A Record-Breaking Bake In Proud Poteet

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

The coloured bunting stretched as far as the eye could see in all directions, fluttering gently in the light breeze. The Poteet Strawberry Festival was being held in just over a week from today, and the authorities had been very busy this week, putting up all of the decorations along Main Street. The delicious smells of baking floated out through the open door of the Bakery and up the street, filling the noses of passers-by. As the residents of the small Texan town of Poteet approached Bella's Bakery, the sounds of singing periodically accompanied the aromas exiting the shop.

"The eyes of Texas are upon me, all the live-long day...." sang the sweet, tuneful voice of the young owner of the Bakery, 30-year old Isabella Martinez, known as 'Bella' to most people in the town.

Bella had immigrated across the border from Mexico with her now-deceased parents shortly after her birth, and she had inherited the Bakery, which her parents had named after her upon opening it, when they passed away a few years ago. Bella's Bakery had been a very popular fixture in the town for many years, and was always full of eager customers, waiting to buy Bella's amazing cakes, breads and pastries.

On that bright and peaceful day, in Spring 2007, one of Bella's best customers breezed into the shop with a beaming smile, brandishing a copy of the local newspaper, 'the Poteet Citizen' in her right hand.

"Bella! Do you remember this?" the customer, an elderly, slightly plump woman by the name of Rosaria, asked excitedly, as she slapped the newspaper enthusiastically onto the counter.

Bella jumped slightly, then she looked down at the article Rosaria was indicating, and began to read it aloud.

"Official! - The world's biggest cookie has been baked right here in the United States, in the North Carolina town of Flat Rock. Measuring over one hundred feet in diameter, and weighing more than forty thousand pounds, it took the town eight months of preparation, and required a custom-built oven to cook it, in batches, over a three-day period. Flat Rock have held the record for almost four years, and the mayor of Poteet, Juan Garcia Lopez, is determined to beat it this year, during the town's sixtieth anniversary Strawberry Festival."

“Next year it is the Diamond Jubilee of our Festival - did you know that?” Rosaria asked Bella. The pretty Mexican-born baker shook her head, causing her jet black curls to flop in front of her eyes. Bella herself had experienced twenty-four of these incredible festivals, since arriving in the town as a child, and next year would be her twenty-fifth – her own personal 'silver jubilee', if you will. She looked excitedly at Rosaria, her heart beginning to beat faster in her chest, as she anticipated what the old lady was going to say next.

“Do you think you – I mean...we – the town, that is. Do you think we could beat this? Next year?” Bella stammered, shyly but eagerly.

“Of course!” Rosaria insisted brightly. “These people were doing it for the first time, and they had to experiment to get it right. But it has been done now, so we can just follow what they did and try to improve it, so that we can break the record.”

“But – how can we get so many ingredients?! I have a tiny little bakery. I cannot possibly afford to buy the quantities we would need!” Bella complained.

“Rela-a-ax my dear!” Rosaria reassured her. “My son, José works at a bakery supplies company in Waco. He is very friendly with the Manager, so I am sure I can ask him to help us. I will go and telephone him right now.”

“Hold on, hold on.” Bella interrupted. “Let's sit down and work out exactly what we ingredients we might need, and how much. Look, I've got a cookie recipe here, we can check the quantities and multiply them to make enough dough.” 

So Bella retrieved the cookie recipe from a folder on the shelf behind her, and brought it back to the counter, then she opened the side door, and invited Rosaria to join her in the back room. 

“OK,” said Bella, placing the recipe, and a calculator, on the table in the back room. “This is the basic recipe to make one pound of chocolate chip cookie dough. So we basically need four main ingredients; flour, sugar, butter and chocolate chips. Then to multiply each quantity by ten thousand, in order to make enough dough to break the record. Ready?”

“Ready.” Rosaria replied importantly, her finger poised over the buttons on the large white Casio calculator.

“So. Flour is sold in fifty pound bags. We will need 201 bags at fifteen dollars each.” Bella instructed.

“Two hundred and one times fifteen.” Rosaria repeated, typing into the calculator. “That's $3,015”. She wrote the total onto a sheet of paper and waited for Bella to give her the next figure.

“Next, we need two hundred and one bags of sugar, priced at twenty-five dollars each. That's five thousand dollars, right? ” Bella continued. Rosa nodded.

“What's next?” she asked.

“Butter.” Bella replied. We need 277 cases at $60 each. How much is that?”

