The Smokey Cheesecake

There is always room for something crazy to happen in Peru, and DiscoverHope classes are no exception. Let me share with you some of the events that unfolded in our bakery class this week. First of all, we had record breaking participation in our class. There were 22 women that attended class, and many more that had expressed interest in coming but didn't sign up. So we had a very full house of eager students. Which also meant we had a full house of little children running around, and if it wasn't for Socorro, our amazing childcare provider this month, our full house would have turned into a crazy house.

Class started, women receieved their recipes and the baking got underway. I skipped out of the classroom to meet with another teacher and when I came back I found all the women gathered around a plastic chair. They couldn't find the socket to plug in the blender, so the entire class moved to the only visible plugin and were cooking on a plastic chair. I quickly showed the teacher the plug in close to the cooking table, but the women seemed very content with the current set-up so they continued to work in their huddled position.

We put the cakes in the oven, first the Cheesecake and then the Lime Pie. While we were waiting for the oven to do it's work, Oswaldo joined the class for another Business Charla. He had a captive audience until the moment when we noticed that the kitchen was filling with smoke. Upon closer examination the actual oven was leaking smoke. The rescue team, Oswaldo, our teacher and another student, opened the oven to try and resolve the problem, meanwhile all the women had fled the classroom because they couldn't breathe from all the smoke that had traveled out of the kitchen into the classroom. Oswaldo solved the problem. A piece of cloth was stuck back in the oven, caught on fire and was causing all this chaos. He removed the cloth, we faned the kitchen and eventually all the women returned to their seats to finish class. Thankfully, both our Cheesecake and Lime Pie were not damaged. Everyone had a chance to taste the baked goods when our class ended. But lesson learned, check the oven before baking.