I decided to learn catering when my admission to the university failed in 2016. My love for cakes, small chops and things that had to do with baking was much and because I love them, I felt it will be a great thing for me to be able to do them for myself.
My boss was a very busy woman, she attends parties a lot just to secure jobs and she had other businesses aside from baking. She wasn't always available but there was a senior apprentice she assigned the responsibility of training new apprentices so she only stepped in whenever we are having challenges with anything.
We started with tools identifications and soon, I was getting involved in the baking process. Unlike now when we use stand mixers to mix our recipes, we were made to use turning sticks back then. I always get that part of the process and find it very exhausting. My arms were tiny and by the time I am done, it hurts a lot but I dare not complain since I was an apprentice.
I started getting more involved in the process and became familiar with the process. One thing that baffled me always was how my senior always sip from the Brandy we use as preservative whenever we were practicing. He is this unfriendly kind of person and asking him why he always sipped the Brandy was impossible.
I summoned the courage to ask him one day and he told me it was a tradition for bakers. I asked why he wasn't giving me and he said that I can't take it because I wasn't the main Baker.
Taking alcohol in my religion was a taboo so I just told myself that it will be impossible for me to drink.
Whenever my boss was around to bake for an event, she always fill her cup with wine and sip while working. It now became clear to me that it was truly a tradition, and what the senior apprentice told me was true.
My first baking test was approaching so I started buying the things I needed, my mom encouraged me to buy excess so I can practice at home first. I did that and because I was baking at home, I couldn't taste the alcohol.
Somehow, my cake didn't come out as it should. I became disturbed and asked questions when I got to training the next day, I felt terrible about my baking and couldn't share it with anyone except my family.
The test day came and my heart was racing as I was putting my ingredients together. I started without any supervision just to make sure I could do things by myself, my senior was going and coming while we were expecting our boss later in the evening.
I prayed to God for forgiveness and sipped from the Brandy while baking, the taste was something else but since it was a tradition, I didn't have a choice.
I took more sips till I finished mixing and turned the mixture into a pan. I placed it in an oven and sat down patiently hoping for a good result.
While sitting, I started feeling dizzy and fell from the tall wooden stool I was sitting on. I tried standing but the place was spinning so I sat on the floor and it felt like my head would fall.
I began crying so bad and my senior was shocked to see me in such a terrible state when he can to check what I was doing.
Honestly, I didn't know what happened after but I knew I was taken home later when I started throwing up.
When my body was calm a bit later in the evening, my parents asked what happened and I explained to them. We all went to the shop and my boss was shocked to know that I drank alcohol while baking.
I explained why I took it and they all couldn't stop laughing, my senior was punished and my boss explained that she takes alcohol so doing that while baking is normal for her and not a tradition.
She apologized to my parents and never took alcohol in the presence of her apprentice.
Did I mention that my cake came out fine? Yes, it did and I probably thought the alcohol was indeed effective.
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