Chapter 684: Creativity Contest (2/2)

However, on the next day, since the morning, Xiaocao began to receive guests at the residence. Sometimes she even had to receive a few matrons and their children at the same time. She continued to receive calling cards until the evening and was so busy that she barely got to eat lunch. In one day, there were over twenty or so families who had left their cards. Some of these families, whether it was Xiaocao or her husband, had barely even interacted with them in the past and couldn’t even be considered acquaintances. Despite that, they still shamelessly came over, begging for an invitation to the upcoming event.

In a short period of time, they had increased the number of guests at this event by almost double. Thus, they naturally had to prepare more materials for these people. Fortunately, Imperial Prince Xu’s back garden was spacious, so all that was needed was to buy an extra stash of ingredients in order to avoid this party from becoming a fiasco.

As for the guests in the outer courtyard, it hadn’t become crazy. Zhu Junyang had given invitations to his subordinates and military officials that he was close with. Little Shitou had given invitations to his group of five to six friends, whereas Imperial Prince Jing had given invitations to youths in his circle and the Han Family also had invitations...

Xiaocao was grateful that this event had been put together at last minute’s notice. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be just around twenty people who had come begging for invitations. The families who had gotten the news late and found out that they had missed out on their opportunity to sidle up to Imperial Prince Xu’s Estate and have their daughters show off to promising youths in the capital not only wailed in disappointment but also became much more sensitive to the future movements of the prince’s residence. That way, they could strike first the next time Princess Consort Xu organized a gathering.

On the third day, which was the day of the event, there were all sorts of carriages parked in front of Imperial Prince Xu’s residence. From the insignias on these vehicles, one could see that almost all of the third-ranked and above official’s families were here. Naturally, there were more people than that.

Princess Consort Jing had used this gathering as the perfect excuse to come over and see her daughter-in-law as it was the first time Xiaocao was holding such a large event after getting married. However, she didn’t even get to see her daughter-in-law before she was pulled into receiving all of the higher ranked matrons who had arrived.

As the hostess, Xiaocao naturally couldn’t be idle! Fortunately, her good friends, He Wanning and Royal Princess Minglan, gave her a big hand. These two had long swam in these higher-ranked circles and they had married husbands who were also high-ranking. Thus, they knew pretty much every single maiden and young matron who had received invitations to this event today and were naturals at interacting with them. With them in charge of the younger guests, Xiaocao was able to be at ease.

News had quickly spread that this gathering would allow them to personally make pastries. Not only did this pique the interests of the young maidens in the capitals but their older sisters-in-law and older sisters who had gotten married were also very intrigued. Thus, everyone who had gotten an invitation brought along their entire family. Mothers, daughters, sisters, and sisters-in-law of the invitation holders all arrived. Fortunately, Xiaocao had prepared a large amount of materials needed. Otherwise, this event would have ended up becoming a farce.

The spacious back garden in Imperial Prince Xu’s Estate had been divided into two parts. In the middle was a bamboo thicket separating the inner side from the outer side. On the inner side was where the matrons and maidens were currently chatting, whereas the outer side had been prepared to allow the noble youths to taste tea, play board games, play at throwing arrows into a pot, and compete at archery. Imperial Prince Xu had pretty much gathered all of the talented youths in the capital in one place. Thus, from time to time, the matrons on the inner side would glance through the less dense areas of the bamboo forest separating the two sides in a telling manner.

A pure and clear stream ran through the inner and outer parts of the garden. On both sides of the water were low tables and colorful blankets on the ground. From time to time, one could see flower petals floating down the water…

Little Shitou and his close classmates saw this stream and couldn’t help but laugh, “Looks like Imperial Prince Xu’s Estate is trying to mimic the ancient people’s ‘winding stream party’[1] ah! What an elegant sight!”

On the inner side of the garden, there were maidens, young matrons and children who had not yet reached the age of thirteen. Xiaocao simply outlined the rules of this competition and emphasized that there were three elements that were being judged: ‘creativity’, ‘aesthetics’, and ‘taste’. The top three in each category would get a prize.

When the maidens and young matrons heard this, they all became incredibly excited. Xiaocao didn’t bother to speak too much and very quickly proclaimed the start of the competition.

For the creative pastries competition, it was split further down into four groups: cookies, cakes, chocolates, and miscellaneous. The children aged ten and below had all been grouped up together. Under the help of experienced pastry chefs, they were learning how to make some simple cookies and chocolates.

These cookies and chocolates didn’t take much skill to make. The competition had prepared a variety of animal and flower molds. All the children had to do was to use the prepared dough and the molds to press them into different shapes before placing them in the oven. After being baked, sweet and delicious cookies came out. As for the chocolates, all the children had to do was to pour the already melted chocolate into the selected molds. After the heated chocolate cooled, they could take them out of the molds. In order to avoid the kids from getting scalded by the hot chocolate, other than the experienced pastry chefs, each child also had two sharp-eyed maidservants at their side. Thus, safety was of paramount importance here.

As for the older children and maidens, they were able to do more hands-on work. They could mold the dough into the shapes of their own choosing and frost the small cakes with the provided frosting and jams and decorate them with chocolates. As for the chocolate group, they were able to add some novel and fun ingredients into the melted chocolate before letting them solidify…

[1] winding stream party - an old Chinese custom in which the participants wait by a winding stream and compose poems before their cups full of rice wine float down to reach them