Happy Sweet 16, Katie!
August 4th. Sunday. 9am. Katie's 16th birthday.
Carlos was up. He was giddy. His gift idea was the best in the history of birthday ideas! He slowly got out of bed, tip-toed around the room as he pulled his clothes on, careful not to wake James from his beauty sleep. He creped out of the bedroom, made his way down Swirly with a huge grin on his face. He jumped up tapping his head, sighing when he realized he had forgotten Helmet upstairs, knowing perfectly well he had no time to run back up and get it.
He quickly made his way to the kitchen, pulling out his iPhone, tapping his special little bookmark with the step-by-step recipe on how to make a dark chocolate with sour cherry cream filling cake. Carlos really wanted to make Katie her favorite cake. She had totally and utterly refused to have a girly-girl Sweet 16 party, but that didn't mean that Carlos would allow Katie to have a cake-less birthday. No way. No siree!
He put his iPhone up on the counter, where he could easily read from the screen. He gathered up the flour, the eggs, the milk, the chocolate, the sour cream, his pans and bowls and spatulas – everything he needed. His smile only grew wider as he realized he will have to make everything by hand, without any electrical appliances as the noise would wake everyone in 2J and give away his surprise before the right time came around.
He carefully read the instructions and prepped his oven at the right temperature, mixed in his dry ingredients, then the wet ones, whisking away while he hummed to himself. As soon as he got the sponge in the oven, Carlos did a little happy jump. He filled his half "hour to 45 minutes" of wait with making the sour cherry filling.
"Use a bain-marie to melt the chocolate? What's a bain-marie?" Carlos scratched behind his head. With a sigh he brought up a Google page and searched for the dang thing. "A bowl over a boiling water pot… oh-kay… I can do that." Carlos whispered to himself. He got a pot, filled it with water and set it on the stove to boil, placing a glass bowl on top – as his Google page told him to – and got the chocolate in it. Then Carlos thought it would be better if he broke the chocolate tablet in pieces – make the process faster. Except now the chocolate looked rather hot, and, he might be reckless, but Carlos has learned a long time ago not to stick his hands on hot stuff. So that made the "breaking the chocolate" process a bit messy, but Carlos finally got it done, smiling happily when he saw it melt away into a brown, delicious looking goo.
Carlos got his iPhone again. "Add sour cream to make the chocolate silky. OK." He did as instructed then put the sour cherries in. "Mmmm… this smells good." Carlos got the urge to taste it, but, at the last minute, remembered it was still hot. Carlos sighed.
The timer on the stove went off and Carlos' smile doubled in size. He opened the oven door and got a face-full of gorgeous smell that made his mouth water. He grinned. He carefully got the pan out and put it on the grill, to cool down, as per his iPhone instructions. As the sponge got a bit of rest so did his filling. That gave Carlos enough time to run into the kitchen bathroom and groom himself a little. Before he left, he made sure to cover the chocolate up with clear film, so that it wouldn't grow a crust – or so his iPhone said.
He was no James Diamond, but he wanted to look nice when he presented Katie with his masterpiece. God! He was so happy that he had managed NOT to burn the sponge and actually have a chance to get Katie's cake done right and in time.
20 minutes later Carlos was out of the bathroom. The cake pan was cool enough for him to touch now. He carefully took out the rims of the pan and began jumping up and down at the fact that he had gotten a perfect round shape. He let it rest a little while longer while he checked his e-mail, twitter, facebook and instagram, just for the hell of it. That, amazingly enough, took half an hour.
Pulling up his instructions again, Carlos took the biggest knife Momma Knight owned and cut the sponge in half with one clear cut, feeling like a boss as he did so. He gingerly placed the bottom sponge on the plate he had gotten especially for this occasion then fist pumped the air. "Katie is gonna be so blown away!" He chuckled to himself as he put a generous amount of chocolate on the sponge, letting it drip off the sides.
When that was done and he was satisfied with the amount of filling he had, Carlos gently put the top half of the sponge on the cake and gently pressed down, like his iPhone said he should do. The filling spilled a little from in between the two sponges, but that didn't matter as he would later put the chocolate all over the cake.
Carlos made sure the outside of the cake looked perfect, sticking his tongue out a little as he focused deeply on getting the cake perfect for his little sister. When he was done, Carlos grabbed the raspberries he had hidden away way in the back of the fridge, away from Kendall's greedy little raspberry loving paws! He washed the beautiful little fruits and used them to write "Katie" on his cake. When that was done as well, Carlos took a small step back, admiring his masterpiece.
It was missing something. "Powder sugar." He decided. He turned around ravaging the cupboards for Momma Knight's powder sugar. He couldn't find it anywhere. Then, just as he heard a bit of movement in the apartment and realized that his time had run out, he spotted the box on the top most shelf of the cupboard. He tip-toed to get it but his fingers barely brushed against the round box. Carlos groaned a little, in annoyance. He jumped up, trying to get the box. It moved a little but it didn't help much. Carlos jumped again, reaching as high as he could. The box moved again and time slowed down for Carlos – he could clearly see everything happen as if playing a movie in slow motion.
The bottom of the box moved a little inside of the cupboard while the top tilted outward. Carlos' eyes went wide-wide seeing as the lid was falling off, a rain of sugar falling all over him, in his freshly made hair and the entire kitchen. He squealed loudly forgetting to stay quiet and not wake the other inhabitants of 2J. Not that it would have mattered anyway, since the tin lid of the sugar hitting the kitchen tile made enough noise to wake up the dead.
"What happened?" Momma Knight ran out of her room, her hair a mess, a lamp in her hand, ready to strike at the first sign of trouble. "What's going on?" Three voices sounded from the top of Swirly almost at the same exact moment.
Carlos blushed a deep shade of red under the coat of sugar covering him head to toe.
When Momma Knight, Kendall, James and Logan realized that Carlos was covered in sugar time slowed down again. Carlos was aware of every single reaction.
James and Logan instantly doubled over laughing. "What are you doing?" Kendall asked in a superior tone of voice that made Carlos cringe a little. "Carlos, honey…" Momma Knight tried to keep herself from laughing, always careful not hurt his feelings. "What did you do?"
"What's all the ruckus about?" Katie came out of her room and Carlos really felt like a clouts.
"Carlos…" Logan pointed at him, laughing. Katie pushed past her mother to see what Carlos had done. She gasped at the sight of Carlos all drenched in sugar. She wanted to laugh but smelled something delicious and lifted an eyebrow.
"What did you do?" Katie's voice was stern, if a bit amused, but, at least, she wasn't laughing. Carlos didn't look at her, just lifted an arm to point at the cake safely on the kitchen counter. Katie's eyes followed Carlos' hand and landed on a beautiful looking cake. She looked around the kitchen and saw the pile of pots, pans, bowls and other utensils Carlos had used to make the cake. "You made this?"
Carlos nodded. "For me."
"Happy Birthday?" Carlos asked more than stated.
Katie squealed a little and Carlos suddenly noticed the quiet in the apartment. "You really did this for me?" Carlos nodded again. Katie simply jumped and hugged Carlos, sugar and all. Carlos grinned and hugged his little sister back.
"It's dark chocolate and sour cherry." He whispered in Katie's ear and temporarily lost his hearing as Katie let out another squeal, but he still grinned stupidly.
"Thank you!" Katie kissed Carlos' sugar covered cheek. "Mmmm… sweet." She said and Carlos began to laugh. He didn't feel embarrassed anymore. He felt happy. Happy he was able to make Katie happy. Happy he could impress her.
"Sweeter than usual." He teased and let his laughter fill 2J.