The Chronicles of Narnia: The Children of New

Chapter 48: A Cake Tasting

"Yeah well, part of me regrets it because every two seconds I feel like there's a camera in my face. But I guess that's something I should be used to now, right?" she whispered.

Just then Patrick ran into the room. He was wearing a navy blue shirt with sleeves that were rolled so they were ¾ long and he had on grey dress pants with brown shoes. He was matching Anna perfectly. He immediately went over to Anna, "I'm so sorry I'm late. That damn meeting went long again, I assume you started without me,"

"No actually. I know how much you were looking forward to this part of the wedding planning that we waited for you. Besides I was late too cause I couldn't pick a damn flower arrangement. We have Ariana to thank for that," laughed Anna

"Oh well good. And I see the word has spread that we're tasting cakes today," Patrick nodded toward the rest of us

"Aye, I just happened to be by the kitchen when I saw them preparing the cake slices. Plus it's more fun with more people," Zoran shrugged

The head chef then stepped forward, "That is correct your majesty,'' he turned to address all of us and smiled, "now each of you has a scorecard. After you taste a cake, you will write down, on a scale from one to ten, ten being the best, what you rate each cake. There is also space for you to put notes. For example, if you like the icing but don't like the cake you should put that down. Obviously, this is for Anna and Patrick's wedding cake so they have the final say but all your input will be used in consideration,"

There was a flash of light from the camera, "Well let's do this then! Which cake is up first," said Anna who was now holding hands with Patrick

"Up first we have a red velvet cake with cream cheese icing," said the chef as he stepped back to let the servant's hand us each a plate of the cake. I took a bite and it was delicious. The icing was the best part because it wasn't as sweet as royal icing. I turned to Jackson who had taken a giant bite out of the cake.

"Oh shit! Pardon my language but if all the cakes taste as good as this one, we're going to have trouble choosing. Chef Gaston, you've done it again," said Jackson as he tipped his glass of water towards the chef

The chef laughed, "Thank you, your majesty. Now the next slice is on the other end of the spectrum as it's more of a fruit flavour. The next slice you will be tasting is a lemon coconut cake with coconut icing and a lemon custard filling,"

I watched as Anna took a bite. She made a face and then started laughing. "While it's a delicious cake, I don't think this one will be used at our wedding,"

"What no! That was so good. It beat out the red velvet one!" cried Ray as she took another bite of the coconut cake.

Anna shook her head as she wrote down on her scorecard, "Now are we going to get to try a chocolate cake?"

"Why am I not surprised that Anna wants her wedding cake to be chocolate," I said as I took a sip of the campaign that was brought out for us.

"Well, we expected Anna and Patrick to want to have some chocolate cake options as the kitchen knows very well how much they like chocolate. Today we have prepared four kinds of chocolate cake for you. There is a dark chocolate cake with chocolate ganache and icing, a yellow cake with chocolate ganache as the filling and as the icing but it's not the same ganache as in the dark chocolate cake. Then there is a black forest cake which is chocolate cake and the filling is cherry flavoured but we added some raspberry to it. Finally and this will be the next slice you are trying, we have a cookie and cream type cake. It is a chocolate cake with a cream filling. The icing is a cream cheese icing with crushed oreo on top of it," the chef then gestured for the next slices to be brought to us.

As I took a bite, I heard Anna cry out. I turned and saw that Patrick had put some of the icing on her nose. He laughed at her and took his finger and licked it off of her as she too was laughing at this point. The photographer was quick to get over there and snap some shots of the happy couple. "Hey Chef, how many other slices are there? You've outdone yourself with the chocolate ones," Zoran said as he finished eating the cookies and cream slice.

The chef laughed, "Well you never know what the King and Queen are in the mood for. So there are five other slices of cake that are not chocolate. There's a carrot cake with a cream cheese icing and filling, a lemon poppy seed cake with vanilla custard filling, a straight-up vanilla cake with the same custard as the poppy seed cake and a mirror glaze icing, then there's a lemon cake with strawberry filling and a buttercream icing, and finally, a yellow cake with a mango custard as the filling and passionfruit flavoured buttercream for the icing. If you don't like any of them your majesties, I can always go back to the drawing board with your feedback,"

"Oh goodness no! These cakes have been delicious so far that it will be hard to pick, to be honest," said Anna

"Oh yeah. We'll be picking the cake today because the upcoming flavours sound amazing," Patrick said as he took a sip of his campaign to get ready for the next slice.

After we had all tried every slice of cake that was presented to us, we all watched as Anna thought. I could see the gears turning in her head. Anna then stood up, "Are we allowed to have more than one type of cake? I'm thinking since there will be more than one layer, is that possible?"

"Yes of course! I would be delighted to make you more than one type of cake,"

"Of excellent! Then how about the biggest layer be the black forest cake, then a layer with the red velvet cake, and a layer with the lemon cake with the strawberry filling? And then the whole outside of the cake is either the buttercream or cream cheese icing? That way you, Gaston, can make designs with the cake," she then turned to look at Patrick, "How does that sound? We'll have a chocolate layer, a layer that isn't chocolate but not quite vanilla, and then a vanilla-like layer,"

Patrick kissed the top of her head, "Whatever is good with me. As long as you're happy and there's chocolate then I'm happy. It's whatever you want dear,"

I rolled my eyes as I watched the photographer snapped more shots of them. Anna then clapped her hands, "Well it's settled then! Chef Gaston, if you will please design a cake using the things I just said that would be great!"

"It would be my honour. Now I hope your majesties wouldn't mind if I now leave you. I still have tonight's dinner to prepare and a wedding cake to start designing,"

We all nodded and after the chef left, we too took our exit. Jackson had his arm wrapped around me as we all walked towards our rooms. "You know Ari, life couldn't be better than it is now. I don't think I've ever been this happy before and I said the same thing ten years ago. Funny how time flies,"

"I couldn't agree more with you. I--" I stopped talking as we both had noticed Anna and Patrick had stopped walking and were looking at something. "Anna? What's the matter?"

All I heard was her whisper "Aslan?" and then Zoran mutter "Fuck" under his breath. I looked around Anna and there indeed stood the big lion. Aslan was back.

He hadn't been seen since the Kings and Queens of Old had left. He smiled at us, "Children, come. I have something I'd like to discuss with you"