About two hours later…
Just as Yuki opened the door, the clock struck 2 o'clock. They had only three hours until he had to go pick up Tohru-chan from work.
"How many cakes can we bake in three hours?" Yuki asked as he led the way to the kitchen, struggling with all the bags he was carrying.
"Well, the practice cakes should be small and you should probably make as many practice cakes as possible before you have to make the FINAL (A/N: dun dun dunnn) ones. The thing with cakes is that as long as you follow the recipe to the dot, you'll get a pretty, tasty cake. However, you don't know how to do any of the things a recipe asks you to do. So I guess that's what we'll mostly be working on. What it means when they ask you to break an egg, etc."
Yuki was following along just fine until the last comment.
"Kagura-chan, is that supposed to be some sort of vile joke?" he asked with a disgusted face. "Break an egg? Ugh."
Kagura started laughing. "That's exactly what I mean Yuki-kun! You don't know how to do anything that a recipe asks you to do."
When she was finished with her fake, boisterous laugh, she got the cookbook with the recipe on it. "All right, it says here it takes an hour and five minutes for each cake to be fully baked and that's if we don't double the recipe. So I think we should make two separate cakes today in 10x10 pans and then we'll still have enough time for clean-up so Tohru-chan doesn't suspect a thing!"
"That sounds perfect, Kagura-chan."
"Ok, let's get the stuff we need first."
"But we already did," Yuki protested.
"Oh, those are the ingredients Yuki-kun. I'm talking about the bowls and measurement cups and spoons now."
"Oh."
"Ok, watch closely Yuki so you know where you can find everything from now on."
Yuki got out his notebook and pen.
"The bowls are in the cabinet to the immediate left of the oven. For this recipe, we need a large bowl. When you double it, you are going to need two large bowls. Got that?"
Yuki nodded and Kagura continued.
"The measurement cups and spoons are over here in the drawer to the left of the oven. The drawer next to the drawer with the cookbooks in it. We need one set of cups and one set of spoons."
"The electric mixer is in the same cabinet as the blender and other mechanical appliances. This cabinet is to the right of the oven. It's the only cabinet to the right of the oven," Kagura spoke extra slowly for Yuki's benefit. "Did you understand all that?"
"Yes. But could you explain the measurement utensils to me?"
"Of course, but I thought we could do that as we went along. Now that we have everything out, could you read to me the first step in the recipe please?" Kagura asked Yuki.
"It says to 'Preheat the oven to 350˚F and make sure the baking rack is in the middle'. I don't think this cookbook is very good Kagura-chan. It has a typo. How do you PREheat an oven? And what's a baking rack?"
"It's not a typo, Yuki. Ovens take a long time to heat up so you have to set it before you start anything else. That way the oven is at the perfect temperature when you are ready to put in the cake. There are three baking racks in an oven, sometimes two. This oven has three and our cake goes on the middle one when we put it in, ok?" Kagura explained.
Yuki nodded and Kagura continued.
"To preheat the oven, you first push this button here, BAKE, once. See these three dashes here? That means you can now set the temperature to what you want the oven to heat up to. We want 350˚F. So we use this button here, and press it. See how 300˚F showed up? We keep pressing this button until the screen reads 350˚F. See? Now once the 350˚F shows up, you just stop pushing buttons, and it'll automatically start preheating in a few seconds. Let's wait and see."
In a few seconds, the PREHEAT light turned on, and Kagura looked at Yuki. He was writing furiously in his little notebook. Kagura!
Finally he looked up and said "Got it!" Kagura again!
"Okay, Step 1: Done. What's the next step Yuki-kun?"
"It says to 'In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, sugar and eggs using a mixer on high speed'." Yuki stated.
"Okay. Before we do that, we have to put the correct amounts of the butter, sugar, and eggs in the large bowl. The recipe says we need 1 ¾ cups of sugar. Can you bring the sugar here, Yuki-kun? Thank you. See this measuring cup Yuki-kun? This cup can hold one cup of any ingredient."
"But we need 1 ¾ cups of sugar." Yuki interrupted.
"Yes, I was getting to that. First let's add one cup of sugar to the bowl okay? Here, watch how I do it, okay?"
Kagura took the measuring cup and dipped it in the sugar. When she took it out, she took a ruler and measured off the excess sugar.
