Maitri: Ninjago Oneshots ✍︎︎

Birthday Cake- lava

Requested by -mars_bar! I hope you like your present!

Cole's bare feet pad softly against the wooden floor of the Bounty. The ship is dark and quiet, unusual for a Saturday morning. Considering it's seven am, it makes sense, everyone's asleep. So why not Cole?

He'd woken up around ten minutes ago to an alarm he'd set on his phone, plugging earphones in so only he'd hear it. The reason? It's his boyfriends birthday. And he wanted to make something nice. Something sweet. Kai's birthday cake.

Now, everyone knows Cole isn't the best chef or baker out there, but he's willing to try his best. For Kai.

Another question left unanswered is, how did Cole slip away from Kai? His boyfriend sleeps on top of him, gripping his shirt so tightly, Cole can't even get him off, not that he ever would, he finds Kai extremely adorable in that position. He'd slipped a pillow underneath Kai and soothed him when he started making noises of discomfort. Kai had instantly nuzzled into the pillow and relaxed.

Smiling, Cole opens the door to the kitchen and grabs a bowl, weighing scales and a spoon. Placing them on the island counter, he grabs Kai's apron from the back of the door, instantly relaxing once he puts it on.

Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he opens the recipe he found the previous day. A recipe for chocolate cake, both of their favourite cake flavour. Cole's eyes scan over the ingredients for the cake.

Ingredients
For the cake
200g golden caster sugar
200g unsalted butter, softened plus extra for the tins
4 large eggs
200g self-raising flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk

"This shouldn't be too hard," Cole murmurs.

Turning the oven on, he sets it to 220 degrees Celsius, Cole turns back to the island. Cole's eyes scan the first two steps.

Method
STEP 1
Butter the base and sides of two 20cm round sandwich tins and line the bases with baking parchment.

STEP 2
In a large bowl, beat together 200g golden caster sugar, 200g softened unsalted butter, 4 large eggs, 200g self-raising flour, 2 tbsp cocoa powder, 1 tsp baking powder, ½ tsp vanilla extract, 2 tbsp milk and a pinch of salt until pale.

Cole lines the tins with baking parchment and butter and puts them to the side. Pulling the large bowl towards him. Grabbing the sugar, he measures out 250g of sugar. He dumps it all into the bowl. He dumps a clump of unsoftened butter in on top. He cracks two eggs perfectly but the second two drop small shards of eggshells into the bowl, both of them unnoticeable. He proceeds to add 200g of self-raising flour and 2 teaspoons of cocoa powder along with one tablespoon of baking powder. Then Cole adds half a tablespoon of vanilla extract. Cole adds two teaspoons of milk and a pinch of salt before stirring the mixture.

His eyes scan the ingredients for the buttercream and the next set of instructions.

STEP 3
Divide the mixture between the prepared tins. Bake for 20 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

STEP 4
Leave to cool in the tin for 10 mins, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

STEP 5
For the buttercream, put 100g chopped milk chocolate in a heatproof bowl and melt in the microwave, stirring every 30 secs. Leave the melted chocolate to cool for 5 mins.