Dokinchan sighed dreamily and reclined into her chair, holding a book to her chest. She had just finished a romance novel about a patissier who confessed to the one she loved with a tiramisu, and later on they held a lavish wedding where the cake was of the same type, 4 layers tall. Dokinchan was now fantasizing about having that wedding with her dear Shokupanman. In their vows, he would say, "Dokinchan, being with you is like being in heaven..." Dokinchan squealed and held her hands to her face, her eyes sparkling. She had decided, that she was going to do her best to impress the love of her life with something sweet. She was going to make him a tiramisu.
"BAIKINMAN! BAIKINMAAAN!" Dokinchan started calling out for Baikinman, dashing out of her room. "BAIKINMAN WHERE ARE YOU IT IS IMPORTANT!" The castle they lived in was pretty big (and, in Dokinchan's opinion, could use a makeover) but the sound carried through the metal halls pretty well. She could faintly hear Baikinman's gravelly voice replying to her shouting. Following it, she found Baikinman in the UFO hangar with a small number of Kabirunrun. He was underneath his UFO with a monkey wrench. From the dented metal and cracked glass dome, it was clear he had lost another fight.
Baikinman wriggled out from under the vehicle, and Dokinchan immediately grabbed him by the shoulders. "Baikinman, you need to help me with something important! It's a matter of life or death!"
"Wh- What is it?! Is the castle under attack? Are you hungry? Are you sick? Are you dying? Is your sister here?"
"BAIKINMAN. I. WANT. TO. BAKE. WE MUST BAKE A CAKE."
Baikinman's look of worry and confusion changed to narrowed eyes and an irritated frown. It wasn't uncommon for Dokinchan to suddenly get excited about such a thing, but it was always troublesome and often led to him getting punched in the face. "Dokinchan, that's. Not a matter of life or death. Why do you want to bake a cake anyway?"
"It's a secret. I don't have to tell you why!" Dokinchan didn't want to tell him it was for Shokupanman, one of his sworn enemies. He would just laugh at her or get upset. "But, I need your help to do it! You need to help me get the things I need for it! We have to do it now!"
"Dokinchan, can't we just steal a cake? Or get Horrorman to make one for you?" Baikinman really wasn't in the mood to go out again, after what he'd been through that morning.
"Baaaikinmaaan, please! It's really important!" Dokinchan shouted while shaking him back and forth.
"Okay! Okay! I'll help you make a cake! Just let me finish working on my UFO first!"
"YAY! Thank you, you're the greatest, Baikinman!" Dokinchan skipped out of room happily, and Baikinman crawled back under his UFO, grumbling to himself quietly.
Later on, in the kitchen of the castle, the two germs were going over what they needed for the cake. Dokinchan had somehow managed to find a cookbook with a tiramisu recipe buried beneath the mounds of junk in Baikinman's room.
Dokinchan pulled out a crayon and started writing down ingredients on a piece of construction paper. "It looks like we already have milk, eggs, and sugar."
"And they're fresh," said Baikinman. "I stole them just two days ago!"
"Do we have cocoa powder? We need to have cocoa powder."
Baikinman dug through some cabinets with a half-hearted effort. "Geez, Horrorman is the one who uses this kitchen the most. Where the heck would he put it?"
"It's in the cabinet above the stove, hora." Horrorman's sudden voice made Baikinman jump up and hit his head.
"You guys like chocolate a lot, so I usually keep some around, hora." As Baikinman glared at him, Horrorman turned to look at the cookbook laying open on the counter. "Oh! Are you guys baking something? That sounds fun! Can I help?"
"As long as you don't get in the way," said Dokinchan with a small frown. "Okay, the next thing we need is... lady fingers?"
"WHAT KIND OF CAKE IS THIS THAT NEEDS FINGERS," shouted Baikinman. He was willing to do a lot to get what he wanted, but that did not extend to cutting off people's body parts. Not to mention that sounded gross.
Horrorman waggled his bony finger and smiled. "They're not real fingers, Baikinman. They're a type of of sweet biscuit, they're just called that because they're long like fingers."
"I knew that!" Baikinman huffed.
"I don't think we have anything like that," said Dokinchan. "They probably have them in the Sweets Kingdom, right? And next is... strong coffee. That's easy enough, just grab some from the coffee lake. And last is... mascarpone."
"What's that? It sounds fancy."
Dokinchan remembered it from her book. "It's a type of white, fluffy cheese that's really sweet," she said. "But I don't know where we'd be able to get any, it's supposed to be valuable and I'd never seen it anywhere."
"Well, what's something we can use instead of that?" Baikinman didn't want to go searching all over creation for it if they could substitute it for something easier to find."
"Um..." Dokinchan flipped through the book looking for information. "Ah! This page says we can use cream cheese mixed with cream instead."
Horrorman clapped his hands together. "We have lots of cream cheese, hora, since you like to eat cheesecake a lot."
"And I think I stole some cream along with the milk," Baikinman said, opening the refridgerator. "Yup, there's a pitcher of it in here."
Dokinchan scribbled on the paper and tore it in half, handing one part to Baikinman. "So we only need to get lady fingers and coffee! Baikinman, I'll look for the fingers with Horrorman, since he knows what they look like. Because of that big kaiju, Mocha, in the coffee lake, you can go get the coffee."
"Why do I have to do the more dangerous one?" spat Baikinman, taking the paper.
"Because I am a BEAUTIFUL and DELICATE lady, who shall not stoop to such a thing," Dokinchan said with a haughty expression. "Anyway, you'd probably cause a huge uproar in the Sweets Kingdom and get in a fight again. It's easier to sneak around at the lake."
"FINE," muttered Baikinman."But you'd better grab some candy for me from there."