"See how I got rid of the extra sugar? This ruler levels off the sugar and makes sure we have exactly one cup." Then Kagura dumped the sugar into the bowl and grabbed a different measuring cup.
"This cup can hold ¾ of any ingredient. If we got one cup of sugar using that cup and ¾ cup of sugar using this one, how much do we have total?" Kagura asked Yuki.
"Err…1 and ¾!" Yuki shouted.
"Yes! Exactly. Good job, Yuki-kun. Now I want you to get the ¾ cup of sugar. Here's the cup and here's the ruler to level it off."
Yuki took the cup and hesitantly dipped it in the sugar sack. Slowly he brought it out. "Like this?" he asked Kagura.
She nodded, encouraging him. "Now what do you do?"
"Um…err…do I take the ruler and level off the sugar?" he half-asked, half-said.
"Yes but why?"
"…To make sure no…extra sugar gets added?" he half-asked again.
"Yep! YAY for Yuki-kun! You're learning! Now that you've told me what you're going to do, do it."
Yuki slowly took the ruler and stuck it vertically in the cup and stirred it.
"No! No, Yuki-kun, WRONG!" Kagura yelled. "I knew I spoke too soon," she muttered to herself as she grabbed the ruler from Yuki before the sugar got everywhere.
"Not like that. Like this." And she showed him again how to slide the ruler across the top of the cup. Then she dumped the sugar back in the sack and thrust the cup and ruler at Yuki. "Try it again."
He got it right this time.
"Do we do the same thing for the butter?" Yuki asked.
"No, not exactly. Could you get one stick of butter for me, Yuki-kun?"
"Err…how big of a stick do you need Kagura-chan?"
"Huh? What are you—oh!" Kagura walked over to their bags of groceries and got a stick of butter. "See this, Yuki-kun? This is a stick of butter."
"Ohhhh."
"Yes, ohhh. Before we add this to the sugar though, we need to slightly soften it. It's been kept in a freezer so it's hard as rock. It's really hard to mix rock-like butter with sugar and eggs. So to soften it, you put it in the microwave. You don't want it in for too long or it'll be too soft and become liquid. You want it just soft enough. See how it's already slightly soft?" Kagura let Yuki feel the butter. (A/N: that sounds dirty for some reason…)
Yuki nodded.
"Good, that means we only put it in the microwave for a short amount of time. Never put the butter in for more than a minute. Always less. We're going to put it in for 30 seconds."
As Kagura put the butter in the microwave, she suddenly had to ask, "Yuki-kun, you do know how to use a microwave, right?"
Yuki glared at Kagura. "Of course, I do. I had to if I wanted to survive and not starve before Honda-san came along."
Kagura laughed. "Good."
The microwave beeped. "All right, let's see the stick of butter," Kagura took out the butter. "Oh good, it's perfectly soft. See Yuki-kun? It's not so soft that's it's running, but it's just soft enough that it won't be a bother to mix with the sugar and eggs."
They walked back to the mixing bowl. "All right, before you add the butter, make sure you unwrap it. You don't want paper in the cake, now do you? Here you do it. I'll watch and guide you."
Yuki, slowly, but perfectly unwrapped the butter under Kagura's watchful eye.
"YAY! Perfect job Yuki-kun! Now just add it to the sugar IN THE BOWL Yuki! IN THE BOWL! NOT THE SUGAR SACK!" (A/N: Hahaha…I thought this was really funny…it took me a few minutes to recover from the laugh attack. Hahaheehehaha)
Kagura sighed. "Okay, now for the eggs. The recipe says two eggs, right? Okay. Here they are. To break an egg Yuki, you lightly tap the middle of the egg against the counter like this," Kagura showed him. "LIGHTLY, mind you. Now, see you the egg shell is now in two halves? You hold the egg about the bowl, and slowly pull the two halves apart. See? Now you do the other one. But do it over this other bowl just in case."
Kagura set a small bowl before Yuki. It was a good thing she did because Yuki accidentally forgot to lightly tap the first egg and it exploded in his hands. Yuki managed to get the slight crack in the second one but most of the egg shell ended up in the bowl along with the egg. His third one he tapped too lightly and got frustrated and ended up whacking it against the counter. His fourth one, however, was perfect.
"Niiice Yuki. Now you're ready to really do it. Here you go. Do your stuff Yuki-kun!" Kagura said.
