Chapter 347 - Exposed (1/2)
Zhu Junyang let out a heavy snort and waved his sleeves as he left. Head Steward Liu used a finger to point at Yu Xiaocao a few times before he sighed and also followed his angry master out of the Fang Estate’s kitchen.
Yu Xiaocao pursed her lips and quietly muttered, “Didn’t he just whip some frosting up? Is it necessary to be this angry ah?”
Yingtao cheerfully stated, “Miss, you’re the only one who can order Royal Prince Yang to do things! Although His Highness looks quite scary, I never would have thought that he’s that easy to talk to ah!”
Easy to talk to? If the people who had been beaten up by Royal Prince Yang could hear her say this, they would have all retorted vehemently, ‘Are you blind? How can Zhu Junyang, that black-faced devil, be easy to talk to? You’re not the one who was beaten until you were bedridden for a few months, right?’
After the cake finished baking, Yu Xiaocao first cut it into three circles of differing sizes and spread on a layer of frosting. Then, she prepared a piece of oiled paper, rolled it into a triangular shaped tube, and poured the whipped frosting into it. Using her pastry bag, she squeezed out beautiful flower decorations on the cake. In her past life, Yu Xiaocao had worked at a pastry shop prior to opening her braised food shop. Because she had skillful hands, all of the cakes she decorated were praised.
At first, she was a bit unfamiliar with this process. As she continued, the skill came back to her and each consequent flower was more beautiful than the previous and more lively. Since the season wasn’t right, there weren't any ingredients available for her to use as food dye. Thus, all of the icing flowers she squeezed out were a pure white color. However, Yu Xiaocao had the servants take out some preserved jams from last year from the ice cellar. There was bright red strawberry jam, orangey-yellow tomato jam, purple grape jam...she also used some spinach juice mixed with honey to create a green colored dye.
With these five colors available, she used them all to gently brush onto the flowers’ edges. The whole cake immediately became bright and lovely. Yingtao and another head maid, Muxi, stared in awe at all of the stunning flowers on the cake. Their eyes were opened wide as they took in the sight.
The cake had three layers and the first layer was about twenty inches in diameter. The second layer was around sixteen inches and the topmost layer was around twelve inches. Each layer was decorated with carefully crafted icing flowers. The top layer had some writing on it written in red jam that said, ‘Happy 1st Birthday to Fang Haolin’. In addition, there was a cartoon figure underneath the words that was colored with different jams. It looked almost exactly like Little Linlin.
The grabbing ceremony had already finished. Fang Haolin had lived up to expectations and grabbed a tiny wooden knife. This caused everyone to exclaim ‘like father like son’. For the banquet, they invited the head chef of the capital’s Zhenxiu Restaurant——Liu Bi, who was personally in charge of cooking. This caused many guests to be pleasantly surprised because the head chef of Zhenxiu Restaurant was very hard to book. He only took three jobs in a month and the waiting list had already extended to next year…
The banquet for the Fang Family was crafted at the highest standards offered by Zhenxiu Restaurant. Roasted chicken, fruit-scented roast duck, salt-water duck...all the hit dishes were available. Thus, the guests ate until they were stuffed and complimented the food endlessly.
The last course that came out was the present that Yu Xiaocao had prepared for her younger brother——whipped cream cake. When the gorgeous and elegant cake was presented out to the guests, everyone was stunned silent. They were speechless not only because the cake was beautiful and incredible beyond belief, but they were also silently ashamed that they had never heard what a ‘whipped cream cake’ was before.
The cake was quickly sliced into small triangular pieces and every guest was given a piece. The guests, who were originally stuffed beyond comparison, all tasted a bite. The rich flavor of the cream and the sweet delicate taste of the cake melted into their mouths. The cake had a bouncy texture that they had never had before. Thus, how could one small slice satisfy the craving of everyone?
The whipped cream cake was most favored by the female guests. After finishing one slice, the noble madams and young maidens were all too embarrassed to ask for a second helping. However, they all clamored to know where this cake was bought from. The texture of the cake was divine and the look was elegant and beautiful. They needed to know where to get this ah!
However, when they found out that this cake was a present given by the Fang Family’s adopted daughter to her little brother, all of their hearts fell down. If this cake was bought from a shop, it didn’t matter if the price was high and the demand was outrageous, they would still be able to buy it one day. However, the creator was the daughter of the Fang Family. Although she was only adopted, they couldn’t just demand her to spend half a day to craft another cake just to sate their cravings ah!
When they left, all of these ladies and maidens had a bit of regret on their faces. When their husbands and fathers asked them why, they could only laugh helplessly. Fang Zizhen was a rough person yet the daughter he had adopted had some skills. She not only cured the young imperial prince’s illness, bringing her to the attention of the empress, but she also had culinary talent. Even the old glutton, the emperor emeritus, unceasingly praised the food she made. Now she had the ability to make novel desserts that had never been seen before.
The fact that Zhaoyang General’s daughter had great culinary skill quietly spread throughout the noble and wealthy families of the capital. That same day, the master of the Imperial Palace, Zhu Junfan, had also heard of the ‘whipped cream cake’ that Yu Xiaocao made. He raised an eyebrow——Looks like I have another clue eh? Such a good old transmigrator friend!
Just as he was about to summon Yu Xiaocao to the palace again to ‘have a deep conversation’ with her, the girl had already said her farewells to her godmother and left the capital with Fang Zizhen, who was going back to the harbor. The two of them were on the road back to Tanggu Town.
When Zhu Junfan got the news, he silently cursed inside, ‘Little lass, you’re escaping quite quickly! However, I’m not in a hurry. It’s not like the little lass can run away forever. In the future, I’ll have to slowly ‘punish’ her!’