Violet's cake had hardened in the refrigerator right on schedule and she had successfully added the second layer of frosting. But now for the hard part. She went up to look at all the decorations, trying to decide what she could do that wouldn't muck it up too much.

She wound up taking a decorating bag filled with green frosting and making a snake (or what was meant to be one) curling around the top edge of the cake, ending with its tail under its head. Well, the head looked more like a blob, so she took a couple of raisins and stuck them on for eyes to make it clearer. There. It was not that good, but it was something that looked somewhat like a snake.

Now she felt there should be something in the center, but couldn't think of what to put that she could do at least a passable job on. She wound up using black frosting to trace the outline of a Bain Marie pot, which looked kind of like an archaic double-boiler with feet, and added some steam coming out of the top. It was cartoonish, but at least she didn't smudge it.

Feeling fairly satisfied with her work, which wasn't brilliant but represented her best effort, she sat back and listened as the teacher went on to the next assignment. Violet's spirits fell when she looked at the sample cake they were supposed to replicate (or at least one layer, which was bad enough). It was so intricate--Violet felt she could never do it.