Describe an embarrassing experience of your

life.

Cooking is the hobby that I enjoy most. My interest in this

hobby started a few years back, when I was in Form 2. I

have always been proud of my culinary skills since then,

though some people may not agree that I am good at

cooking.

I collect all kinds of recipes and have collected more than

500 so far. I frequently cook for the whole family, which

consists of 8 members, especially during weekends and

holidays.

Last month, we celebrated my grandfather's seventy-fifth

birthday. A day before the celebration, I volunteered to bake

a cake. Though I do not have much experience, I was still

confident of making one successfully.

"I will succeed in baking a cake if I follow a recipe exactly," I

thought to myself.

After getting ready all the ingredients, I started making the

cake. I made sure that the ingredients were accurately

weighed and the right amounts were used. I followed the

recipe step by step and made it a point not to omit any of

them. Great care was taken not to burn the cake. After the

cake had been baked in an oven, I even iced it to make it a

beautiful cake. To further beautify it, I added many other

decorations.

When evening came, guests started to arrive at my house.

After all of them had arrived, they were treated to a grand

buffet dinner. After the meal, it was time for dessert and

thus the cake was brought out. Mother announced that I

made the cake single-handedly. Many of the guests

complimented me on making such a fine-looking cake. One

guest expressed that its appearance could be compared to

those on sale in a bakery. Their praises filled me with a

great sense of pride and I was on cloud nine. I also thought

that all my efforts were worth it.

After everyone had sung "Happy Birthday" to grandfather,

he cut the cake. I distributed the cake to the guests. When

they began eating the cake, I saw strange and funny

expressions on their faces. Since I had no idea what was

going on, I took a slice of cake and tasted it. I was

astonished to realise that it actually tasted salty! I had

mistakenly used salt instead of sugar to bake the cake.

Grandfather told the guests to stop eating the cake, since it

was a failure. I then explained to everyone my terrible

blunder and apologised to them. Some of the children

present laughed at me. Though most of the adults

comforted me, I felt bad about my silly mistake. I had never

been so embarrassed in my entire life! I was so ashamed

that I wished the floor would open up and swallow me.

Luckily, there was a bakery not far away and father went

out to purchase a ready-made birthday cake. I was thankful

that everybody got to eat a normal cake after all. I could

only pray that I would not make the same mistake in future

and avoid going through the embarrassing experience again.