The Bake-off

Lena and Marcus are sitting in the living room watching The Great British Baking Show together. After one of the contestants makes a fatal mistake that ruins their dessert, Marcus says, “that was such a basic mistake! I should be on this show, I can clearly bake better than they can!”

Laughing, Lena looks to Marcus and asks, “do you even know the difference between cinnamon and nutmeg?”

Marcus shrugs, “no, but that’s what the internet is for! Just follow a recipe and you’re good.”

“Yeah, they’re not following recipes on this show, but since you’re so confident, why don’t we have a bake-off of our own?” Lena jumps up off of the couch and heads into the kitchen, “rule number one, we can only use what we already have. Rule two, you can search online for a recipe, but nothing else.”

Marcus runs into the kitchen behind her, “deal! You’re going down!”

They each take a moment to scour the kitchen cupboards and take inventory before searching online for a recipe. After a couple of minutes, they’re off to the races. Marcus is in the dining room preparing his dish while Lena is in the kitchen. This way, they can’t spy on each other. Once they’ve finished preparing, Marcus re-enters the kitchen and they both place their pans into the oven.

“So what did you make?” Lena asks with curious eyes.

“Banana bread. Seemed easy enough,” Marcus shrugs. “What about you?”

“Apple pie. Marjory should be home from work shortly after these come out of the oven, she can be our judge.”

An hour later, Marjory—their third roommate—walks in through the front door, “what smells so good?”

“Competition!” Marcus yells.

Lena laughs, then explains the premise of their competition. Marjory agrees to judge for them and immediately reaches for a slice of apple pie. “Oh my god, this is so delicious!” she exclaims. “You guys need to compete like this more often!” Marjory then takes a bite of banana bread, immediately spitting it back out. “Never mind, never do this again! What is wrong with this banana bread? It’s super tart!”

Lena looks over at their fruit bowl and sees lots of yellow bananas still in the bowl. Knowing there should be less bananas after Marcus made the bread, she questions him. “Marcus, what color were the bananas you used?”

“Green. I figured the more fresh the better, right?” Marcus winces, unsure if he made the right choice.

Both Lena and Marjory laugh as Lena grabs a ‘green’ banana from the bowl. “Marcus! These aren’t bananas, they’re plantains!”

“Oh…” Marcus mutters softly. “Well then I guess I know what to do with the rest of this banana bread,” he says as he tosses it into the trash. “I concede, victory is yours Lena. I suppose I won’t go on the baking show after all.”