Novelty November 2020

Day 16: Baking

Yukiko ran at full speed towards the front door as she heard the doorbell ring. Kuro was standing outside and jumped in shock as she suddenly ripped the door open. She tried to greet him but was so out of breath that she couldn't get even a single word out and just gestured for him to come in, which he did while looking at her with a raised eyebrow, his face filled with concern.
"You alright, Yuki? Because you sound like you're almost dying and I am not giving you mouth to mouth, I'm keeping my air."
She gasped for air and tried to straighten her posture so she wouldn't look like a crooked goblin.
"No...I'm...fine...just...too...many...stairs…..to reach….front door…"
"And that's the problem with living in a mansion and having the kitchen on a floor normal people would use as a basement."
He patted her on the back and, as soon as she caught her breath again, followed her to the kitchen. They walked down at least 4 floors but it could've been more, Kuro just couldn't keep up with the amount of stairs they ran down.

They arrived at the kitchen that was way bigger than necessary. The counter made of marble was shining in the kitchen light and looked like it had just been wiped clean. It had a big square shape and was right in the middle of the kitchen, surrounded by many ovens, sinks and cabinets. It looked more like a kitchen of a fancy restaurant than one a single person would use in their daily normal life. Bowls of many different sizes had been placed neatly on the counter accompanied by several packs of butter, flour, eggs, salt, baking powder and many more different ingredients. 

"Well. I'm guessing that we're gonna bake something today?" Kuro said in a sarcastic tone that didn't reach Yukiko at all and just made her jump in excitement.
"Yes! Recently I've seen and tried so many delicious cakes and pies in so many restaurants and cafés and Takumi loved them all too!"
"And now you want to try baking them yourself?"
"Exactly!"
Kuro massaged his nose in between his index finger and thumb and let out a deep sigh.
"And you call me for help? You know I've never tried baking or even cooking! I couldn't even make something like scrambled eggs. Also I remember you telling me that you never tried baking before or am I wrong?"
"Nope! Today is the first time I try baking something! Come on, Kuro. What could possibly go wrong?"
"Do you want me to name it in alphabetical or chronological order?"

But Yukiko hadn't even a single doubt in her head, she happily grabbed a cookbook and hummed a happy melody while searching for a recipe.
"Look! A cookies and cream cheesecake! Oh! Or this fluffy one right here! And there's also this red velvet cake right here! And-"
Kuro quickly ripped the book from her hands and looked through it himself.
"I'm going to stop you right there before you want to try baking a wedding cake."
Yukiko pouted and joined Kuro in looking at the recipes.
"But I wanna impress Takumi! Come on, let's pick something nice! I'm sure we can do it!" 
"Alright, fine." Kuro replied in a defeated voice.

He stopped for a second and pointed at a recipe.
"What about this chocolate cake? It doesn't seem that complicated and it has 2 layers. Is that good enough for you?"
Yukiko bounced happily and nodded like an excited child. She posed proudly with the whisk in her hand and yelled.
"Alright! Let's get started!! What's the first step?"
"We need to boil some water and then melt the chocolate with it."
"Alright got it!" She picked a big pot and filled it with water, put it on the stove and turned up the heat.
"What next?"
"It says that we need to separate 12 eggs."
Yukiko looked at Kuro with the most confused face he'd ever seen from her. He watched in awe while she put the eggs on the counter and separated them by their brown and white egg shells.

"Not like that, Yuki."
"Oh! So should I weigh them or…?"
"Yuki, no. You need to bowls and separate the egg whites from the egg yolks."
She looked at Kuro with a concerned face and he just gave her a thumbs up. She took a deep breath and smashed the egg on the bowl. Kuro took away the bowls and gently pushed her away from the eggs.
"Separate them, Yuki. Not dismantle them. Let me try." He cracked the egg open and started to shift the egg yolk from one half of the shell to the other.
"You just check on the water, I think it's ready for the chocolate to be melted on."
Yukiko jokingly saluted like a soldier and stepped to the pot. 

After Kuro was done with the eggs, he looked at the disappointment he just created and frowned a little.
"It's all yellow…" 
"Don't worry! You can't expect it to work on the first try!" She tried to cheer him up. Kuro smiled a little and told Yukiko to get started with whipping up the somewhat white of the eggs as he tried to clean up the mess he created. He used about 34 eggs and still didn't get the result he was hoping for. Suddenly, he smelled something burn. He turned around and saw melted chocolate jumping out of the pot and splashing onto the stove, creating a sizzling sound.
"Woah, what the hell!" He ran over to the pot and got it off the stove. As he looked at the masterpiece of Yukiko's work with her standing next to him, he started massaging his temples. 
"Yukiko, you're supposed to put a bowl on top of the pot and then put the chocolate into the bowl to melt it!" Yukiko's face filled with embarrassment and she put one hand behind her head.
"Oh. Whoops?"

He looked up and wanted to say something but was distracted by something else happening behind Yukiko.
"The eggs are on fire."
Yukiko quickly turned around and put both hands on her head in pure horror and shock.
"What?! How! How is that even possible!?" 
"I have no idea but I'm impressed. You gotta teach me that one later."
Yukiko rushed over to the somehow burning bowl and tried to put out the fire but while she was busy doing that, the oven suddenly spit out flames as well.
Kuro calmly turned to face the flames shooting out of the oven and lost all leftover hope for this cake.
"Of course this had to happen. When did we even turn on the oven?!" 
"I don't know! We have to put it out!" She screamed while hitting the bowl with a towel repeatedly until the flames went out.

Kuro rushed to get the fire extinguisher and put out the flames in the oven. The two of them sat on the floor and watched smoke fading out of the open door and windows. They looked at each other for a second and started laughing until their stomachs started to hurt.
"Let's just invite the others to a café, I'm really craving cake right now."
Kuro wiped away the tears from laughing and nodded in agreement.
"That sounds like a good and safe idea."