Winter Solstice
"Please, please can I help?"
Amelia looked over the top of her glasses at the hopeful face that was grinning back at her.
"Are you sure dear? Surely you've got other things to do on your first day of Christmas holidays?"
Abby nodded rapidly. "I really want to help Granny." Suddenly she looked worried. "Unless I can't, is this a witches-only thing?"
"Oh Abby.", Amelia reached out and gave the eleven-year-old a tight hug. "The Winter Solstice is for everyone, you know that."
"That's what Mama said."
Even now, a year after Abby's adoption, it was still a novelty for Amelia to hear Constance referred to as "Mama". And of course, it wouldn't just be Abby calling her that soon. She glanced towards the corner of the castle's large kitchen where Ava was making soft noises as she enjoyed an afternoon nap.
"There you are. And baking is certainly for everyone. So how about we get all our ingredients together and I'll show you how to make my special family sponge cake."
"No magic?", Abby asked with a cheeky smile
"Oh plenty of magic.", Amelia beamed back. "But not the kind you're thinking of. Baking is a different kind of magic my dear. It's about having the right ingredients, the correct measurements and the perfect touch."
"How will I know what the perfect touch is?" Abby looked confused.
"I'll show you." Amelia led her granddaughter toward the large wooden table where the familiar ingredients were waiting to be mixed into the legendary Cackle's sponge cake.
"How long more do we have to leave it Granny?" Abby was already glancing at her watch after just ten minutes.
Amelia couldn't help chuckling. Abby had fast become one of the biggest lights in her life but patience was a virtue that this young girl possessed in very limited amounts, especially when it came to something she was excited for. "Another fifteen minutes or so. Just long enough for me to take your little sister upstairs so your Mummy can give her a bath. Will you be alright for a couple of minutes?"
"I'll be fine.", Abby's eyes didn't leave the large oven door.
Amelia paused at the kitchen door. "Abby, remember the oven is hot."
"I know Granny. See you in a few minutes."
Abby did know the oven was hot, she also knew she wasn't meant to touch it without an adult with her, but it wasn't like she had never opened the door before, she knew to use an oven glove and it's not like anyone would know if she just took a tiny peek to make sure the cake was cooking properly.
"Hmmm, not yet." she whispered to herself before quickly closing the oven door when she heard footsteps coming down the stairs.
"Well, I don't know how this happened." Amelia was not quite telling the truth, she had a very good idea how the cake she had been making for more years than she cared to remember resembled a sink hole rather than the light fluffy sponge it should have been.
"Errr." Abby bit her lip, debating for a moment whether to tell a fib before her natural honesty won out. "I was worried that the cake was going to be cooked before you got back so I checked on it."
"And was it?"
"No. I'm sorry, Granny. I know I shouldn't have touched the oven, but I promise I was careful, I used the oven glove."
"Well, that's something. But Abby, when I tell you not to do something I need to know that you will listen to me and not do the opposite of what we agreed. Your mothers trust me to keep you safe and you're still too young to use the oven unattended."
" I know I am and I won't do it again, I promise, I know I was silly and impatient and I ruined the cake." Suddenly she had an idea. "Can we make another one?"
Amelia sighed. "I'm afraid not my dear. I had just enough eggs for one cake. The village shop is closed and I don't think we have time to go and get some more."
"Oh.", Abby's lip started to quiver. "But we won't have a cake for tonight. I've ruined everything."
While many people thought she was soft-touch, Amelia knew differently. Years of dealing with teenage girls getting into scrapes had taught her to recognise when a lesson had been learned and to back off. One look at Abby's distraught face told her that this was a young girl who would remember this moment the next time she was tempted to do something she had been warned not to.
"Dry your eyes dear.", Amelia passed a handkerchief across the table. "All is not lost. As I said earlier, baking is its own form of magic, and just like the kind we practice here, sometimes we need to improvise. Now, I'll mix up some icing so we can fill in that hole and you put your artistic talents to good use. Any ideas?"
Abby immediately perked up, she had plenty of ideas, "Oooh, we could have raspberries spilling out of the top like they do in fancy cake shops."
A short time later they admired their handiwork.
"So I didn't completely ruin it?", Abby whispered.
"No, my dear.", Amelia took Abby's hand in hers. "In fact, I believe you made this family cake into something even better."
