Necessity is the mother of invention. We have all undoubtedly heard this phrase, but a few weeks ago, I got to experience it in real life. Our school introduced after-school clubs, which involved extracurricular activities such as debates, painting, yoga, culinary arts and theatre. Being the senior-most class, we were chosen as patrons who would guide and help the younger pupils.

I was put into the culinary club and thought to myself, well, this will be a piece of cake. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t. Our first problem was finding a kitchen on the school premises. After much discussion, our teacher said she would bring her portable microwave oven. We decided to start with chocolate cupcakes, an easy item. Every child was assigned something to bring the next day.

The first club day had me feeling apprehensive about how things would go, and to be honest, they didn’t go well. The girl who brought eggs dropped them in the hallway. The maid didn’t appreciate having to mop up a slimy, stinky mess. The boy who had been assigned the task of bringing flour simply forgot, as if I hadn’t sent daily reminders on the WhatsApp group.

In the end, we made hot chocolate by borrowing milk from the canteen, heating it over a Bunsen burner in the science lab and adding cocoa powder and sugar.

For the next class, we decided on something absolutely easy and no fuss: pizza on bread. No heat required, only basic steps. Surely, what could go wrong? It turned out that a lot could, in fact, go wrong.

The cheese was frozen solid and even after being left in the sunlight, it remained obstinately hard. Who has heard of pizza without cheese? We ended up making chicken sandwiches with the bread, chicken and tomato sauce originally meant for pizza.

At this point, I had completely given up on even one class being successfully executed, but we still had a couple of club periods left. It was agreed that we would make fizzy mint lemonade. To my utmost surprise (and gratitude), all the ingredients arrived. The lemons were round and juicy, the mint fresh and the fizzy drink chilled. We squeezed lemon juice into a bowl along with sugar and water. Some crushed mint followed, and the mixture was poured into glasses, with a cold drink to be added on top.

However, the drink’s cap turned out to be screwed on very tightly, and everyone took turns trying to prove their strength by opening it. A girl finally managed to do so, but as she did, it jerked and white bubbles immediately formed and rushed to the surface, spilling out of the bottle and onto the table. I bit my lip, trying to summon every ounce of patience I had as I mopped up the foam. Our teacher explained that shaking the bottle created a lot of tiny bubbles, allowing the dissolved carbon dioxide in the drink to quickly escape and froth out.

I guess even cooking mishaps can turn into chemistry lessons!

The rest of the club periods passed somewhat peacefully, with hiccups along the way, but we managed to make a rather delicious no-bake chocolate delight, fruit salad and nachos. Mistakes always happen, but knowing how to adapt and overcome them is a skill that can only be learnt through experience.

Published in Dawn, Young World, March 7th, 2026