My friend Kate once asked me why I don’t cook. She asked is it because I don’t know how, I don’t have the time, or I don’t like it. After a few moments pause I responded: “Yes.”

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not totally inept. I can follow all the directions to make Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. I can toast bagels with very rare burnt edges. And I know the right amount of boiling water to add into my oatmeal.

And that is about the end of my “cooking” abilities. It is really good that I have the palate of a 6-year-old. I can have Honey Nut Cheerios every dinner for a week and still be a happy camper. My favorite non-cooking / cooking creation is an everything bagel with cream cheese, cucumber, salt, and pepper. I developed the recipe working two summers at a camp where the meals repeated every week. There are only so many chicken nuggets a girl can eat in three months.

I share all of this to highlight how ah-mazing the photo beginning this blog is. It is the midway evidence of the strawberry birthday cake I made for Boyfriend. I bought grocery items like oil and eggs, and found a hand mixer in the back of a drawer. I read the recipe multiple times from the box to ensure everything was included and the oven set right (and discovered about five minutes after starting the oven that I had been storing bots inside…whoops).

And the darn thing didn’t even have chocolate!!!

In this attempt at cooking, I discovered that a few things from Netflix baking shows had actually sunk in.

• Grease the entire bottom and sides of the pan to ensure your cake will come out (thank you Nailed It).
• Allow the cake to fully cool before adding icing (another Nailed It special).
• Do not open and close the oven door multiple times to check on the cake because that will mess up the internal temperature (that’s a takeaway from The Great British Family Cooking Show).
• And always plate with love (all about The Great British Bake Off).

I don’t know when (if) I cook or bake again. But at least I know that I wouldn’t be stuck eating cake mix in an emergency.

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“We are the spark, that will light the fire that’ll burn the First Order down” (Poe Dameron, Star Wars: The Last Jedi). – #52sparks is my year-long writing series for 2020, based on an art prompt challenge. The spark that lights a fire to toast a marshmallow or to ravage a forest begins in the space of an inch. This series is to explore what hundreds of inches and words can do.