Opera cake. That was the recipe Gilbert suggested lina make, and it turned out that preparations were far more ti-consuming than lina had anticipated. Both beans had to be prepared in a certain way before they could be consud or used in cooking, and this took far more ti than lina would have liked.
The Aetherbloom coffee beans needed to be cleaned. Their outer fruits had to be removed, since they were inedible, which already took them far more ti than lina would have liked, even while working together. After that, the beans had to be fernted for two days. Two whole days.
After that, they had to be dried in the sun. Thankfully, the hot sumr weather was still holding up, so they didn't have to wait too long for the process to finish. But it still wasn't the end. The coffee beans still had to be hulled and roasted.
Unfortunately, things were even worse with cocoa beans. They had to fernt for nearly a week. Apparently, without proper ferntation, they wouldn't have the characteristic chocolate flavor. Then they required another week of drying, then roasting and grinding.
It was an absolute pain in the butt. Frankly, if those weren't rare Monster Realm ingredients, lina wouldn't have even bothered. But since they were, then she did her best to endure and complete the process properly.
Of course, lina wasn't one to sit around while waiting. During this whole preparation ti, she was also slowly learning the recipe for opera cake using regular chocolate and coffee.
"Opera cakes use a different kind of sponge, called a joconde sponge. It's different in the way that it uses a lot of eggs and mostly almond flour instead of regular flour," Gilbert explained.
lina, Roxie, and even Ygril were all listening to him without even daring to blink.
"The first step is to asure 120 grams of almond flour and the sa amount of powdered sugar. Whip it with 4 whole eggs until the mixture becos pale and thick."
Gilbert demonstrated, and the three of them followed the instructions. Soon they all had the mixture ready.
"Next, you sift 30 grams of regular flour and fold it into the mixture."
lina and Ygril completed the task comfortably, both familiar with the process, while for Roxie, it took a bit longer. Nonetheless, they waited for her to finish moving onto the next step.
"Now we whip four egg whites with so granulated sugar until stiff peaks," Gilbert said.
lina groaned since he had forbidden her from using magic during the process. Ygril finished first, while lina and Roxie struggled a bit to get it done.
"The next step is very important. You fold these egg whites into the mixture. But you can't do it all at once. Do half first until it is fully incorporated, then the other half."
"This is quite finicky…" lina mumbled, doing her best not to lose the airiness of the mixture as she folded.
"It is a high complexity dish. You're the one who wanted it," Gilbert shrugged.
"I'm quite excited to learn this human recipe. I've never made anything like it," the drow said excitedly while keeping an eye on his folding process.
"After this, add a bit of lted butter," Gilbert said. "But be careful so the butter wouldn't be too hot, otherwise it'll ruin the whole thing."
Sienna quickly lted the necessary amount for all four of them, which they proceeded to fold in.
"Please tell I don't have to do any more folding…" lina whined.
"No, that's it. Spread this thinly on a cooking tray lined with parchnt," Gilbert said.
lina sighed with relief, as did Roxie.
"Sienna, high heat please, approximately eight minutes," the old baker instructed.
"Won't they burn at high heat?" lina questioned.
"That's why we're only keeping them in for 8 minutes."
After that, they had to prepare coffee syrup, but since they didn't exactly have enough space for four people at the stove, lina was the one to prepare it for all of them.
It wasn't particularly difficult. She just had to boil so water with lots of sugar and coffee for a mont, then let it steep for 10 minutes. At the end, she had to drain the syrup off the coffee grounds, and it was ready.
Coffee buttercream was a bit more difficult. At first, they had to cook sugar and water to an exact temperature. Gilbert even pulled a special thermoter for that, although in the future, once Sienna managed to pinpoint this temperature, she would be able to do it for them.
After that, they had to pour this syrup into egg whites while simultaneously whipping them. Despite Gilbert's protest, lina did it with magic. Hot syrup was no joke. She might be fine thanks to her connection to Sienna, but it wasn't the sa for Roxie and Ygril.
Not to ntion that she had continued whipping until the bowl was cool, which would be too much for her flimsy arms. Once that was done, she mixed in soft butter and at the end added two tablespoons of coffee.
The last two elents were chocolate ganache and chocolate glaze, both of which lina was familiar with since creating chocolate eclairs.
"Okay, everyone got their elents in front of them?" Gilbert asked.
Everyone nodded.
"Good, we start with a layer of joconde. Brush it generously with coffee syrup."