Rosario tapped the calculator again. “Butter will cost us $16,620” she announced. 

Bella added the butter figure to the list, and then said, “the last ingredient is chocolate chips, because nobody will want a plain cookie, will they? We want 401 cases at a total cost of $23,532. So what is our grand total?” 

“Maybe we should use strawberry pieces instead of chocolate chips? It is a Strawberry festival, after all!” Rosaria asked.

“Good idea!” Bella replied. “My sister owns a strawberry farm in Rossville - I know she would be happy to help us!”

Rosaria did one final calculation then blew out an astonished breath as she saw the total.

“OK. Our grand total for ingredients will be $24,635!” she announced, wide-eyed.

“Don't forget we will need to find a way to cook it too. We will probably need to build a huge oven. That will cost a lot of money too.” Bella warned. “But I have a friend who may be able to help with that.”

“So we need to raise around $30,000. There are around 2,400 – 2,500 people in Poteet, who are old enough to help us with cash. This means that if each person contributed 12 dollars and fifty cents, we would easily make that total.”

Friday, April 4th, 2008

Over that weekend, Bella made the difficult decision to temporarily close her bakery, posting a notice in the window on Thursday evening, informing her dear customers that she would be extremely busy baking a special range of cakes to be sold in order to raise funds to buy the ingredients for the record attempt. Then, at six o'clock on Friday morning, Bella leapt out of bed, full of excitement, and got herself ready. By seven o'clock she had showered, dressed, and eaten a quick breakfast. She went out the front door, locking it behind, her, climbed into her white 2001 Kia Sorento and drove the short journey to work. In the back of her car she had a suitcase packed with nightclothes, a change of day clothes and a sleeping bag. She had decided to spend the entire weekend at the bakery, so that she could work continuously for as long as possible, sleeping periodically, in order to finish her mammoth bake in time.  

Bella slept so soundly on Friday night, that she did not hear the sound of breaking glass, just after 2am. Nor did she hear the thieves that had entered the shop making off with her entire batch of specially baked cakes! When she woke up at six o'clock on Saturday morning, she felt refreshed and ready to finish off the remaining cakes, ready to start selling them on Monday. But, as she came downstairs, she felt a strong gust of wind brushing past her, and frowned. Her heart began to beat faster as she had a sudden feeling of apprehension. It was Spring and the Bakery should not be this cold.

As she reached the bottom of the stairs and slowly opened the door into the Bakery, her heart sank. The trolleys of fairy cakes that Bella had worked so hard on throughout Friday were all in disarray, and the majority of them looked as if they had been smashed with a hammer. 

'Who would do such a thing?! Why?!” Bella thought to herself, as she surveyed the wreckage. 

With her eyes brimming with tears, Bella rushed out into the street, heading towards her car, but she bumped straight into the plump figure of Rosaria, who was on her way to see why Bella looked so upset. 

“Bella! Bella? Whatever is wrong?!” Rosaria asked, pressing her hands firmly against Bella's shoulders, as the younger woman tried to push past her, weeping visibly. Wiping her eyes with her handkerchief, Bella beckoned Rosaria to follow her, and they went back into the Bakery together. When she saw the wrecked cakes, Rosaria clasped her hands to her face in horror as she, too, felt her eyes starting to fill with tears.

“Mamma Mia...” Rosaria whispered in horror.

“What are we going to do?! Bella whined.

“Don't worry, we'll think of something. Come. I'll make us some coffee.” Rosaria replied, leading Bella by the hand, across the street to her own house.

***

Sitting at the round oak table in Rosario's kitchen, Bella ran one hand repeatedly through her curly black hair as she nursed a mug of hot, sweet coffee in her other hand.  

“What are we going to do?!” she wailed again. “I have worked so hard, and now the cakes are ruined!”

Bella banged her fist down hard on the table, and Rosaria clasped it firmly in both of her own hands. Tears began to roll down Bella's cheeks, and she buried her face in the crook of her arm as Rosaria tried to comfort her.

“Right. That's it!” Rosaria said, determinedly, as she encouraged Bella to finish her coffee. “I will sort this out, right now. You will stay here with me tonight, and tomorrow everything will be fine. You'll see.” She poured Bella a second cup of coffee and, as the younger woman sat there sipping it, Rosaria slipped into her living room to telephone her son.

An hour later, Bella heard Rosaria ending her phone call, and when the older lady returned to the kitchen, she was grinning all over her face. 

