Not Just Ordinary Food [Research/SOLO]

[kittygrey]

This was it. Ame was ready to begin to create something new, something different than the normal recipes she worked on. She wanted to create something other adventurers or Landers hadn't created in scope. She was creating desserts. Not just any desserts, but icing, cake mixes, cupcakes, decorative sugared items, things that she could use to make her cafe different from others. She wanted to be known for her crafts and her cafe, more so than any other craft or cafe around. She wanted to set the bar high and raise then current standards of the sweet confection treats that many people sold and even the ordinary food recipes that were the current hype. She needed to work her craft into something special, something more than just the same, boring treats that were currently being produced. If she could create this power, she would be first at hand to be the one to sell her new creations, bringing a name to her shop and herself. She was ready to bring in a new sensation of the palette and a new look to it as well. Today, she would create two simple things, but turn them into luxurious pieces of art in the food industry. She took a deep breath in and nodded her head. "I can do this!"

She would start off with the more simple treat. First, she needed to create a vanilla pudding, which was simple enough. She had the ingredients set out, heating a medium sized pan behind her and she poured two cups of milk into the sauce pan. As she waited for it to bubble, in a bowl, she mixed sugar, cornstarch and a little salt. As the milk boiled lightly around the edges she began to pour the mixture into the heated milk, a little at a time, stirring to dissolve. She continue to cook and stir until the mixture thickened enough to coat the back of the metal spoon that she had used to stir the mixture together. Before it began to boil, she removed it from the heat of the stove and began to stir in a bit of vanilla and butter Usually she would put the mixture into individual bowls and let it cool and sit, but instead she put a curvy edge into a triangular plastic and put the mixture into it, tying the end and putting it into the fridge. She would wait for it too cool to use it, but until then, it was time to begin making the puff in the cream puff.

First and fore most, she preheated her brand new oven to the correct temperature. In a large pot, she brought water and butter to a rolling boil. She stirred in flour and salt until the mixture formed into a ball of dough. She then transfer the dough into a large mixing bowl. Using a wooden spoon, she began to beat in four eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. She then took out a baking sheet and began to drop tablespoons of the dough onto the baking sheet, not using any sort of butter or oil to grease the pan. She didn't want the balls of dough to fall into one another. Once the dough balls were completely laid out away from each other, she popped them into the preheated oven and cooked them until they were a golden brown color. She took them out and kept them on the stove top to dry. She had one more thing to make before she could complete the puff balls. That was the chocolate!

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[kittygrey]

To complete her recipe, she needed chocolate, not a frosting, but a nice thick syrup to add to the looks of the pastry and of course the taste as well. In a small pot, she brought water and sugar to a boil, whisking in cocoa, vanilla, salt, and corn syrup. She would whisk until all of the solids had dissolved and reduced the heat on the sauce until it was slightly thickened. She took a thin mesh strainer and strained it into a bowl. She would let it sit while she completed the puffs and let the chocolate's temperature sink to room temperature. As she did so, she took the puff balls that she had made and squeezed them lightly to make sure they were cooled enough and smiled with her touch. She took out a plate and broke the tops off of three of the cream puffs. she touched the inside of it, feeling that it was dry and cool and nodded, going to the fridge.

She squished the bag of vanilla pudding, feeling the right consistency for it and cut open the tip of the triangle bag, squeezing the tip tool up until it was poking out at the bottom. The she put the tip to the bottom half of the puff and swirled the vanilla pudding around it, making a nice fluffy bed for the top. She did this with all three and then moved onto the next plate. She had made a total of fifteen puffs out of the batch of dough and positioned them over 5 different plates. She squeezed the vanilla pudding onto each and then put their tops on. She checked the temperature of the chocolate and poured it into a squeeze bottle. She took the squeeze bottle in hand and shook it lightly until she was sure that the syrup and moved down to the tip. She then made simple, but cute designs over the tops of the cream puffs. Some had polka dots, some had swirls and whatever other creativity burst through her mind as she decorated the tops of each. Once she was finished, she smiled down at the finished result and stored them in the fridge. It acted as her inventory, which was nice and would keep the chocolate from melting and ruining the designs. She cleaned up her station. Now was the time to move onto part two.