Baikinman didn't really want to go to coffee lake, but here he was. He landed his UFO behind some trees and quietly moved toward the lake with a big jug. Normally Baikinman would want to overdo things and drain the lake dry, but that morning stuck in his head and made him want to do things quietly. Although Mocha, the monster that lived in the lake, was gentle hearted and a coward, he and Anpanman had done quite a number on him earlier. Rubbing his still sore head, Baikinman dunked the jug into the coffee and scooped up as much as he could, hoping he wouldn't be seen. With the jug now full and heavy, he had trouble carrying it and slowly toddled to his UFO and flew off. Kaiju Mocha actually had noticed him, and quickly went to tell his friend, Sugarbouya, who lived by the lake. But after a few hours of watching out for Baikinman, they figured he wasn't going to do anything, though they did wonder why he had come back.
"Baikinman, I see you got the coffee!" Dokinchan exclaimed as Baikinman entered the kitchen with the jug, which was spilling slightly as he carried it in. Horrorman quickly got a towel and mopped up the puddles while Baikinman set the jug on the counter with a sigh of exhaustion. He had to carry the heavy container all the way through the castle, and even though he excersized frequently and heavily, he was tired. Dokinchan leaned behing the pile of lady fingers she had brought and pulled out a sack of candy, handing Baikinman a big swirly lollipop. He greedily shoved it into his mouth, and the flavor made his mood much better.
"Well, we'd better start this cake, then." Dokinchan pulled out the book again and peered at the tiny text. "First we have to make the custard, with the eggs, milk, and sugar." Horrorman pulled out these things as she said them, eager to be helpful. Dokinchan pulled out some measuring cups, and while still looking at the cookbook, started measuring them and putting them into the saucepan. "Baikinman, can you prepare a bowl of ice water?"
"Yeah, sure." Baikinman turned on the faucet and waited for the water to become cold, holding a large bowl ready for it. But even as Dokinchan was stirring the thickening ingredients on the stovetop, the water wouldn't get any colder.
"Oh! I think you were supposed to mix just the eggs and sugar before adding the milk," said Horrorman, peering at the page. Dokinchan slowly turned with a horrible look on her face, ready to scream."Ah! But, it's all the same stuff anyway. I'm sure it will be fine."
"Baikinman, get the water on the counter," said Dokinchan. "The custard's ready and I need to cool it."
Baikinman quickly filled the bowl, water splashing everywhere. Lukewarm water was better than no water, he figured. Dokinchan placed the bubbling and splattering saucepan in the water, and they turned back to the book while Horrorman started whisking the custard with a big egg beater, slowly adding the cream cheese to the custard as he mixed it.
"Next we dip the the lady fingers in the coffee, so they soak it in. But not to become soggy." Dokinchan and Baikinman took turns dipping the lady fingers into the jug until they had quite a lot prepared, and covered the bottom of a big baking dish with them. Despite their best efforts, some of them did become soggy, and some even started to crumble.
"Horrorman, is the custard done yet? We need that next." Dokinchan grabbed the saucepan from him, causing it to spill a little. "We need to put a third of this on top of the fingers, then another layer of fingers, then custard, then fingers..." The three set to work adding alternating layers of the biscuits and custard. The rows of lady fingers where awkward and uneven, and the custard was globby in some parts and thin in others, but they tried their best. On top of the last layer of custard they sprinkled on a thick layer of cocoa powder.
"Now it says to cover it and leave it in the fridge overnight." Dokinchan groaned. "I was hoping to finish it today!"
"Chilling is usually an important step in baking, hora," said Horrorman. "We really shouldn't skip it."
"Ugh, you're right," said Dokinchan. "I guess I can wait till tomorrow."
The next morning Dokinchan woke up early, eager to see how her cake turned out. Pulling a still sleepy Baikinman into the kitchen, she flung open the fridge and pulled out the baking pan.
"We're supposed to flip it upside down to get it out of the pan, and then again so the cocoa powder is on top." She placed two round plates on the counter and, firmly slamming the baking pan on top of it, did just that. Finally, she looked upon her finished cake.
"It's... it's..." Dokinchan's eyes shone as she looked at it. The entire thing was lopsided, the corners were crumbled up, excess coffee dripped down the sides, and the cocoa powder had spilled all over the plate and counter. The whole thing looked nothing like the cake she had pictured in her mind.
"IT'S AWFUL! IT'S UGLY! IT'S HORRIBLE!" Dokinchan tried to choke back her tears, but ended up bawling loudly anyway. Baikinman roused from his sleepy state and realized that Dokinchan was upset.
"Dokinchan, don't cry! I'm sure it still tastes okay," he tried to calm her.
"It's still no good!" sobbed Dokinchan. "It's not good enough to give to Shokupanman if it isn't beautifuuuuuul!"
Baikinman drowsily looked back and forth between the sloppy cake and Dokinchan, then pat his friend on the back of her shoulder. "Listen, Dokinchan. That breadface is the sort of nice guy I can't stand. He'd be happy with any gift you gave him, especially if he knew how hard you worked to make it yourself."
"You really think so?" Dokinchan gulped, wiping tears off her face.
"Yeah. And I still think you did pretty good for your first time making it. Trust me, you really can't expect things to go perfectly on your first try. You've seen how many times my plans have messed up. I'm sure you'll get it right next time." Dokinchan nodded, rubbing her eyes. "And if you still don't want to give this one to him, you can try again. We can keep this one for ourselves. It smells great. You can give him a new, better one. I'll even help you again."
Dokinchan smiled and hugged Baikinman. "Thanks, you big dummy. I guess I will try again. Even though it turned out ugly, it was still fun to make. If you want I can cut you a piece."
"Yes," said Baikinman. "Feed me."