“Go home, Bella!” Rosaria insisted with a grin. ”Go home and clean up your Bakery, ready to re-open, and tomorrow, you will get a huge surprise!” Bella looked inquiringly at Rosaria, but she was ushered out the front door without any further explanation. 

Wondering what on earth Rosaria was planning, Bella nevertheless did as she was told, and busied herself with cleaning up the mess in her Bakery for the rest of the day. After many hours, Bella wiped the sweat from her forehead and glanced at the clock on the wall of her Bakery. It was almost 11:00pm. Glancing around the shop, she decided that it was as clean and tidy as she could make it, so she put her broom and other cleaning equipment into the store cupboard, left the shop, locking it securely behind her, and went home.

Just before midnight, Bella climbed into bed, exhausted, and slept soundly for the entire night.

Sunday, April 6th, 2008

As Bella unlocked the front door of her Bakery, first thing on Sunday morning, intending to spend the whole day baking another huge quantity of replacement cakes to sell, she heard the sound of a very large horn behind her. Turning around, she did a double-take at the sight of the enormous articulated lorry that had stopped outside her bakery, blocking Main Street. As she stared at the huge vehicle, the passenger door opened, and Rosaria began to climb carefully down from the cab. Just then, Bella heard the driver's door open on the opposite side of the truck and, moments later, A man she presumed to be Rosaria's son came around the truck and began to help Rosaria down onto the pavement.

“Bella? This is my son, José. He has come to help us, and he has brought a few friends along too.” Rosaria explained, indicating the road behind the truck with a sweep of her right hand. Bella gazed open-mouthed as she saw a long line of at least sixty vans and cars extending down Main Street behind the lorry, each of them emblazoned with the logo of the bakery supplies company José worked for. A van in the line of vehicles was adorned with a logo reading 'Strawberryville Farm, Poteet, TX' as well as a telephone number. Bella smiled to herself, knowing that her sister and brother-in-law had come good with their promise of free strawberries for the project.

“It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss.” José said, extending his right hand, and bowing graciously in front of Bella. Accompanying José was a man that Bella easily recognised. He had been a passenger in the car directly behind truck, and he jogged over to stand beside José as the former shook hands with Bella. The man in question was none other than the Mayor of Poteet who, it transpired, was José's cousin! 

“ Aunt Rosaria has told me about your wonderful ideas. You can build the oven in Canyon Park if you wish.” Mayor Lopez agreed with a smile. “You may also make use of the Pavilion kitchen – free of charge, of course, as it's for a special occasion.”

“Thank you, Mr. Mayor! Thank you so much!” Bella exclaimed, resisting the urge to hug him. Instead, she offered a handshake and the mayor returned it politely. 

“You are most welcome, Bella. Now, go and win us that competition!” Mayor Lopez encouraged.

Sunday, April 13th, 2008

Today was the last day of the Poteet Strawberry Festival, and it seemed as though the entire town had turned out to see if the record for the largest cookie in the world would be broken. Beginning six days ago, on Monday the 7th of April, a team of volunteers had constructed a makeshift oven in Canyon Park, made with a layer of gravel, half-topped with bricks. The other half was topped with pearlite and covered with aluminium sheeting. The entire oven was then covered in several layers of polythene film, with air vents cut into them, and finally, more than twenty propane heaters were used to generate more than 350 degrees of heat, needed to cook the dough.

Just after 8am, the last of the heaters was switched on, and it was now a question of waiting for the dough to cook. As it warmed up, the delicious smells of warm dough and strawberries filled the air across the park, and even the entire town, as the crowds began to arrive at the park. Finally, at just after 2 o'clock pm, the volunteers began to uncover the giant cookie, turning off the heaters and dismantling the oven, revealing the perfectly cooked dough. A huge cheer rose up from the large crowd in the park, at the sight of the incredible bake. As it began to die down, two officials, with a long tape measure stepped up to check the diameter of the cookie.

Nobody could see the result, but the buzz of excitement intensified as the officials were seen walking away, nodding to each other. They walked over to the Mayor and were seen speaking in his ear above the cacophony. Moments later, the Mayor stepped up to a specially arranged podium, tapped the microphone in front of him and held up his hand. Silence fell across the park...

“Ladies and Gentlemen! |It gives me great pleasure to announce that the Poteet City Cookie measures...one hundred and five feet – a new world record!”

A huge cheer went up across the entire park, and people began hugging their friends, family, and even relative strangers as the news sank in – they had done it! The little town of Poteet, Texas, had baked the world's biggest cookie!