The Baking Soda

Clever by half.

It was the only dessert Dwayne promised to make once a year for the family: German chocolate cake. The recipe called for flour, sugar, chocolate, vanilla, baking powder, and a few smaller ingredients.

The only ingredient he was sure he didn’t have was the baking powder. Baking soda he had, but not the powder. 

Popping over to the store at this early hour wasn’t a great option because he was still in his morning sweats.

As he considered his options, he thought, “Baking powder, baking soda, what’s the difference? Eh, they’ll never know. I’ll just add less of it.”

Dwayne knew it was the wrong decision, and yet he went ahead with it anyway.

At supper later that night, he got the rave reviews he was hoping for, but not expecting.

“Once again, Dad,” Rachel, his daughter said. “You’ve knocked it out of the park. Can you make it for my class some time?”

“Yeah, Dad, phenomenal again,” Daniel said. “Make it more often than just once a year.”

After the kids left the table, Dwayne asked his wife Nan, “Did you think the cake was fine?”

“Absolutely, the kids were right. Why, what were you expecting?”

“Well, I, uh, altered the recipe slightly. I didn’t use baking powder. I used baking soda.”

“As planned,” said Nan.

“What?”

“I know how men get the two confused so I put the baking powder in the baking soda container,” Nan said. “Any baking soda we ever have is always in the fridge. Freshens it up or kills odors or something like that.”

“So you put the baking power in the soda container because you think we confuse them. Why didn’t you just leave it in its original container, the one that says Baking Powder?” asked Dwayne.

“Hmm. You make a good point. Probably trying to be clever by half. Not sure what I was thinking at the time. Who knows? It all turned out okay, right, so what’s the big deal? By the way, I liked your cake too. It’ll be our little secret about the baking soda.”

“Maybe,” Dwayne said. “Maybe.”

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