Yuki managed to break the egg into the large mixing bowl. It wasn't perfect but it was good enough. There were no loose egg shell pieces nor was there any frustration.
"I plugged in the mixer. Yuki, see the three speeds on here? The recipe says to do mix these three ingredients on high speed. But you're never supposed to start on high speed. We'll start mixing with low speed and then in a few moments, we'll increase the speed to high. We start with low speed because if we started with high, some of these ingredients might start flying around the room and then we'd have an even bigger mess to clean up later than just these eggs. So watch me, k? First you put the beaters among the ingredients. Then to turn the mixer on, you push the Power switch to LOW. Like this. See how I slowly move the mixer in a circle. That's so everything gets mixed together. Now you try it. Keep it on LOW though till I tell you, okay?"
Kagura handed the mixer to Yuki. "Thanks Kagura-chan." He slowly moved the mixer in a circle, getting all the ingredients.
"Yuki move the Power switch to HIGH now." Yuki did as Kagura said.
"Oh! I'm doing it without any mishaps so far, Kagura-chan. Look! Ah, this is so much more fun than I thought it would be. Haha."
"I'm glad you like it Yuki-kun. Okay, keep on mixing until the mixture is smooth and creamy. I'll tell you when that is, okay?"
Yuki kept mixing for a minute more and then Kagura told him to stop. As soon as she did, Yuki whipped out his notebook and started writing everything down. Kagura!
"What's the next step, Yuki?" Kagura asked him when he was done.
"It says to 'Beat in the vanilla'. How…why…I've never…" Yuki looked at Kagura with a confused expression.
Kagura giggled and answered, "I'll show you don't worry. First, how much vanilla does the recipe call for?"
"It says '1 t. vanilla extract."
"Is it a capital T or a small letter t?"
"Small. Why does that matter?" Yuki questioned.
"Well, a small letter 't' means teaspoon. A capital 'T' means Tablespoon. Tablespoons are bigger than teaspoons. You wouldn't want to add a Tablespoon of something when it was only supposed to be a teaspoon, now would you?"
Yuki shook his head. (A/N: Awww! I could totally picture him in this little bit here. Awww….!)
"This is what a teaspoon looks like and this is what a Tablespoon looks like Yuki-kun. See the difference?" Kagura asked showing him.
Yuki nodded and Kagura continued.
"All you have to do here is pour the vanilla extract into this teaspoon and then pour the teaspoon into the mixture. Then you just beat the mixture again, k? Go ahead, you do it. But over the sink so it doesn't spill and make a mess."
"All right," Yuki poured the small vanilla extract bottle into the teaspoon. He poured too much but luckily it was over the sink. Then he walked the teaspoon over to the mixture carefully and poured it in.
"Okay, now beat the mixture using the mixer."
Yuki put the beaters in the bowl and pushed the Power switch from OFF to LOW. Then he slowly started moving the mixer in a circle. A few seconds later, he switched from LOW to HIGH.
"Good job, Yuki-kun! You've done everything fantastically, brilliantly, amazingly! I'm so proud of you!" Kagura exclaimed. (A/N: -wipes tear from eye- "I'm proud too!")
A minute later, Kagura told Yuki to stop. Everything was blended together.
"Step 4 says 'In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, and baking powder'. I'll get the other bowl!" Yuki yelled excitedly, "I know where it is!"
He flipped through his notebook and then finding the right page, walked over to the cabinet to the left of the oven and took out a medium sized bowl. "Will this be big enough, Kagura-chan?"
But he didn't get an answer because Kagura had pulled him into a big hug.
"You're doing everything so well, Yuki-kun! Soon, you won't even need my help!"
"Err, Kagura-chan," Yuki gasped, "could you let go please? I … can't breathe."
"Hehe, sorry, Yuki-kun. How much flour does the recipe call four, do you know?"
"Yes, it says here, we need 2 ½ cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of salt (another bone-crushing hug here), and 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder. Is it all right if I do it all?"
"Of course it is! Go on, show me your stuffing Yuki-kun!" (A/N: Get it? Cuz they're in a kitchen so stuffing like inside a turkey or chicken instead of stuff! Hahaha)
"Huh?"
"Never mind."
