#VeryShortStories

      The master peered through the glass at his creation. It had started to rise just a little bit, and he paced up and down in front of his oven; in a rhythm his crew recognised well – he was indeed nervous when he walked four paces to the right and five paces to the left! They all busied themselves with tasks that would keep them in other parts of the large hot kitchen – who had the foolhardiness to cross him on a day like this?

       Forty minutes after he had slid it in, he slid the creation out! Plated it and scrutinised it from the top. His face revealed nothing. For long minutes he was motionless. More than a few eyes looked at him curiously, as his staff busied themselves as before, but a little closer now.

The busy kitchen fell slowly silent.

The master narrowed his eyes as he gazed lovingly upon his creation. Several hours later, he lifted it ceremoniously and took it into the dining room, where at the best table waited his lady love, with roses, champagne, ready for her birthday-celebration-cum-proposal meal!

Twenty minutes later, the chef thundered out of his own restaurant, his face dark and brooding! The media present went crazy. Rumours started immediately!

In the kitchen, the ingredients the chef had used for his oh-so-important cake still stood in a row with military precision! Isn’t it unfortunate that powdered sugar and salt cannot be told apart when one cooks in a hurry? (245 words)