Christmas Eve
"Ready Poppet?"
"Ready Mummy." Ava was practically vibrating with excitement. Not alone was it almost Christmas, she was getting to bake biscuits with her Mummy. She loved her sisters and missed them when they weren't around but getting alone time with her mothers, together or separately, was always special.
Imogen couldn't help mirroring her daughter's huge grin. She had loved doing this with her own mother as a child and was thrilled that Ava was so enthusiastic about their early morning activity.
"So, your big sister tells me you have lots of ideas about what you want to make. She also said you got all the ingredients when you went the shops with Granddad"
"Oh yes, we got everything." Ava agreed eagerly. "Let me tell you what I'd like us to make"
Imogen listened as a number of slightly unusual flavour combinations, to her at least, were listed rapidly.
"Okay, so we have strawberry and tea, courgette and ginger, orange honey and thyme and what else?"
"Lime and chocolate, not for me but Zara and Abby like chocolate and sour tastes so I think they'll love them."
"I think I will too." Imogen was intrigued as to where eight-year-old Ava had gotten her inspiration.
"Abby helped me find ideas on the internet.", Ava answered the unasked question. "We found loads of great ones but these were the ones I really wanted to try. Oh, and can we make some sugar biscuits please."
"Just sugar biscuits? No extra flavours?", Imogen teased.
"Just sugar biscuits, like you used to make with Nanny Rose." Ava climbed onto the stool so she could give her Mummy a kiss. " They're my favorites"
A couple of hours, and several online recipe checks later, Imogen and Ava surveyed their cooling work.
"I've got to hand it to you poppet." Imogen murmured through a bite of honey, orange and thyme cookie. "These flavours really work. All of them."
"Thanks Mummy." Ava swallowed her strawberry and tea shortbread and beamed across the table. "Can we decorate them now?"
Imogen had already promised that Ava could decorate the biscuits any way she liked, after all, who was she to stifle her child's creativity, even if that creativity included sandwiching the chocolate and lime biscuits together with icing so green it looked radioactive. And if Ava wanted to decorate the sugar biscuits with a variety of pink, purple, yellow and blue icing rather than the traditional red and green holiday colours, so what? There was so much attention to detail and love poured into each and every biscuit and that made it better than any so-called gourmet variety.
"Very funny Sweetpea.". Imogen had known by the giggles coming from the bedroom that Zara was planning something she clearly thought was hilarious.
"What? I need sunglasses so I can eat my biscuit." Zara swiped a lime and chocolate sandwich from the plate and bit into it, her face breaking into a big smile as she tasted the flavour combination. "This is yummy."
"So are these.", Abby agreed, taking another sugar biscuit. "And I love the yellow, they look like sunshine on a plate."
"That's just what I wanted them to look like." Ava was thrilled at the reaction her baking was getting, especially when she saw her Mama take a third courgette and ginger biscuit.
"Sunshine on a plate? Pass them over!" Zara adjusted her sunglasses before snuggling closer to Ava on the couch. "Thank you for the biscuits, I'd like more next year please, I'll have my shades ready."
"You'll need them." Ava returned the hug. " I have some even brighter colours in mind for next year."
Christmas Day
"You're absolutely sure this is what you want to make dear. It may be a little heavy after a big meal ."
Zara screwed her face up for a moment as she considered her Mama's question. "Hmmm, yes but so is Grandad's Christmas pudding and we've had that for the past forever years."
"Last year, we had it last year. And forever is not a period of time.", Constance couldn't quite hide her mirth at Zara's dramatic declarations.
"Okay, one year but he said he doesn't mind if we do something different this year. Besides..", Zara flashed a sneaky smile. "It's one of your favourites."
"And yours.", Constance reminded her daughter. "Well, seeing as we have all the ingredients and we usually don't have dessert until a few hours after Christmas dinner I think we'll get away with bread and butter pudding this year. We don't need to serve huge portions. "
"Yes.", Zara agreed. "Small slices of pudding and lots of ice-cream."
Constance had to turn her back this time to hide her smile. Zara was nothing if not an opportunist.
A short time later the panettone cake had been cut into uniform slices by the two very particular chefs, pressed into the pan and covered with vanilla custard.
"Now what?", Zara asked as she carefully wiped down the work surface while her Mama covered the large bowl and placed it in the fridge.
