A group of students were hosting a bake sale for a charity in Sofia this week. Basically, they bring in homemade goods to sell at lunch in order to support their charity and then they try to convince everyone to buy their treats. Teachers are an easy target and regularly I get hit up to support a cause, buy a treat or the like.  It was no different this week.

The thing about bake sales at school is that these students don't sell traditional bake sale desserts. I've never seen a frosted cupcake, a <a href="http://workinggirlskitchen.blogspot.com/2009/03/fond-memories-in-monster-cookie.html">monster cookie with M&amp;Ms</a>, a brownie or a <a href="http://www.ricekrispies.com/recipes/the-original-treats.aspx#/recipes/the-original-treats">Rice Krispy treat</a> (okay the last one doesn't surprise me much seeing as I've never seen Rice Krispies or marshmallows on sale).

As a teacher, I feel like it's my obligation to make these kids tell me about what the purpose of the sale is but also to make them talk about what they are selling, which treat they recommend, what's selling best, who made what and what's in it.

So when a student told me that everything they were selling was "devastatingly good" I couldn't help but laugh.

There were three options for sale this week.  A dish that looked like a coffee cake but instead of having brown sugar and oats on top, it had spinach and sirene cheese.  That's not really my thing. I am sure it was good but when I think about a bake sale I think: sweet, sweet, sweet! Then there was a loaf pan with either a bread or a pound cake in it--it was yellow-ish in color.  The students just kept saying: it's Bulgarian. Um, okay.

Finally there was this:

[caption id="attachment_2440" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Bake Sale Treat"]<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/dsc01608.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-2440" title="Bake Sale Treat" src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/dsc01608.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></a>[/caption]

This one was the treat that the students told me was selling the best. <!--more-->In fact, there were only three left after I bought mine.

I asked: what's the name of this cookie?

They told me: salami.

Me: really?

Them: yes.

They explained that often this treat is rolled into a log that looks like salami and then sliced rather than rolled into little balls.  I was told the treat is made of walnuts, crushed up cookie-biscuits, melted butter and then rolled in coconut.  Sounds good to me.

So I paid and took a big bite out of the cookie.  The kids wanted to confirm with me that the treat was good. It was but there was something else in it so I asked again about the recipe--what makes it so sweet? The girl who made it explained again walnuts, cookie-biscuits, melted butter, strawberry jam and an egg to hold the whole thing together.  <em>An egg</em>? I just about had a heart attack. This is not a cookie that is baked in the oven. That's when this refrain started running through my head: raw egg, raw egg, raw egg, raw egg, raw egg, raw egg, raw egg...

And I realized that I was on the verge of becoming a crazy American.  I also has flash backs to elementary school when there was a frosting recipe floating around that used uncooked egg whites and was making lots of kids sick with salmonella. Everyone thought it must be the cafeteria but it turns out that the salmonella was being spread via homemade birthday cupcakes. There's nothing quite like bring cupcakes and salmonella to school to celebrate your birthday.

On my way back to my classroom I thought: oh man this might really be a devastating treat.  I also considered my options: throw away the treat and indulge in your crazy American ways or eat the treat and get over the egg--when in Bulgaria...  And probably against my better judgment, I ate the rest of the treat.

Now I guess it will come as no surprise but I was okay.  This blog post would be very different had I fallen ill. Luckily I am okay. Now I know.