33 Make Your Cake And Eat It Too (1/2)

The day passed uneventfully.Alan did note he had a few return customers which he felt grateful for.He was afraid that, despite the incredible success of the cafe last month, the gains would be entirely temporary.However, it seemed he underestimated the number of people out there with the money to afford to regularly come to the cafe.

He was still a long way off from the 100 regular customers required by the system to obtain his next reward, but he had enough now that he didn't feel worried about the business going under so long as he was frugal.

Towards the end of the day the groceries he'd ordered were delivered.The speed of the delivery services these days astounded him.When he thought about it though, it probably helped that this time he was ordering all local products.If he'd ordered sugar from Colombia he'd have to wait a much longer time.

As he closed the cafe he decided to take the chance to try to prepare the coffee cake.He had never made cake before, though he'd seen it made on cooking shows.Still, with the system's process being ingrained in him he wasn't worried about skills.

Stepping into the kitchen he first went to the oven and began preheating it to 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 175 degrees Celsius.

Then he began to gather the ingredients he would need.He grabbed flour and baking powder and set them aside.Then he found butter, milk, vanilla extract, shortening and sugar and set them in another pile.

He began by mixing about three cups of flour and a teaspoon of baking powder together.After thoroughly mixing it in a bowl he set it aside and turned to the other pile.

He took the milk and poured about a cups worth into a measuring cup.Then he grabbed the butter and mixed in about a teaspoon of it and another teaspoon of vanilla extract.Setting the measuring cup aside.He grabbed a large mixing bowl and creamed nearly a cup of butter, half a cup of shortening, and 3 cups of sugar together.Once the mixture became nice and fluffy he grabbed 5 eggs, and cracked them over the mixture.Then he further mixed it until the eggs had completely folded into the mixture.

Taking the flour mixture and the milk mixture Alan followed the knowledge from the system as he began to alternately mix them into the shortening.He finished adding the last bit of the flour mixture and looked at the glistening cake batter in front of him.He could have used store bought cake mix, but at that point he would be losing the freshness he wanted.

He set the cake batter aside.Then he began making the cinnamon topping that would go over the cake.Compared to the cake batter, the cinnamon topping was much simpler.He took the brown sugar and poured out a cup of it, packing it in to make sure it was a full cup.He poured it into a small mixing bowl.Then he added a tablespoon of ground cinnamon.

Finally, to give it the nice crunch that all coffee cakes had, Alan chopped walnuts and added a cup's worth to the mix.He chose walnuts based on the knowledge from the system.Walnuts themselves were fairly bland.The only real flavor to them was slight bitterness.That bitterness would be perfectly countered by the large amount of brown sugar.As a result, the walnuts wouldn't interfere with the flavor, and would only add a nice texture.

After adding all three of the ingredients to the small bowl he mixed them thoroughly so he was left with a seamless cinnamon sugar mix in front of him.