Yumeiro Patissiere

Chapter 30 Miracle Cheesecake

Today group A was looking at cheesecakes; they were going to have a cooking test on cheesecakes. "I can't wait to start making cheesecakes" smiled Ichigo. "Have you made a cheesecake before Ichigo?" asked Vanilla. "I have," said Ichigo "my uncle Hikaru loves cheesecakes the most and so he and I had made them many times together in the past". "So you know how to make cheesecake?" asked Makato. "Yep, the biscuit base is made from crushed digestive biscuits or crackers mixed with some butter, and the creamy filling is cream cheese, which is made with cream and whey, and you mix that with sugar," answered Ichigo, proudly, "and you can also use sour cream which is made from milk that has been fermented with lactic acid bacteria". Makato felt a bit impressed with Ichigo's answer. "I must admit though," said Ichigo "I do know that milk gets heated and then made into curds and whey to make cheese. But I've never seen how they make cheese or butter. I do know how they're made, of course, I just haven't watched them being made with my own eyes". "Then why don't we go and find out?" said Satsuki "we can go to a farm and see how they make butter, cheese and things with our own eyes". The others thought that was a good idea and they agreed to go to a farm.

All the while, Caramel wasn't concentrating on anything today. The sweets spirits had to write a report and send it to the kingdom of the sweets, but Caramel hadn't done hers yet and it wasn't long till the due date. Vanilla, Café, and Chocolat had already sent in their reports, so they got a bit worried about Caramel. Sanosuke reassured Caramel that she will think of a good report.

So the next day group A visited a farm where there were lots of cows, chickens, sheep, and horses. Ichigo felt happy here; being on a farm in the countryside was like she was back at her uncle's place in the countryside. The sweets princes started to enjoy themselves too. At the farm, they had demonstrations on how to make butter, cheese, and other things, which of course made Ichigo interested in watching how they're made. So Ichigo and the sweets princes decided to check them out.

Meanwhile, the sweets spirits were having some kind of trouble with Caramel. Caramel was still not in her concentrating mood and she was scared of cows. "Don't be scared Caramel," said Vanilla "the cows aren't going to hurt you". "They are still scary" cried Caramel. There was worse to come. A calf noticed Caramel and walked over to her; apparently, animals were able to see the sweets spirits. When Caramel noticed the calf she screamed and flew away in terror and the calf ran after her. "Oh goodness sake!" shouted Chocolat, who was not happy with this, "come we better go after her before anything else happens to her".

Meanwhile, group A was talking to one of the farmers on the farm. His name was Mr. Ushijima and he was in charge of keeping the cow sheds clean and making sure that all the cows were healthy. "It's always important here that we keep our cows clean and healthy," said Mr. Ushijima "that way we give out plenty of fresh milk to people". Ichigo and the sweets princes could see that the farmers work very hard to look after both the farm and the animals. At a shop on the farm, there were eggs, milk, cream, butter, cheese, cream cheese, flour and other things being sold. "It's obvious that all of our ingredients for making sweets are from farms," said Satsuki. "That's right," said Ichigo, who already knew this, "and also some fruits and vegetables that we use for sweets are also from farms". "Now I understand how hard the farmers work, it gives me the urge to work harder on making sweets," said Sennosuke. "Hey that gives me a good idea," said Ichigo "why don't we make some sweets for the farmers to say thank you for making these ingredients for us to use". "I like that idea Ichigo-chan," said Satsuki "what sweets shall we make?" "We'll make cheesecakes," said Makato "all the ingredients to make cheesecakes are here, so we shall make cheesecakes". The others liked that idea, so they bought all the ingredients they needed to make cheesecakes in the shop.

While this was happening, Caramel and the calf that followed her were trying to find their way back to the farm. By now Caramel had stopped being scared of the calf and realized that it got lost as she did. So Caramel and the calf decided to find the way back to the farm together. At the time Chocolat, Vanilla and Café were still looking for Caramel. Of course, Chocolat was cross with Caramel for running off but she was worried too. Like Makato, Chocolat couldn't admit that she was worried about scared about something. At that moment they found Caramel and the calf and Caramel was happy to see them. Just then a saw a huge sparkling lake and Caramel couldn't keep her eyes off it. After seeing the lake the spirits and calf got back to the farm and the calf was reunited with its mother. Next, the spirits decided to go back to their partners before anything else happened.

Ichigo and the boys were in a kitchen starting to make their cheesecakes. Their spirits were confused by this, but they pitched in to help at once. Caramel was back into her concentrating mode again and didn't slip up once. Soon the cheesecakes were done; Ichigo made a strawberry cheesecake, Makato made a chocolate marble cheesecake, Satsuki made a vanilla cheesecake and Sennosuke made a green tea cheesecake.

That evening group A presented their cheesecakes to Mr. Ushijima and the other farmers. Ichigo explained that she and the boys were aiming to become patissiers and patisseries and they realized how hard everyone on the farm worked. "So we present to you these cheesecakes to say thank you for producing the things like milk and eggs etc that we use for making sweets". Mr. Ushijima and the other workers loved the cheesecakes a lot and thanked Ichigo and the boys. Mr. Ushijima was grateful. "I'll continue to work hard to make delicious milk for you to use," he said. The sweets spirits made sweets cards of the cheesecakes and sent them to the queen.

The next day everyone had the tests of making cheesecakes and of course group A got the highest mark. "I can't even compare my cheesecake to yours," Rumi said to Ichigo. "Oh I don't know about that, I mean your cheesecake is good too" Ichigo reassured Rumi. Rumi gave a piece of her cheesecake to Ichigo and Ichigo tried it. "Wow your cheesecake is delicious Rumi; you used the cream cheese I brought back for you from the farm right?" "That's right I did, wow you can tell that from one bite," said Rumi. "That's because Mr. Ushijima's cream cheese has a different taste compared to the cream cheese the princes and I used," said Ichigo.

Makato, Sennosuke, and Satsuki heard what Ichigo said. "I can't really taste the difference with our cream cheese and Mr. Ushijima's cheese, can you?" said Satsuki. "No," said Sennosuke "only a few professional patissiers can tell the difference with ingredients even if they taste the same". "Ichigo-chan's sense of taste is terrifying," said Satsuki. "What kind of tongue does she have and where did she get it from?" asked Makato. The sweets princes had started to realize that Ichigo had a very good sense of taste.

At that time the sweets spirits had gotten their marks from their reports. Vanilla and Chocolat both got two stars, Café got one star and Caramel got three stars, which was the highest mark. Caramel explained that seeing the sparkling lake at the farm yesterday gave her the inspiration for her report. This made the others realize that they needed to work harder on reports next time and think it through carefully.

The end.

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