Cheesecake

„Your birthday is next week, please bring us a cake!“

My boss was a man of few words. This was probably the 3rd time he had ever spoken to me, and I thought it was a great joke. I carried on with my work.

I studied environmental science in Texas and now sustainability in Germany. This was my first ever corporate job. And a corporate job in a foreign country. Needless to say it was a whole new world filled with suits, new lingo, and men taking themselves too seriously.

„You know he‘s serious, right?“ my coworker mentioned.

I, in fact, did not.

„Ah, okay“ I confidently replied. Fake it till you make it.

I was turning 22 years old and had much to learn about this culture. For my 21st birthday, my employer in Texas gave me flowers and took me out to lunch, cake included. In Texas, on your special day, you are the queen.

The initial questions struck:

Wow, he was serious? This is funny.

Why do I have to treat them?

And lastly, what cake am I going to bake?

At this point I had already been vegan for 2 years and felt it was my sole mission to convince my team that wow, this cake actually tastes good.

I tuned in to my American roots and decided I‘d make a cheesecake with a raspberry swirl. On my last night as a 21 year old and still an apparent newbie to this country, I baked the cake. It set overnight, and the next morning I packed it with me to travel over 1 hour from the small town of Freising I lived in, to the south of Munich.

Post-lunch slowly approached… and then the moment of truth: cake time.

Out of my probably 10 colleagues, 8 said they really enjoyed it (including my boss, phew). Two colleagues directly let me know that it was too sweet, but thank you. It went something like „wow, you American‘s sure like sweet deserts“.

In that moment I felt a bit criticized. Hadn‘t these people ever heard of „if you don‘t have something nice to say, don‘t say it at all“? Or „beggars can’t be choosers“?

This was one of the first times I was experiencing German directness. I was a little shocked.

It‘s now been over 5 years since this day and a countless of „German directness“ experiences later, I can say with confidence: they weren‘t wrong.

Yes, it‘s true: Americans, such as myself, love our sweets. I grew up in the land of Hershey‘s chocolate, little debby brownies and pancake syrup. Where „making a cake from scratch“ is definitely with the help of Betty Crocker‘s boxed mix.

And the beauty of this all? You won‘t always be everyone’s favorite cup of tea. And that‘s just fine!

Next week I will leave my job at this same company and for my last day, in celebration, you can bet I‘ll be bringing something sweet. No reminders needed ;-)