"Hello my lovely Sugarlings! Today I am going to show you all how to make a vanilla chiffon cake. This cake can get tricky, so I suggest following these instructions close. At least for the egg white portion. So, let's start! The cake can be relatively tricky to make because the egg whites cannot have any fat in them whatsoever. And, you have to mix them to a certain stiffness. Once the egg whites reach a medium peak, they can be incorporated gently in to the rest of the ingredients. A medium peak is when the egg whites will stick up like a mountain, but the top droops over. Kinda like a Tim Burton mountain."
My hands get really messy when baking, and I don't wear my promise ring because of it. I don't want to get it dirty. So, I took it off and laid it on the counter before starting the video. I get some comments wondering about the ring, or why I take it off when I bake but I have it on in Nathan's videos sometimes.
"Now, we have to gently fold this in. Honestly, it might be a good idea to use your hands for some of this. Once all the egg whites are in, then you can stick your hands in. Only use a little bit of egg whites at once. We put a lot of air in them and we don't wanna aggressively mix or we'll squeeze out the air. Remember, small amounts."
Once the chiffon is all mixed in and safely poured into it's tube pan before sliding it into my oven, I let out a big sigh. "Now let that bake and we'll check in with that later."
I stop recording and wipe my face with a messy hand. James walks in and sees me with a big smear of chiffon on my cheek. He walks up and kisses my clean one.
"Tough video?"
"Yeah. Chiffon cakes are always tough. You have to get so many little parts of the recipe just right, or it won't come out right."
"I'm sure you did good. Can I try it when it comes out of the oven?"
"First piece is all yours," I chuckle before I kiss him tenderly on the lips.
My timer goes off and I check on the cake. A toothpick tells me it's done and I pull it out of the oven. I shove James out of the kitchen and turn my camera back on before dust with sanding sugar.
"There you go. A vanilla chiffon cake. And as a final thought, I'm going to give this a taste test. Can my tester come in here, please?" I call, hoping James hears me and comes in.
"Yo, you guys wanna try some cake?" James yells out the door.
"Yeah!" Jordan yells back. All five swarm in to the kitchen, standing around my cake.
"I wasn't expecting a whole" party. Excuse me, I need in to cut the cake." I squeeze my way to the cake and cut slices for all the guys and myself.
"This boy bussin!" Nathan yells after taking a bite.
"Glad y'all like it. Well, there you go. It's been given the stamp of approval by my definitely qualified taste testers. Hope you all have a good day and keep baking!" I turn off my camera and turn to the five guys around me. "What now?"
"We need to film a classroom video. You wanna be in it?" Cedrick asks.
"Sure. What do I need to do?"
"Why don't you be the teacher? You'll probably be a better one than James was," Gabe says, directing it mainly at James.
"Fine, I'll be your teacher. Now get upstairs or you'll be late."
We all head upstairs and I get dressed to look like a teacher. I grab some nice slacks and a blazer out of my closet with an Unspeakable shirt underneath. Plus, some sneakers. I pull my hair back in a bun and, for the heck of it, slide on a pair of glasses with a chain going around my neck. I feel like a very strict teacher.
The theme for this video is sneaking their phone into class. I have to come up with a name, and we're ready to film.
"Good morning, students. I am your substitute today. I'm filling in for Mr. C. Lown. My name is Ms. F. Roggy.
"That spells a word," Gabe points out while raising his hand.
"What are you talking about? Today, we are going to have an easy class. We are just going to be reading, so please pull out your books."
"I'm already ahead of it," Nathan pipes up. I know his book is cut up to have his phone in it, but I play along like nothing is wrong.
"Thank you young man. What is your name?"
"Oh it's Nathan."
"Nathan, you're a star student. Everyone, try to act like Nathan here. He's behaving nicely.
"What chapter are we on?" James pipes up from the back.
"According to Mr. Lown, you guys are on chapter 12."
They pretend to start reading and Gabe says he's having trouble with a word. The word in question is 'if'.
I walk back up to the front of the room and look at James. "What's your name in the back?"
Both Nathan and James turn around to look behind them, even though it's just the two of them.
"I think she's talking to you," Nathan says pointing at James.
"I think she's talking to you," James says while pointing at the wall.
I pretend to just now notice the phone in James's book. They must have swapped books. "Excuse me, this is unacceptable for class. We're supposed to be reading chapter 12 and you're playing on your phone."
As I'm pretending to scold James, Gabe gets my attention. "Excuse me, Ms. Teacher, um."
"Did you break the pencil sharpener?"
The boys start laughing at my frustration with them. This wasn't part of the script. I play along and yell at them.
"Everyone, sit down! There's no getting up to use the pencil sharpener unless I say so. Now, I am taking this, and you can explain to Mr. Lown why you were not able to do today's reading assignment."
After we cut, I laugh with them about the broken pencil sharpener. Even if it wasn't planned, it was still a perfect bit.
We continue with many stunts like that. Nathan even pulls out a VR headset during their Geology lesson. He pretends he's reading a chapter, but he's actually pretending to battle zombies. Their antics continue with me having to try and control them. Eventually we get to the end of the video and I can get back in comfier clothes.
"That was fun," I say to myself. I go to fidget with my ring and see it's not on my finger. "Where's my ring? I took it off before I started baking, so it must be on the counter still." I hurry down the stairs to the kitchen and begin frantically searching for my ring. "Where is it?"
"Where's what, Babe?"
"Ah! You scared me!" I shrieked. James just walked up on me.
"Sorry Babe. Didn't mean to stare you. What're you looking for?"
"I, uh, dropped an earring. Yeah. It must've fallen out. I can't find it anywhere." I try to cover one of my earrings with my hair, hoping to make it more convincing.
"I'll get the guys to help me check the classroom. You stay searching here."
He jogs upstairs and I feel a pang of guilt in my gut. I hate lying to him, but I don't want him to be mad at me because I lost my promise ring. I take out one earring, which was one of my Christmas presents from the boys over a year ago. I sigh and toss it slightly away from me. I crawl on my hands and knees, slowly working my way closer to the earring. I hear someone come downstairs and I turn to see who it is.
"Sorry Babe. We didn't find it upstairs."
"It's alright, Sugar. I'm still searching in here."
"Let me help."
He gets down on his hands and knees and crawls around with me on the floor. He's the first one to find the earring I threw and gives a shout.
"Found it Babe!"
"Thank you so much Sugar! You know I love these earrings."
He hands me the earring and I let him place it into my hand.
"Hey, where's your ring?"
"Oh, I, uh, was just about to do some dishes! I have a lot I have to clean up after making that chiffon. I let it lay in my room so it wouldn't get dirty. You know how it is, don't wanna get food stuck in it." I awkwardly chuckle, hoping the lie doesn't sound as bad as it sounds to me.
"Yeah. That ring is too pretty to get messed up with your baking. I can't wait until you're done with the dishes and I see it on your hand again."
He gives me a peck on the cheek before walking out of the kitchen. I feel guilt eat me up again. I had better find my ring. And soon.