Words: 400

[kittygrey]

For Ame's next set of desserts, she had alot to do. She was going to make pretty cupcakes with pink and white icing. She knew that Valentine's day wasn't any where close, but she planned to have her shop open around that time and she wanted to be sure that she started off with something simple. If she succeeded in the pink icing, she would try her hand at green and red for a more Christmas look. Prior to starting her mission, however, she had set out the eggs and butter to allow them to reach room temperature. She had bought white cupcake wrappers, but had drawn on little pink hearts and swirls to give it an extra boost of cuteness to it. She placed the wrappers in a baking sheet that would hold twelve of the cupcakes. She started off by stir together salt, baking powder and flour. She then preheated the oven again at a lower heat than before. She whisked butter and added sugar, whisking until it was combined. She continue to whisk though and added three eggs, one at a time, then added the last ingredient, vanilla and finished whisking it all together. She added part of the flour mixture then some of the milk, starting to whisk again. She felt her arms getting tired, but she wouldn't let down. She would repeat until all of the milk and flour mixture had been added. Once the mixture was combined, she spread the batter into cupcake pan and put it into the oven.

While the cupcakes cooked, in a large bowl, she began to beat butter until it had a creamy texture. She added in the confectioners' sugar, vanilla and enough milk to achieve her desired consistency, making it into a creamy icing. She parted it into two separate bowls and took strawberries from the fridge. In a separate bowl, she used her mashing tool and mashed the strawberries until the oven beeped at her. She took the cupcakes out and set them on a nearby cooling rack/ They would have to be room temperature or lower for the icing to stick properly. She spooned out a few teaspoons of the strawberry juice and added it into one of the bowls of icing. She whisked it again and it turned into a slightly pink color. She added a few more teaspoons until the icing was a sweet pink color, the color that she desired it to be. Then the last step before she could decorate. She poured a bunch of sugar into another bowl and added the mashed strawberries into it. She mixed it in until the sugar was a darker pink color than the icing. She let that sit for a little before she would continue on to decorate the cupcakes and make the pink sugar into shapes, letting it harden a bit. She was rather excited to begin decorating the cupcakes and wondered who she should have test them out, but secretly she already knew.

Words: 500

[kittygrey]

Ame's next step was to wash out the left over vanilla pudding out of the triangle bag and once she did, she put in the white icing. She made a mental note to buy extras as she would need them for different colored icings. She set it aside and felt the texture of the pink sugar. It was a bit hardened, but just enough for her to take it out and lay it over a baking sheet, pressing it down until it was flat enough for her. She then carefully cut out little heart shapes and set them on a separate sheet of the baking paper so that they could continue to harden. Then she checked on her cupcakes. She felt the tops of it, squishing it down lightly to make sure they were fluffy and once she was pleased with how they had come out, she laid each of them on the counter. She took the bag of white icing and began to spread the first layer over about three quarters of the top, bringing in each layer a bit until the third layer started at the half mark of the cupcake. She lifted the icing tip off of the mound and made a nice curl at the top of it. She did this with all twelve of the cupcakes and then washed the bag out. Next, she put in the pink icing in it and made three layers on each cupcake, covering the spots that the white didn't hit. Ash she brought you the third layer, she mad a similar curl like the white one, but twisted it around the white twist. After she finished each cupcakes icing, she shoot back and looked it over with a smile.

Next she took the left over sugar that she hadn't cut into hearts and began to crush it into fine, sugary pieces. She sprinkled the pink sugar just around the twists of the icing and made sure not to add a lot. The dessert was sweet enough, if she added any more people's teeth would probably begin to rot instantly. She knew it wasn't true, but she didn't want to make the cupcakes overly sweet, just sweet enough. Once she had a thin layer of the sugar over the tops of all the cupcakes, she took up the hardened sugar hearts and stuck one in between the two colored twist on each cupcake. The tops of the sugared hearts would stick out while the tips of them would be stuck in the icing. Upon pulling it out, the bottom would have a nice bit of icing to add to the taste of the dyed sugar. Now, her craft was complete, as were the items she had made and the research she had done to complete them, even though her research was just her own pure knowledge of cooking creations. She took each cupcake and placed them into the fridge to remain fresh until she met Lavinia, one of the people she would no doubt allow a first taste, and the other, well, just the other. Luckily, again, the fridge acted as her own storage, so even if he wouldn't come to her, she was sure that they would run into each other at some point, just like they had many times before, and she would have them on hand to give to him. She nodded her head and felt satisfied with her day's work, but it was clean up time and then rest time. It wasn't that hard of work for her, especially because she truly enjoyed it, but she didn't feel slightly tired now.

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