Miracle Whip

It didn't have a faint image of Jesus layered across the top. It didn't fall to the floor creating a pattern reminiscent of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. But it was a Miracle Cake nonetheless. How do I know this? To begin with, it was the expressed intent of the baker, my principal, that this cake would create a miracle. The fact that I work at a school where the principal routinely bakes cakes and tarts and other treats for her staff is miraculous in itself, but this one needed to be even better than that.
For the past few months, the stress level across the planet has been increasing, and our little school has been no exception. The high expectations and daily challenges of working in an urban school in Oakland, California were always enough to make any week a tough one, but the addition of shrinking budgets, economic collapse and massive impending change for everyone has made tensions run higher than normal. It was my principal's wish that baking a chocolate pudding cake for her staff would help transform our fragile reality into one that could be enjoyed, rather than endured.
The morning started auspiciously, with four teachers calling in sick. Two of those had not been assigned substitutes, requiring those students to be parcelled out across various grade levels into the rooms of teachers who were just as happy to get through Friday without the addition of kids for whom they were unfamiliar and unprepared. Shortly after eight o'clock, half an hour before the school day officially begins, two fifth graders got into a fist fight on the playground while a crowd of their peers egged them on. The cake needed to be very good.
By lunch time, there was a sampling of the usual difficulties, including a fourth grade boy who had chosen this day to become an official bully by shoving a bewildered classmate out of her four square box and calling her a sadly impressive list of ugly names. In the office, the cake was quickly disappearing. When the bell finally rang to bring the day to a close, there were just a few crumbs left.
That cake worked miracles. Nobody walked off the job. Some kids' feelings got hurt, but they escaped without any real physical damage. The staff worked together and did their job. At the end of the day, every child and every adult left the building under their own power. It was a miracle. Want the recipe?