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...
Today, the students were studying on how to make chocolate in cooking class. There was going to be a chocolate sweets test tomorrow. Ichigo was looking through one of her notebooks; Ichigo had learned how to make chocolate before at school and wrote notes to remember how to make chocolate. Right now she was checking through with what she had to do when melting chocolate in a bowl, over a steaming pan. Makato was watching Ichigo. "Hey Amano," he said, "what are you doing?" "Looking through my notes," said Ichigo "I want to make sure what I'm doing before I start making my chocolate". "You should really be able how to cook with chocolate, without notes," said Makato. "Well I'm sorry to disappoint you, chocolate boy," said Ichigo "but I haven't made chocolate for a while, which is why I'm studying my notes so that I won't make any big mistakes". Ichigo hated it when Makato acted all high and mighty. "Make sure you don't make any big mistakes" replied Makato, rudely. Ichigo felt like stamping on Makato's toes in anger, but she didn't want to cause trouble and just continued looking at her notes.
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Ichigo started to concentrate on her chocolate; she started to make chocolate chip muffins with chocolate whipped cream in the middle. She made the chocolate chip muffin batter with flour, milk, sugar, butter, baking powder, eggs, vanilla essence, chocolate chips, and cocoa powder. When she placed the muffin batter in the oven, she started to work on the chocolate whipped cream. She heated some whipping cream in a saucepan and finely chopped up some milk chocolate. When the cream came to the heat, Ichigo placed the chocolate pieces into the cream to melt. Then, after the chocolate melted, she whisked the cream and chocolate together until the cream was whipped. When the muffins were cooked and cooled, Ichigo cut the top parts of the muffins off, spread some of the creams on top of the bottom parts and placed the tops back on. To finish it off she dusted some icing sugar on top.
Vanilla looked at the muffins. "You did these very well Ichigo," she said. "I actually made these at my old school a few times before" smiled Ichigo. She and Vanilla tried one of the chocolate muffins together. "Oh wow Ichigo," said Vanilla "these are delicious. And I especially love chocolate cream". "Thank you Vanilla" smiled Ichigo. Vanilla made a recipe card of Ichigo's chocolate cream muffins and sent it to the queen.
Makato, who had been keeping watch o Ichigo, came over to look at the muffins. "They look presentable," he said, and he tried one. "You still need a lot to learn about making sweets with chocolate". "I didn't lie when I said that I hadn't made chocolate for a while thank you Kashino," said Ichigo "and that's why I'm going to practice again tonight before the chocolate test". It was quite clear that Ichigo and Makato hadn't quite opened up to each other yet.
That evening, when the classes were all over, Ichigo headed over to the cooking rooms to practice making chocolate. "What chocolate sweet are you going to practice Ichigo?" asked Vanilla. "Well I'll need to think about what sweets I should make for the chocolate test," said Ichigo "and then practice on that. Besides, I would like to make something that would make Kashino loss for words. I'm telling you Vanilla, just because he's a specialist with chocolate does not mean he has the right to look down on others". "You're right Ichigo," said Vanilla "to be honest my rival, who I told you about before, looks down on others too just because she's good with chocolate". Ichigo started to wonder if she will ever meet Vanilla's rival, or meet any other sweets spirits in the school.
Once they got into the cooking class, Ichigo got out the utensils she'll need for making chocolate at once. Then she looked through some chocolate books she got out from the library. After looking she decided to do a chocolate roll; as she wasn't quite skilled in making chocolate yet she decided to do something a bit simple. "Okay Vanilla let's get to work," said Ichigo. "Yes let's" replied Vanilla.
