As I shuffled to the back of the auditorium, I heard murmurs about why we were all gathered here. We only come here for special occasions or big announcements.
“Good morning, everyone”, Ms. Ruxpin said, “I’m sure you are all wondering why we are here today. I’m here to announce that we will have a bake-off in our school. It takes place on June 7, so you will have about 2 months to prepare.”
A fifth-grader raised her hand. “What will we get if we win? Candy?”
“You will get a prize of no school for two whole days.” Ms. Ruxpin responded, then tried to quiet down the chattering of excitement.
I turned to Celine, “Do you want to be partners?”
“Sure, what should we bake?” She replied.
“My mom has these really good brownies that she makes every year for the last day of school. I guess we could make those.” I said, remembering the sweet and chocolaty taste on my tongue. Unfortunately, the last day of school seemed nowhere close.
“Maybe we should do something a little more creative and difficult,” Celine replied, “like a palmier.”
“Ummmm, do you have any idea on how to make those?” I said, searching for a recipe on my phone.
“My mom has a cookbook that her mother gave to her. Maybe we could do a test run to see if they taste good first,” Celine said. Celine’s mom and dad were both French, so I decided to trust her. Besides, if it didn’t work, we could always go to my mom’s yummy brownies.
“Why don’t you come over to my house today?” Celine asked.
“Sure!” I said.
I hadn’t realized that Ms. Ruxpin had stopped talking, so when everyone stood up, I was startled.
I had one more class until the end of the day, so I was grateful when the bell rang. I quickly stood up and grabbed my bag. I met Celine at the end of the hallway, and like always, she was there before me.
“Ready?” She asked.
I nodded, and we headed out of school. Celine had a fancy limo that would take her to school and back. It had candy and drinks, and I was always sad at the very back.
“Hi Taylor,” Celine’s mother said, “How was school? And Taylor, how’s your French school going?”
“Good,” I said. I had started French two years ago, and I liked learning it. The main reason I started taking french lessons was because Celine and I dreamed about having our own language. Even though some people knew french, no one in our school did. In school, we could talk about anything that we wanted in French. “I’m pretty close to basically being fluent.”
“Wonderful,” Celine’s mother said.
“Mom, can we use your cookbook? We’re making palmiers for our school baking competition.” Celine asked, grabbing a soda.
“Sure!” Celine’s mother said, “I can help you! My mother used to make them for me all the time when I was your age!”
Whenever I came into Celine’s house, I wondered how Celine never got lost. Her house had so many twists and turns, that I would always end up in the wrong room.
We entered the kitchen, where Celine showed me her mom’s secret drawer. She took out the cookbook and started taking out the ingredients.
1 tasse (200 g) de sucre cristallisé
2 et 1/2 cuillères à café de cannelle moulue
1 cuillère à café de muscade moulue
1 cuillère à café de cardamome moulue
2 cuillères à café de zeste d’orange (facultatif)
“You should probably write down the instructions in English, in case the judges want to see the recipe,” I said.
Celine began to re-write the instructions.
1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
2 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
2 teaspoons orange zest (optional)
Once Celine was done writing down the recipe, I started making the puff pastry. We rolled the dough out and then put it into the oven.
“Smells good,” I said.
“We just need 15-20 minutes,” Celine said.
Once the timer rang, we opened the oven and inhaled the wonderful aroma. I put them onto a plate, and they tasted like the best thing ever. We decided to give one to Celine’s mom too.
“Do you think she’ll like them?” I asked Celine as we climbed to her mom’s bedroom.
“Probably,” Celine says, opening the door, “Mom, we made the palmiers. Do you want to try one?”
Celine’s mother hurried over to the doorway and took a bite. We waited for her reaction.
“They taste amazing!” She said.
Eugenie in NYC 