because there were only twelve.

People started to taste my cupcakes. . After I got everything organized, people started to eat the cupcakes. They loved them. I was ecstatic. I told everyone that they could only have a little bit of one cupcake, so everyone could have some. They didn’t listen to me. While I was off, visiting other people’s stations, kids would sneak over to my station and eat more.

It was at this moment that I knew, I wanted to be a baker. I was overjoyed because people loved my cupcakes so much. If my classmates liked them so much, maybe the whole world would too!

Over the next years, I improved a  lot in baking. An also, I started to cook too! I have made challah, which is a traditional Jewish bread. It is amazing.

2 1/2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1/2 cup honey
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 tablespoon salt
8 cups all-purpose flour

When I pulled the challah out of the oven, my dad couldn’t wait to try it. He was on a low carb diet but his mouth was watering for a taste of my challah.

“And he doesn’t want to send you to culinary school!” My mom laughed.

“Hey Becca?” My sister, Robyn, said. “Can you make a ginger pear puff pastry tart for my french club meeting?”
I laughed. “Sure I guess.” Robyn is an officer in french club, which means she has to bring in the food although she always makes me do it.

1 sheet of frozen puff pastry, defrosted
2 pears, thinly sliced
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp fresh ginger, finely minced
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp demerara sugar

I made the tart the next night. They came out really well and looked amazing. Too bad we couldn’t eat it!

I figured out what makes me happy and also makes other people happy at the same time! I bring joy to other people through my food and the creations I make. What can you do to bring happiness to the world?