This is about a non-cry baby, naïve and klutz Amano Ichigo, who attends St. Marie Academy to become a patisserie like her grandmother before her. Smart and badass Ichigo. Who was taught by her grandmother since she could walk. And the bedtime storie...
Ichigo was starting to enjoy her new school life at St Marie Academy; she made some new friends and was happy to learn more about making sweets. The cooking lessons were hard of course, but even Ichigo knew that becoming a patisserie was never an easy task. Her grandma uses to tell her about all the difficulties she went through before she became a patisserie. But Ichigo wasn't going to let anything stand in her way of becoming a patisserie.
One day, Ichigo was outside in the school gardens reading a cooking book. It was about how to make choux pastry and how to make sweets with choux pastry like éclairs, choux buns, and profiteroles. The class was going to have a test about making choux buns tomorrow and Ichigo wanted to study the topic at once. "Have you not made choux pastry before Ichigo?" asked Vanilla, who was also looking at the book. "Yes I've made it before, but not for a long time," Ichigo admitted, "so I'll need to practice making choux buns later on". "I can help you if you like," said a voice from near the rose bushes.
The voice belonged to Satsuki. "Hanabusa-Kun, what are you doing here?" asked Ichigo. "I'm tending to the roses around here," said Satsuki. Ichigo called Satsuki, Sennosuke, and Makato by their surnames and the boys called Ichigo by her last name. "Do excuse me for being curious," said Ichigo "but why are you so fascinated with roses? I mean I know you told me that you grew up with roses, but the way you handle roses and make sweets based on them is like roses are the love of your life". "Well the truth is," said Satsuki "the reason I like roses is because of my dad. My dad loved to grow and tend to roses and it's because I loved my dad so much that I love roses". "Is your dad still growing roses?" asked Ichigo. "I'm afraid not," said Satsuki "the truth is he passed away a few years ago". "Oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry like that," said Ichigo. "No it's okay," said Satsuki "being surrounded by roses and making sweets based on roses makes me believe that my dad is still with me even though he's in heaven". "I understand," said Ichigo "my grandma is in heaven too, but I feel she's watching over me whenever I make sweets".
Satsuki showed Ichigo all the rose bushes on the school grounds. There were red roses, white roses, and pink roses and they all looked beautiful. Satsuki picked a pink rose and handed it to Ichigo. "A pretty girl like you Amano-chan deserves this rose," he said. "I thank you I guess Hanabusa-Kun," said Ichigo. Ichigo could tell that Satsuki was one of the pretty boys who loved to flirt with girls.
After Satsuki showed Ichigo the rose bushes, they first got changed into their chef coats and put on their aprons.
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Then he started to show her how to cook with choux pastry in the cooking room. To make the choux pastry, Ichigo placed some cut up square bits of butter and some cold water into a saucepan and placed it on a medium heat on the hob. While the butter melted, Ichigo sieved some flour into the bowl and added some sugar to it. After the butter melted and the water started to boil a bit, Ichigo turned off the heat, placed the saucepan on a cool rack and beat the flour and sugar together with the butter and water. The mixture turned into the dough, and then Ichigo added some beaten egg yolks to the dough and stirred them together until the dough turned into a smooth glossy paste. "Now we add the paste to the piping bag," said Satsuki, handing her a piping bag. Ichigo placed the paste into the piping bag and piped the choux pastry mixture onto a non-stick baking papered tin, and then placed them in the preheated oven. While the pastry was baking, Ichigo got the cream ready to go into the middle and got some icing sugar ready to dust on top. Once the choux pastry was baked, Ichigo cut a small hole into each pastry bun and then put them back into the oven for another few minutes. After the pastry was cooked and cooled again, Ichigo piped the cream into the buns and then dusted icing sugar onto the top.
Ichigo's choux buns turned out to be successful and tasted delicious. "You did very well Amano-chan," said Satsuki. "Thanks to your help Hanabusa-Kun," said Ichigo, gratefully, "and now I feel ready for tomorrow". Ichigo and Satsuki shook hands with each other as proof as friendship. "I've got to say Amano-chan," said Satsuki "you certainly understand well that making sweets takes practice and a lot of concentration". "Well the truth is I had been told all my life that you always have to work hard to be whatever you want to be, whether you want to be a musician, an artist, a patisserie, etc." said Ichigo "so I intend to work hard to be a patisserie like my grandma". Satsuki understood.
The next day came and it was time to make choux buns in cooking class. Ichigo calmly made the choux pastry, like how she did yesterday, and then for the filling, she filled the buns with cream and some pieces of cut up strawberries; she made strawberry choux buns with icing sugar on top. "Those are great Ichigo," said Vanilla. Vanilla made a recipe card of the strawberry choux buns and sent it to the queen.
Ichigo's choux buns were given good marks and they became popular with Ichigo's friends. Satsuki and Sennosuke liked Ichigo's choux buns too. Makato tried one as well. "They're not bad," he said bluntly. Ichigo already knew what Makato's attitude was like, so she just said thank you. Ichigo thought that today was a good day because she had found a good friend in Satsuki Hanabusa.
