Hi, I’m Sam. Two years ago, I took part in a cooking contest at school. My team decided to prepare Chinese chicken. First, we cooked rice for our dish and it was perfect. However, it turned out our chicken was past its best‑by date. This really stirred the pot! Imagine the trouble! We had to make a vegetarian meal instead. Out of stress, we boiled the carrots for too long, and they were very mushy. So unsurprisingly, we lost.

Hello, my name is Sue. It was my mum's birthday last week. My brother and I wanted to bake her a strawberry sponge cake. First, we mixed flour, milk, and eggs. But then, we realised we were on a knife edge! We had no strawberries, because somebody ate them all! Fortunately, my brother had the idea that we could add some apples instead. We made a brilliant apple sponge cake and our mum loved it!

I’m Becky and I want to tell you about a bake‑off at our school last spring. My friends and I decided to make blueberry muffins. We bought the best organic berries and got some flour, sugar, and other ingredients. Unfortunately, the whole thing turned out to be a half‑baked idea. During the contest, we realised we didn’t have baking powder. We forgot to buy it! Our muffins came out completely flat!

My name is John. I first tried cooking at a scout camp last summer. On the second day of the camp, it was my turn to cook dinner for everyone. There were boiled eggs on the menu. When I was taking the eggs out of the basket, I dropped it and the eggs broke! At first, I was very worried. But it was no use crying over spilt milk! I picked up the broken shells, put the frying pan on fire, and made delicious scrambled eggs. Everybody loved it