Thanks to chapter two's reviewers: Aster Selene, PrincessJaded, Rainbow35, Blazing Chaos, ARCtheElite, ThatsWhatSheSaid07, Catching Rain, guavawolf, emotionless-robot, LoneWolfVampire13 and SugarSpiral!
Today's food theme was requested for by PrincessJaded! :D Remember, if you have any requests, do tell me! I'll definitely do them if I find them suitable. Haha. Order of chapters follow the sequence/timings of the requests!
Chronicles Of All Things Edible
Three: Cupcakes
It is never a good idea to leave three unsupervised nine-year-olds in the kitchen, even if two of them are pretty good cooks and one acts almost twice her age.
"Taichi, you're eating all the batter!" Abovementioned Responsible One wailed angrily. In response, the bushy-haired boy bowed his head shamefully while hurriedly licking his fingers clean of all evidence.
"How can you even stand the taste?" Ishida Yamato wrinkled his nose at Taichi as he carefully poured in a cup of chocolate chips. "This thing smells like vinegar before it's properly baked!"
Taichi shrugged. "It just tastes good. Anyway, what's there for me to do now?"
Takenouchi Sora gazed around the kitchen – to be exact, her kitchen. What had once been a pristine and clean tabletop was now a complete mess. The packet of flour had somehow tipped itself over halfway through the mixing process, and while they had all tried to clean up at first, they had all been distracted by how they were leaving powdery-white handprints everywhere. Said handprints now covered most of the table, along with a small stack of dirty bowls and utensils, half a stick of fast-melting butter, opened packets of sugars and such, and an overripe bunch of bananas.
Oh why in heavens had she been grouped with two boys who possessed no oven in their house? And of all themes for this year's Third Grade Group Project, why did theirs have to be baking? What had made the administrators think that nine-year-olds would be old and careful enough to handle piping hot ovens?
Sora sighed. "Taichi, you can chop the bananas. I'll clean up the bowls…" She edged her way over to the table and picked up the dirty stack. "And Yamato can continue mixing."
"Yes Ma'am!" Both boys saluted at once. A second later, there was a distressed cry as Yamato discovered he had saluted with the hand that was holding the mixing spoon. A large dollop of batter now rested on his carefully brushed hair.
"That smells simply heavenly!" Taichi exclaimed, sticking his head so close to the oven that Sora was half-worried he would get burnt.
Ding! The timer chimed just then and all three jumped in surprise before breaking into embarrassed giggles.
"Now we just have to wait for Okaa-san to come back and take out the tray for us." Sora gazed longingly at the oven.
"We could do it ourselves!" Yamato replied at once. Being the most "experienced" cook amongst the three, he had carried hot saucepans and pots before and was convinced this would be a piece of cake.
"But…" Hunger was overpowering Sora's sense of responsibility. Not to mention memory of one little glitch: that they weren't supposed to eat the cupcakes. "Well, I suppose if you're careful…"
"I trust Yamato!" Taichi grinned, patting his friend's shoulder confidently.
"Okay then!" Yamato turned expertly and grabbed two mittens. The other two blinked in awe before exchanging amazed glances. Never had they seen a nine-year-old boy so at home in a kitchen!
He tugged on the mittens before flinging open the oven door. All three of them swooned for a few seconds as the delicious aroma of banana-chocolate cupcakes hit them. The mix of the tropical fruit and rich chocolate chips was simply perfect. Yamato carefully pulled out the tray and the pair watched with bated breath as he brought it down onto the table.
"YES! You did it!"
"But it's so hot – ow!" Taichi exclaimed as he tried to pick up a cupcake from one of the cupcake tins. "How're we going to take them out?"
All three of them stared despondently at the tin. Wearing mittens would make it near impossible, for it would then make the hands too bulky to take out the cupcakes. With bare hands though, it was far too hot!
"Oh!" Sora beamed suddenly. "I have an idea!"
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It would be half an hour later when Takenouchi Toshiko came back from the supermarket - only to find the three children seated around the table, oblivious to the terrible mess they had created around them and enthusiastically digging into the cupcake tin with teaspoons.
The banana-chocolate cupcake recipe I use calls for cider vinegar, hence the description in the story.
I wrote this in like half an hour, so I'm not too proud of it. Please do tell me what you think! :)
22/7: I added in a line to reflect the "loophole" of sorts ARCtheElite pointed out!