"Oh, ok," Yuki correctly measured everything and added it to the bowl. When he was done he got another hug. (A/N: Maybe he shouldn't do things so well…then Kagura would stop hugging him and he could breathe….LOL)
"We won't be using the mixer for these ingredients because they are all dry ingredients. Instead we'll just use a wooden spoon to mix them all together. You can find the wooden spoons in the same drawer holding the measuring cups and spoons."
Kagura then showed Yuki how to mix the dry ingredients together.
"Done. Next Step, Yuki!"
"'Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and beat until combined.' Does that mean we take one-third of this mixture we just created, add it to the butter, eggs, sugar, and vanilla mix, and then beat it all together?"
"EXACTLY! Ah, I'm so proud, Yuki-kun! But one thing, it doesn't exactly have to be one-third of the flour mix, only as close as possible, k?"
"Uh-huh," Yuki tipped some of the flour mix into the creamy mix and then beat the two together on LOW speed. When the ingredients were combined, he read the next part of the recipe.
"It says to 'Add 1/3 cup of milk to the creamed mixture and beat until combined'. Okay, that means I pour 1/3 cup of milk in the mix and then I beat it all together, right?"
"Yep! You're learning fast, Yuki-kun."
"All thanks to you Kagura-chan. Thank you so much for helping me with this and teaching me how to do it. I owe you a big one."
"Enh, no worries. I'm sure you'll manage to pay me back somehow or another," she teased.
"I'll try my best," Yuki replied laughingly. By this time he'd correctly measured the milk, added it to the creamy mix, and started beating it together.
"Step 7 says to keep repeating Steps 5 and 6 until all the flour mix is gone and we use 1 cup of milk total. So that means I add the second third of the flour mix, blend it together, add the second third of the milk, mix, then add the final third of the flour, mix again, and then finally add the last third of the milk and mix again."
"Yes. That's what it means PERFECTLY. Gosh, Yuki, if you keep going at this rate, pretty soon we'll be seeing you on the Food Network." The cousins laughed knowing the odds of that happening were impossible.
Kagura watched while Yuki finished mixing the rest of the ingredients together.
"Okay. Now that we're done with the batter, let me take out the pan. Yuki, Tohru keeps her pans in the cabinet to the right of the oven, the same place as the electric mixer and the other mechanical appliances. For this cake, we need a 10x10 pan. The size of a pan is written on the side. Do you see it?" she continued when he nodded.
"This pan is a size 11x7. This isn't the right one, is it?" Yuki shook his head. "That's right," she pulled out another pan, "This is the one we want."
"Step 10 says to 'Grease and flour a 10x10 pan and smooth the top to level'. Why would we add grease to the pan? Or cover it in flour?"
"You grease and flour a pan so that when you take the cake out of the pan, the cake doesn't stick to the pan and accidentally break. To grease a pan, you just take a can of cooking spray, and spray the pan. Then to flour it, just sprinkle some flour on it. Simple as that. I'm going to spray it Yuki but then I want you to flour it okay?"
Kagura lightly sprayed the pan and then had Yuki grab a small handful of flour to sprinkle. Everything was going perfectly until somehow, some of the flour ended up in Kagura's hair and face. Laughing, she threw some back at Yuki and thus started The Great Kitchen Fight or, better known, as Flours For Everybody! (A/N: Hahaha, Flours…instead of Flowers…see? I know…I amaze myself too sometimes. 8P)
The Great Kitchen Fight, or better known as, Flours For Everybody, lasted for fifteen minutes and only then because they ran out of flour to throw around.
Dusting themselves off, Yuki and Kagura stood up. "Let's get this cake in the oven," Kagura said.
Together they poured the batter into the pan and then slid the pan into the already heated oven. They set the timer for 45 minutes and Yuki made sure to make a few more notes in his notebook.
"All done!" Kagura looked at the clock. "Oh no! We don't have enough time to bake another cake. We only have an hour left and that's how long it's going to take us to clean up and for this cake to finish baking. Arrgh. Okay. Fine. Tohru-chan works tomorrow as well right? Well, I'll come over and we'll bake another cake, all right?"
"Uh-huh. Thank you again Kagura-chan."
"No worries, Yuki, I already told you. It's fun teaching you. Hey, let's get to work cleaning up okay. Why don't you take all the dirty dishes to the sink and start washing them? I'll sweep up all this flour."