"Now we leave this overnight so the custard soaks in, that's a trick your Granny taught me, then tomorrow we'll pop it into the oven when we're ready to eat. But in the meantime I think it's time for you and me to join the others and enjoy what's left of today."
Zara did enjoy the remainder of that Christmas Eve and of course, Christmas Day, but despite all the excitement she was still very much looking forward to sharing the dessert she had made with everyone, and she really didn't want to wait much longer.
"It's taking aaageess Mama."
"It's taking the time it needs to, staring at it won't make it cook any faster." Constance reminded her, not for the first time, before carrying the teapot through to the dining room.
"No, but this will.", Zara thought to herself turning the dial up little, then a bit more for good measure.
"What is that smell?" Constance stood in the doorway a short time later, there was no sign of Zara but she soon identified the source of the smell.
"What happened?" Zara's heart sank when she returned from leaving the cats out to find her Mama and a smouldering pudding.
"You tell me.", Constance replied. "Did you by any chance change the oven setting?"
"I turned it up a little." Zara knew better than to lie. "Just a bit, I thought it would cook faster."
Constance took a deep breath, not wanting to ruin this special day by arguing with Zara but wanting her to realise that she couldn't just ignore instructions when she felt like it.
"Firstly, there was no need, it was almost done. Secondly, you did not turn up the oven, you turned on the grill, which is why the top has burned."
"Oh."
"Oh, indeed. Zara, you are a smart girl but you need to slow down and stop trying to find shortcuts for things. You are a witch who will very soon be coming into your powers, casting spells and making powerful potions, things that can have serious consequences if you do not follow the guidelines. I need to know I can trust you to stick to the rules."
"I will, I'm sorry Mama, I just wanted everyone to have their desserts. Now I've ruined everything." Zara tried and failed to blink away the tears.
Constance knew this was a discussion that they would come back to in the future, but at that moment it was neither the time nor the place. Instead, she hugged her child close and came up with a plan B.
"See, if we slice this hard top part off it's fine underneath. The burnt sugar on the top made it look worse than it is. We'll give everyone a little extra ice-cream or cream and nobody will know the difference."
She was absolutely correct of course, the pudding tasted wonderful and nobody knew about the extra crispy original top layer, though she suspected that the experience had given Zara food for thought.
New Year's Eve
"It looks like the cakes are cool enough now. And the icing is all ready. How do you want to decorate them? Clouds?"
Fleur liked that idea. "And flowers maybe?"
"Okay, we can do that. Are you ready" Abby was only a little surprised to see her younger sister shake her head. "What's up?"
"Will you do them? I don't want to mess them up"
"You won't Fluffy, and if you do they're only cakes, we can fix them. I learned that from Granny." She noticed Fleur still looked uncertain. "Okay, how about I do a couple and you watch me, then you can do some?"
Fleur nodded, then watched in amazement as seemingly without any effort, Abby made a blob of white icing turn into a fluffy cloud, then another into a delicate yellow rose.
"Wow, that's really good."
"Thanks, are you ready to do one? I'll help you."
As her sister guided her Fleur also created a flower, not as ornate as Abby's roses but at least it looked like a flower.
"There." Abby helped her dab a blob of yellow in the middle. "You made a daisy. Ready to do a cloud? "
This time Abby stepped back and allowed Fleur to handle the icing bag herself.
"Oh no." Fleur signed as too large a blob plopped onto the cake. "I told you I'd mess them up."
Abby looked at the cake, it may not have been a cloud but she could see some potential. "I told you, we can fix things, take these marshmallows and remind me again what your favourite animal is?"
Thirty minutes later there were several plates of rose, daisy, cloud and some very special sheep cupcakes on display for the Drill's New Years Eve party.
"Oh, those sheep are so cool." Ava exclaimed on seeing the last minute additions. "Did you do them Abby?"
"Nope, Fleur did them, I only helped." Abby gave Fleur a wink. At almost thirteen Fleur was still rather shy and lacked confidence in herself. However, it was clear that she was proud of her contribution to the party and Abby was pleased to have helped her feel that way, even a little bit.
"I had a good teacher." Fleur hugged Abby tightly. "Though I don't think the sheep were really my idea."
Abby remembered something her Granny had said to her several years before and smiled, returning the hug just as tightly. "You planted the idea Fluffy, and you made it better."