THE SECRET HIDDEN IN THE YELLOW

THE SECRET HIDDEN IN THE YELLOW

The yellow cake stood out on the table, spreading a very light ,barely perceptible scent, yet absolutely irresistible, all pervading. It tasted of vanilla sugar, enhanced by the fragrance of rustled corn, you could also perceive in it the sweet smell, with just a pinch of apple sour, and even that fragrance which seemed of milk mixed with wood bark, of the walnut. In fact apples and nuts were, along  with corn flour, the main ingredients of that cake, the Margaret’s YELLOW CAKE.

She, Margaret, had revealed the ingredients and the processing steps to prepare the Yellow cake to all those who, since they had much appreciated ( tasted) that cake, wanted to do it themselves. But for how much (as much as) all of them,friends, but even simple acquaintances , to whom Margaret had provided all the instructions, so that they could make the delicious, yummy yellow cake by themselves, for how much scrupulously they followed the indications received, oh, damnation, their cake didn’t really taste like that truly priceless, superfine as the one prepared by Margaret. In the yellow cake which Margaret had given to them, there was a very special TASTE, a taste at the same time full and elusive, which was a little like that of butter, and precisely like that of freshly made butter from freshly milked milk, but it was not only the flavor of the very fresh butter, as ( since) it contained also an aroma like honeyed peach, yes, almost , of peach in syrup, a truly excellent flavor ,which none of them had managed to obtain in the yellow cake they had prepared. They had then begun to suspect that Margaret had not revealed to them all the ingredients she used to make her  delicious yellow cake.

She, Margaret, on the other hand, every time they came back to question her, assured them that she had told them all the ingredients they needed to prepare a yellow cake, exactly like the one prepared by her. But not only Margaret assured them regarding the ingredients, since she had given them also the exact doses in which the ingredients had to be used : for a kilo and a half of corn meal needed three hundred grams of sugar, two hundred grams of chopped walnut , four apples with red skin….and then just a nut of butter, and a yolk of egg to revive the yellow flour. But despite her reassurances, despite even her oaths , none of those to whom Margaret had provided the recipe ( the instructions) for making the yellow cake could be convinced that she had told them the truth. Many of them had begun to speak of an ingredient of fundamental importance for the success of the yellow cake, which she must have been silent about.  It could be it was an ingredient to be used only in a minimum quantity, but that  was enough to make a big difference. It could have been a teaspoon of honey, or some flavoring like cloves, or just even a hint of ginger. There were also those who thought that they could not make a Yellow Cake as exquisite as that of Margaret, because they ignored something important regarding the preparation times of the cake, perhaps even the cooking times. Perhaps she could only partially cook the cake, then take it out of the oven, let it cool, and then put it back in the oven for it to finish cooking. Or, who knows, that the secret was not instead in the yeast used.  Margaret had told them she used brewer’s yeast, but she might have used another yeast.

There were those who had come to imagine (to suppose) that the very special, secret ingredient of the yellow cake could be something inedible, which Margaret had not revealed to them precisely because it was inedible, perhaps even repulsive ( something inedible as it sucks).

So they had started guessing what this unnamed forbidden ingredient could be. There were those who, for the mysterious ingredient, as well as unnamed , because inedible, thought of very small pebbles or ground stone, and there were those who thought instead it might be a handful of soil.  There were those who supposed it could be green pepper beans, who had imagined the fabulous ingredient could be pumpkin seeds, who ( thought) it was pork lard, who even pork bristles…

But there were also those convicted that it could be an insect, maybe a cockroach, and those who had come to think it could be a earthworm, yes, a finely shredded earthworm.

The situation had become grotesque , to say the least, if not tragicomic, since all of them had added to the cake dough what they had imagined could be the mysterious ingredient of the yellow cake, that one, that little something, which made it so exquisite so unmatched .

If some of them had mixed pumpkin seeds , or coffee beans, or mint leaves with the cake dough, there had also been those who had added to the yellow dough rabbit nail, cat hair, even mouse tail. But none of them had managed to make a cake that tasted ineffable, unparalleled, with a flavor never tasted as that the yellow cake prepared by Margaret had. It was a flavor that not only satisfied, not only sent you into ecstasy. That wonderful flavor seemed even had something important to tell you. And it seemed to you, while you were savoring it, that only that cake contained that truth…and never truth had tasted so good, even if you couldn’t knew what truth it was….yet you perceived that there was a truth in the taste of the bite you were tasting.

Strangely, who knows why, none of them, though so eager to steal from Margaret the secret for which the yellow cake prepared by her was so very special, (had) thought of asking her to attend to her preparation of that cake. If they had asked, and if Margaret had allowed them to be present when she prepared the dough made by corn flour, to which she gradually added the other ingredients, they would have been more than surprised, they would have been bewildered, to say the least. Certainly none of them could ever have imagined what was the secret of the very pleasant and very special flavor of Margaret’s yellow cake, that flavor which they could not get for the same cake prepared by them. Because (since) the secret of the incomparable flavor of Margaret ‘s yellow cake was none other than….Grain, that is, her beloved cat. Grain always wanted to be next to Margaret, whatever she did. So even when she was cooking, when she was preparing the yellow cake too.  Her cat followed her every gesture with such strong attention that it really seemed to her that he ( Grain, ) would gladly cooperate in what she was doing. So it had been even when she had prepared the yellow cake. Indeed it had seemed to her, from her cat’s tail wagging, from his eager meow, while she couldn’t stop him rubbing his muzzle on her hands, that perhaps the yellow color of the dough, perhaps the scent of the corn made him (Grain) particularly impatient to participate in the preparation of the cake. And what looks her cat had turned to her , as he continued to rub his muzzle to her hands and ( to) meow stubbornly. They were looks that said: “ you need my help to prepare a very special cake, but don’t you understand? Come on, let me put my hands on it ….and you’ll see what a masterpiece of cake you’ll get ! So it had happened that she had ended up allowing Grain ( her cat) to put not his…hands properly in the preparation of the yellow cake, but his ….tongue. She had made her cat lick not only the cornmeal dough , but also  the chopped nuts she had mixed with it. The result had been that absolutely superlative flavor.