The first cheesecake I ever made was a flop. It was over baked because I wasn't sure of my oven's temperature and the exact texture of what a perfectly baked cheesecake should be. Two days to this trial, I had just tasted cheesecake for the first time.
I was in the gym running on the treadmill when my phone rang and that call was an invitation to eat cheesecake. Considering I was exercising and have a fair knowledge of the amount of calories in a serving of cheese cake, you would expect I'd say no but I agreed to have just a little slice of cheesecake at the venue and take home the remaining piece for another day.. brilliant right?😁
Well, I made an attempt to bake this delicate cake and although my creation had a little resemblance in looks, it lacked the taste and texture of a cheesecake. This review came from a friend who has had so much cheesecake in life and could tell from tasting what was not a good cheesecake. I was quite dampened by this appraisal that I lost my zeal momentarily. Hardly have I baked anything that wasn't a delight to my critic's tastebuds and this was a bad exception.
The following week, after mourning my poor attempt, I identified the reasons that led to my over baked cheesecake, bought the needed equipment and increased my proficiency of cheesecake through regular baking experiments. My next submission received a better review and that was even a greater spur to keep practising. Today, I'm not exactly where I want to be in my cheesecake baking but I'm no where near my starting point.
Funny enough, this is the differentiating line between a person who likes baking and another who wants to be a great baker. Someone once said that "what turns baking wannabes into real bakers is stick-to-it-ivity". Not only for baking, it appears the only shortcut to excellence in any skill is consistent practice. No matter how talented one may be, "hard work will always beat talent when talent fails to work hard".
Any interest not backed up with hardwork and consistent practice is a mere fantasy. Throughout human existence, quantity has been a proven track to quality, the more you do a thing, the better you become at it. Knowledge alone will not make us experts if practice is removed. Our knowledge can only become skillful when we engage it through delibrate actions.
Ofcourse, regular practice does not exempt failure, if it did, complacency would not be an issue. Hard work however, betters our chances at winning and improves our thinking when met with failure. Your hardwork can not be excused even on the grounds of failure. Generally, in food preparation, many good recipes and techniques were unintended and born from failure to achieve the desired goal. Perhaps if we practice more, we would invent more.
The hard work we put in today in pursuit of our passions would yield results if we remain consistent against the odds. Let us choose to be deliberate in training our knowledge, practice more, resist complacency and even if we fail, shake ourselves from the dust, arise, reevaluate our strategy and get back to work in a smarter way.
PS: The photos below are my recent cheesecake (top image) and first cheesecake (image below). The journey continues!
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