Just as Ichigo was about to start working on her chocolate roll, Makato turned up in the classroom. "Kashino what are you doing here?" asked Ichigo. "I've come here to practice my chocolate making," replied Makato "a chocolate patissier must always practice if he ever wants to make perfect chocolate". Ichigo was impressed that Makato still practiced even though he was a chocolate expert. "Hey Kashino," she said, "are your parents, chocolate makers, as well?" Ichigo thought that Makato's parents must be chocolate specialists too. "No my parents are both doctors," replied Makato "it's my uncle, who is a chocolate patissier, who inspired me to become a chocolate patissier. My uncle owns a chocolate shop and I visited it all the time while I was growing up. And I always loved watching my uncle make chocolate and whenever I helped him he would give me some chocolate as a reward". "Sounds to me that you like your uncle a lot," said Ichigo. "Yeah I do, he was the only person in my family that I was close to," said Makato. "Ah so you don't have a good relationship with your parents," said Ichigo "I understand because I don't really have a good relationship with my mum". She explained to him about her mother favoring her little sister Natsume over her. "My grandma, who I loved a lot, was more of a mum to me than a grandma". Makato just stared at her. "All right enough talking," he said, "it's time to get to work".
As Ichigo was making the chocolate swiss roll batter with milk chocolate, she was noticing Makato dealing with his chocolate. 'Wow,' she thought 'watching Kashino make chocolate makes me realize that he loves making chocolate very much'. After the chocolate roll was baked, Ichigo spread strawberry whipped cream in the middle and wrapped up the roll. For decoration, she spread whipped cream over the top of the swiss roll and added grated milk chocolate for decoration. "That looks good Ichigo" aid Vanilla. Ichigo tried a bit of the chocolate roll. "Hmm it does taste good, but it tastes a little bit too sweet, and it's a bit plain as well," she said. Vanilla tried some as well. "Yes I agree with that," she said.
Ichigo read through the book she was looking at earlier again to see what she should do about her plain chocolate swiss roll. She found out about the differences between dark, milk and white chocolate. "So dark is bitter, milk is sweet and white is the sweetest," she said to herself while writing down notes. Makato came over and placed a hot drink in front of her. "This is hot chocolate," he said, "it may perk you up a bit". Ichigo thanked Makato and tried it. "Delicious," she said. Makato explained that his uncle taught him how to make hot chocolate using cut up pieces of chocolate. "You certainly know how to study things properly," he said to Ichigo. "Well I did come here to study to become a patisserie Kashino," said Ichigo "I didn't come here to show off and mess around you know". "Just try not to exhaust yourself," said Makato. Ichigo could not understand Makato at all; first, he acts mean to her, then he starts acting nice, but still acts rude. 'He is such a sadist' she thought.
Tomorrow it was time for the chocolate test. Ichigo decided to make a chocolate swiss roll again but thought of different ideas. Instead of making the swiss roll cake with milk chocolate, she used bitter chocolate. That way the cake won't be too sweet this time. Next, she added strawberry whipped cream for the middle part and she added some fruits for decoration; strawberries, kiwi fruits, and pineapple. After rolling it up and spreading whipped cream on top, she grated white chocolate for the decoration. "That looks a lot better than the one yesterday Ichigo," said Vanilla. "I agree," said Ichigo "and I call this the angel and devil fruit roll because the white chocolate represents the angel and the bitter chocolate represents the devil". "I like that," said Vanilla, and she made a recipe card and sent it to the queen.
Ichigo and the sweets princes got high marks for their cakes. Satsuki made a chocolate and raspberry cake with a big rose on top. Sennosuke made a chocolate and green tea flavored cake, and Makato made an opera cake, with decoration signs of an opera on top. An opera cake was a french cake made with an almond sponge, soaked in coffee syrup, layered with ganache and coffee buttercream and with a chocolate glaze on top.
When it came to the tasting time Satsuki and Sennosuke liked Ichigo's cake. Makato tried a bit and said; "This is a good chocolate cake, but you still have a lot to learn about chocolate". Ichigo wasn't sure if to feel pleased or cross, but since this was Makato's way of expressing feelings, she didn't bother to say anything back. But one thing for sure was this; she now got to know Makato better.
