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 would never forget that day. I could only pray that I would not make the same mistake in future and avoid going through the embarrassing experience again.