The joconde had completely cooled down and was cut into long rectangles. lina brushed the coffee syrup on it, watching how it soaked into the sponge.
"Spread half of your buttercream evenly next," Gilbert said. "Be neat around the edges."
This was actually trickier than it looked, as the buttercream seemingly wanted to go everywhere where lina didn't want it to go. Ygril dealt with the task with surprising ease, while Roxie had buttercream everywhere.
"Add the next layer of joconde and brush that with coffee syrup too."
Easy. Done.
"A thin layer of ganache cos next, after which to lay another joconde."
"Brush with coffee syrup?" lina asked.
"Only lightly. Don't go too crazy with the syrup on the upper layers. After that, use the remaining buttercream."
Taken from , this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
They followed the instructions. Roxie's cake was a bit slanted, but all in all, she was actually doing rather well.
"Now we need to chill these for twenty minutes."
"Yip-yip!" Mango suddenly exclaid and jumped onto the counter. Before anyone could stop her, she breathed an icy breath onto the cakes.
"Oh, no! Please don't tell that you froze them?!" lina exclaid in horror, worried that all their hard work might have been undone.
[Your familiar has unlocked the skill .]
[Pastry Cooling – Allows the users to cool food items to the approximate temperature they desire.]
"A skill?" lina blinked her eyes in surprise.
Gilbert, anwhile, examined the cake and humd in approval. "This is exactly what we need."
Mango yipped with delight, her tail wagging so quickly that lina feared she might knock sothing over. So she gently lifted the fox off the counter.
"Good job, Mango! I didn't know you managed to learn to control your ice so well!"
"Yip-yip!" Mango cheered. Even Sienna looked a bit proud.
"This certainly will make things easier going forward. Although I do fear how quickly you'll be able to make so pastries if you can cool things instantly…"
lina's eyes sparkled with delight. Pastry creams, puff pastries, cream puffs, and everything that needed chilling… Oh, the possibilities!
"Mango, you're going to get quite busy in the kitchen…" Roxie noted.
"We need to implent fire and ice familiars in our kitchens, too. To think that they can unlock mundane skills, too. This is revolutionary!" Ygril cheered.
"Okay, okay. Let's get back to it. We need to cover the cake with glaze. lina, this is your magic glaze, right?" Gilbert asked.
"That's right. Anything covered with it will stay fresh for 3 days," she confird.
"Excellent. Go ahead and pour it on, everyone. Use a smooth motion while neither going too fast nor too slow," Gilbert said and demonstrated.
Everyone repeated the motion. Ygdril's hand was by far the steadiest one, with lina's coming in second. Roxie went a bit too fast at the start, but slowed down too much at the end, making one end of the cake a bit bare and the other overstuffed.
"Aww… I ssed up…"
"This is your first ti, girl. The fact that you finished your cake at all is already an achievent," Gilbert consoled.
"Don't compare yourself to experienced cooks such as myself and Master Gilbert. We've had years of experience. And Miss lina is just abnormal, so it's not wise to compare yourself to her either," the drow soothed the girl.
"Hey! What do you an by abnormal?" lina narrowed her eyes.
"He's completely right. There has not been a single normal thing about you since you've arrived here," Gilbert muttered. "Causing trouble wherever you go."
"I have to cause trouble if I want to make a change," lina countered.
"You're not wrong there. In either case, let's return to the cake. This needs to chill for 2 hours. Mango, do you think you could do it? Make sure not to freeze it."
Mango yipped with determination. lina lifted her and allowed her fox to breathe her icy breath onto the cakes.
[You've made . You've gained 30 exp.]
[Your familiar has reached Level 2.]
"Look at that! Mango leveled up," lina announced.
The fox yipped excitedly.
"That is reassuring. It would be difficult for the little Mango if she never leveled up. Leveling is crucial for a monster's growth. But to think that they could level up without even killing each other," Ygril said.
"Making cakes is much better than killing. Isn't it, Mango?" Roxie said, and Mango yipped in agreent.
"Check everyone's rank for , lina," Gilbert said.
lina nodded and saw that Roxie's cake was Rank C, Ygdril's was Rank A, while Gilbert's was Rank S.
"Master, your cake is Rank S!" lina announced in surprise.
"That's curious… I've only ever managed to achieve it a few tis in my life…" Gilbert scratched his beard thoughtfully.
Sienna let out a proud chitter, and then lina understood what happened.
"It must have been Sienna's skill
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