The Little Wooden Spoon
Once upon a time there was a Little Wooden Spoon. She lived in a big drawer in a lovely warm kitchen with all the other wooden spoons that belonged to the Smiley Cook. The Smiley Cook would bake cakes all day long, using all of her spoons for stirring, mixing and scraping batter off each other, swapping from one to the other as she moved happily around her kitchen. The Little Wooden Spoon loved being part of the team. When the Smiley Cook was in charge, and all the spoons were helping each other, it was great fun to make such delicious cakes. She enjoyed the feeling of her strong wooden handle turning and twisting this way and that as she stirred the batter. She felt safe and loved by the Smiley Cook, never worrying about how the cakes would turn out as she knew the Smiley Cook was in charge.
One day one of the Smiley Cook’s neighbours knocked on the door and asked to borrow a wooden spoon as she had to make a lot of cakes in a very short time and needed extra equipment. The Smiley Cook explained to the Little Wooden Spoon that she needed to go and mix cakes in another kitchen, but that she would be back in the drawer by the end of the day. The Little Wooden Spoon did not want to leave all the other spoons she knew and loved so well but she had no choice. She was sent off to the other cook’s kitchen and set to work.
The other cook was not at all like the Little Wooden Spoon’s cook. She was very busy. Each wooden spoon had to mix its own cake – no-one helped each other. The Busy Cook would make comments about how smooth or lumpy each mixture turned out. The Little Wooden Spoon was terrified that her mixture would turn out too lumpy or too runny. And the Busy Cook expected everything to be done SO FAST. The poor Little Wooden Spoon got so dizzy even thinking about how fast she would have to twist and turn in order to be done in time to satisfy the Busy Cook. So she quietly shuffled to the edge of the counter top, trying to hide herself behind a nearby chopping board.
She succeeded in hiding for most of the day but finally the Busy Cook found her and plonked her into a big bowl of batter. “Get mixing!” she commanded.
“Oh no!” thought the Little Wooden Spoon, “It’s such a big bowl of batter and the flour is so heavy. There’s no way I can do this.” So she just sat there, her head spinning, as she thought about how impossible the task was with no-one to help her.
The Busy Cook came along and whizzed her round and round a bit, then told her to hurry up and get on with it. The poor Little Wooden Spoon fell right into the batter, so dizzy she couldn’t think straight. In despair, she sank down under the bubbling batter, her strong wooden handle now smothered with the gooey mixture. She was sure she would never be able to mix a cake all by herself that would turn out to the satisfaction of the Busy Cook.
The Busy Cook was rather angry when she realised the Little Wooden Spoon hadn’t done anything, and sent her home without even saying thank-you. The Little Wooden Spoon was SO GLAD to get home to the safety of her own drawer in her own Smiley Cook’s kitchen.
You can imagine her dismay when she had to go back the next day. The Busy Cook needed more help. And for some reason it went on. The exact same thing happened day after day. She ended up drowning in batter, feeling like she would never be able to do anything well in that kitchen with the Busy Cook who wanted her to mix things fast and didn’t let anyone help each other.
Then one day an assistant came to the kitchen. He noticed the spoon gazing sadly out of the window and came over to see what was wrong. The Little Wooden Spoon didn’t know what to say. She just looked at him nervously. He gently took hold of her handle and gave the batter a slow stir. “There,” he said, “You can do it! Just stir a little and have a rest. Do a little more. Rest again. You’ll get there in the end. The lumps will disappear one by one without you even noticing.” So the Little Wooden Spoon tried it out. She did one turn. And stopped. The batter looked just the same. “Oh no!” she thought, “It won’t work.”
The assistant came back and told her to do one more. She tried again. Maybe it really wasn’t so hard. “You’re doing great!” said the assistant, “Keep going! And don’t forget to take lots of little breaks!”
So all day the Little Wooden Spoon did just that . She stirred a bit, had a rest, stirred a bit more, a bit longer, had another rest until, at the end of the day, her batter was done. The Busy Cook still said it was rather lumpy, but when the assistant poured it into the cake tin he said it looked delicious and sure enough, the cake came out of the oven as tasty as could be, the odd lump here and there not causing any trouble at all.
That night the Little Wooden Spoon went to sleep in her own kitchen thinking that tomorrow she would try again to mix and rest, mix and rest. The assistant knew she could do it. He had helped her to get started instead of just getting drowned in the batter. As time went on, she became very proud of her own cakes, both the ones she made as part of the team in her own kitchen, and those she had to do on her own in the other kitchen. And sometimes she even sneakily managed to jump into someone else’s bowl and give them a helping hand when the Busy Cook wasn’t looking.
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