Yumeiro Patissiere

Chapter 22 The Promised Perfect Sweets

One morning Ichigo woke up from a good night's sleep, but when she looked at her alarm clock to see the time she realized that it was nearly time for school to start. "Oh gosh I'm late!" she shouted, "my alarm clock didn't go off." She quickly got into her uniform, did her hair and got her bag ready. Then she quickly ate some leftover iced buns that she made last night for snacks; there was no time for her to have breakfast. Ichigo ran down the stairs, said morning to the landlady of the girl's school dorms and quickly ran off to class. The landlady was a middle-aged woman with glasses. "This is the first time I've seen Amano being late," the landlady said to herself "I wonder what made her late?"

Luckily she made it to class just in time. "Hey Amano you're late," said Makato. "I know my alarm clock didn't go off" said Ichigo, all out of breath. After the morning normal school lessons it was time for cooking lessons. This time the lesson was about making Baumkuchen. Baumkuchen was a sponge spit cake. It was called a spit cake because the cake was made by pouring the batter on a cooking spit, in a special oven called a Baumkuchen oven. "I've never cooked on a cooking spit before," said Ichigo "what do I have to do". "We'll show how to put the Baumkuchen batter onto the spit, and then you can have a go" said Satsuki. Baumkuchen batter was made with butter, eggs, sugar, vanilla, salt, and flour. "What you do is that you put a thin layer of the batter onto the spit," said Sennosuke "then when that layer is starting to brown, you put another thin layer on. And you keep on going until you've done fifteen layers". Ichigo had a go after she watched Satsuki, Makato and Sennosuke put a layer on each. Taking care not to go too fast or too slow, Ichigo managed to place a layer of the batter onto the spit. The boys finished off the rest.

"Phew, that was nerve-wracking" said Ichigo, when it was break time. She had never cooked with a cooking spit before, so today's lesson made her nervous. "You didn't need to be that nervous just because this was your first time using a cooking spit" said Makato. "Excuse me Kashino," said Ichigo "but I was told that you were panicky when you handled boiling water for the first time". Makato blushed and glared at Sennosuke. Sanosuke told Ichigo about that time. "Had you never been near a cooking spit before Ichigo-chan?" asked Satsuki. "Well a neighbor of my uncle has one," said Ichigo "and a few years ago he used his cooking spit for a barbeque. He offered to show me and my sister how to cook with it, but my dad forbids it because he thought they were too dangerous". "Well your dad is right, cooking spits can be dangerous if you're not careful" said Sennosuke. "Hey Amano, why were you late this morning?" asked Makato. "Well apparently Vanilla admitted earlier that she struck my alarm clock while she was sleeping, and that's why the alarm didn't go off," said Ichigo "I'll have to make sure she's not anywhere near it tonight".

When lessons were finished with, Ichigo was still in the cooking room and she just made some rock cakes for snacks. Rock cakes were little hard cakes with currants, raisins, and sultanas. "Another sweet to send to the queen" said Ichigo, making a recipe card. "I'll need to practice making Baumkuchen again tomorrow, to get used to the cooking spit in the Baumkuchen oven". Ichigo said to Vanilla. "I agree with you on that Ichigo, you were nerve-wracking today" said Vanilla. Ichigo looked thoughtful. "I could ask the landlady of the girl's dorm to give me a few pointers," she said, "she makes Baumkuchen, so if I ask her she might help me". "I like that idea Ichigo, but she looks scary to me because she's strict and serious" said Vanilla. "Yes that's true," said Ichigo "but seriously Kashino is way scarier than her". Vanilla chuckled at that comment.

When Ichigo was on her way to the girl's dorm she noticed that the landlady, Harue Kirishima, and her husband, Kazuhiko Kirishima, who was the landlord of the boy's dorm, were arguing. Ichigo saw the sweets princes too. "What's going on?" Ichigo asked the boys. "Mr. and Mrs. Kirishima are arguing about something, but we don't know what" said Satsuki. "It's probably a husband and wife quarrel thing," said Ichigo "my parents quarrel over things all the time too". Ichigo and the sweets princes saw Harue leave the house, where she and her husband lived, with some bags of things. Kazuhiko was trying to stop her to leave, but she wouldn't listen and just left.