Lin was thirteen years old when she ditched her mother's metalbending academy again. This time, she managed to snatch up a belt with training cables on them that the older students in the police cadet school used before she left. She hid them in her satchel until she was safely out of the city, across the bay, and on Air Temple Island with her feet once again planted firmly on the ground. She had to tie the belt once she looped it around her tiny waist since it was too big, being built for grown men. She used her seismic sense to locate Tenzin, wanting to surprise him before anyone spotted her and alerted all the adults on the island of her presence. She decided to also try out the training cables and scale the cliff side just below the balcony that he and Aang were on at the time.
Though her metalbending skills were great for a child her age, she had not yet developed the strength or dexterity to manipulate such fine cables and fell halfway up after failing to anchor one cable deep enough to get past the shifty dirt on the rock face. She probably would have broken a leg that day if Aang hadn't sensed her presence the entire time with seismic sense, and turned the rock below the cliff to mud, making her fall much softer and more messy. Rather than being angry, Aang invited Lin to join them for Tenzin's lesson on how to make this cake. While Tenzin made an actual sweet smelling pastry, Aang had Lin make one out of a thick mud that was soft enough to not hurt anyone on impact, but firm enough to keep its form while flying through the air. Lin found his reasons for the consistency of her mud pie to be curious, but didn't question the Avatar and just went along with it since it gave her an excuse to be near Tenzin. They both set their pies out on the railing of the balcony on Air Temple Island to cool while Tenzin and Lin whipped up the ingredients for the gooey middle. Tenzin's was all white and frothy, while Lin's was all just dirt and water much to her dismay.
Still she was patient and went along with it. They poured their toppings onto their respective cakes and turned to Aang for instruction. Tenzin on his right side and Lin on his left. He showed how to use airbending to create air pockets in the topping on a real cake for Tenzin to replicate, then shaped it into a swirly, white fluffy puff. He then had Lin use earthbending to just create a spongy like mass of wet sand into the same shape.
"Now both of you follow me, Lin you just use earthbending, the motions are the same for this. Remember, it is an exercise for your aim and you only have one shot. Lin, I want you to focus on Air Acolyte Jinyu and Tenzin, you will focus on Air Acolyte Lu. Ready?" Aang asked looking behind him.
Young Lin nodded furiously, taking the same stance.
"Tenzin?"
"Yes, Dad," Tenzin replied not looking back.
"One, two, three!" And they all bent their cakes across the island aiming at the heads of the unsuspecting meditating air acolytes. The three of them all laughed as the air acolytes didn't even react as they were immediately pounced on by all sorts of small animals, eager to lick the cake off of their heads.
"Excellent work, my young pupils!" Aang said bowing to both Lin and and Tenzin.
Lin laughed at the sweet memory, as she sat on the railing of the balcony outside the kitchen with one leg up on the rail and her forearm resting on her knee. She watched with a smile as she gave the children verbal instructions for Monk Gyatso's Master Piece and watched as they scurried about gathering the ingredients. They didn't seem to notice what they were making even as they made the crust and filling and put it in the oven. Lin was astonished. Tenzin never taught them? They were Monk Gyatso's Specialty, and Aang's favorite thing to make.
"It smells delicious!" Meelo exclaimed leaning forward to smell the baking cakes. Lin noticed Rohan run up to the oven and pulled him back by shifting the ground beneath his feet. "Meelo, set a good example for your little brother. Show some self restraint and don't stick your head into a fire to smell the sweetness of the cakes." Lin said dully.
"Sorry," Meelo sighed walking away from the oven.
Once it was time to remove the cakes from the oven, Lin slid off the railing so the children would have a place to put their cakes to cool. Meanwhile, Lin fetched herself a bowl of water and dissintegrated a mass of earth into it, then compressed it just enough to have the right amount of water, forming a clay cake with the same muddy consistency that she remembered Aang make so many years ago. She used the same bowl to make a fluffy light dirt mixture for her own topping then lined up beside the children and pourred it on together.
"You want to make nice uniform air bubbles throughout the gooey topping and form it into a shape like this," Lin said crafting her spiral dirt sponge. Jinora's was perfect, Ikki's was satisfactory, and Meelo's was fluffy but not quite uniform or particularly swirly. Rohan just succeeded in making two large bubbles in loo of a a uniformly fluffy whipped topping.
"Follow me," Lin said taking her stance.
"Wait we're going to throw these?" Ikki asked astonished.
"Not eat them?" Meelo asked devastated.
"And Daddy is down there meditating!" Jinora added.
"So? You don't have to eat the cake to enjoy it! I have no interest in eating mine!" Lin replied. "This is a test of your aim, and trust me, you will still enjoy it! Jinora, your target is Opal. Ikki, yours is your dad's Arrow, and Meelo, your target is Daw. Rohan, just get your cake off the railing and it will be enough"
"What will you aim for, Aunt Lin?" Jinora asked.
"I will aim for the Master Airhead's face." She replied biting her tongue. "Now, One... two... three!"
They laughed as Daw fell over and Opal screamed and Tenzin put his fists together bending all of the cake and mud off of him, and onto the group of airbenders he was teaching. Just then the group was swarmed by ring tailed lemurs all eager to lick the cake off of their bodies.
The children all looked at Lin for approval while she laughed maniacally. "Your aim is improving greatly, my hoard of mini Twinkle Toes!" she informed them all. They ran back into the kitchen before Tenzin could spot them on the balcony, but Lin had a hunch that he already knew she was behind it.
"Come on, time to spar!" Lin said brushing off her hands on her caprees.
"So we aren't actually going to have dessert?" Meelo cried.
"I don't know about you, but that look on dad's face WAS pretty sweet!" Jinora declared still giggling.