Chapter 103: Making the cake

"Welcome back Drifting Cloud," Wei said as soon as the two boys stepped onto the houseboat deck. "Who is your little friend?"

"Roaming Wind let me formally introduce you to my first friend in this game, Melting Snow," Xinya said while sending Wei a smile. He then turned to Melting Snow and said, "Melting Snow this is Roaming Wind. She is like a sister to me, so treat her well."

Melting Snow bounced over to Wei, a big smile on his face while reaching out his hand, "It's nice to meet you, I have heard so much about you."

"The same goes for you," Wei replied, taking the offered appendage. For some reason, as she looked at Melting Snow she kept picturing a giant puppy. She had to hold back the urge to reach out and tussle his hair.

"Where's Wandering Sound?" Xinya curiously asked. He wondered if he had already arrived back from finishing that quest he had.

When Xinya mentioned Wandering Sound's name a blush appeared on Wei's face. She couldn't help but think about what happened earlier between the two of them. Without meaning to she once again touched her ear, while sighing wistfully to herself. She really needed to talk to Xinya soon.

Noticing Wei's strange action, Xinya was quite curious about what happened between Wandering Sound and her while he was gone. He knew something must have, judging by that blush that appeared on Wei's face when he mentioned Wandering Sound.

He would need to ask Wei about it later and depending on her answer, would help him decide if Wandering Sound needed to be talked or not. He doesn't mind the relationship he just wants Wandering Sound to be completely honest with Wei about everything.

"He's inside of the houseboat, probably working on his stats again, but we can go inside and see," Wei said while trying to stop thinking about what happened earlier. Walking inside Wei started to call out Wandering Sound's name.

Xinya walked after her, while Melting Snow just stood on the deck for a minute to take in the appearance of the houseboat. He was in awe at the way it looked, he couldn't believe that it was shaped like a bunny. He wondered if the port had other boats in other animal shapes. Melting Snow had a feeling a wolf shaped houseboat would be super cool looking.

As Wei and Xinya walked inside they saw that Wandering Sound was indeed, working out on one of the treadmills. Wandering Sound had long heard Roaming Wind calling his name. He thought that she wanted to talk about what he said earlier, but when he saw Drifting Cloud coming in with her he realized that wasn't the case.

Getting down from the treadmill he was running on, he went to greet Drifting Cloud. Just as he begins to go over to him, he saw a small boy came into the room after Drifting Cloud. Wandering Sound figured that this was Melting Snow, the boy he heard Drifting Cloud and Roaming Wind speaking about.

Wandering Sound hoped that the boy wouldn't recognize him, he didn't know what he would do if he did. He had been basically hiding a part of himself. He wondered what would happen if Roaming Wind knew, he didn't want her to start treating him like his fangirls did.

If he had known that the boy was coming today he would have brought a mask to hide part of his face, and if Roaming Wind and Drifting Cloud asked he would have just said it helped his stats.

Looking at the boy's age, the boy really didn't fit his target audience. It would be very likely that the boy wouldn't know of him since many boys around that age don't follow his music.

"Wandering Sound come over and meet, Drifting Cloud friend," Wei said cheerfully.

Pretending to not know who he is, Melting Snow walked over to Wandering Sound with a bounce in his step, "Hello, I'm Melting Snow. It's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too. I'm Wandering Sound, as you might know since Roaming Wind kept yelling my name, like a crazy person." Greeted Wandering Sound, happily. From what he could tell the boy didn't recognize him at all. This made him very happy since his secret wouldn't be let out of the bag yet.

Poking him on his arm, Wei said, "Who are you calling a crazy person?"

"You, of course." Wandering Sound replied making everyone laugh, much to Wei's displeasure.

"Now that everyone has met, I need to get started working on a quest," Xinya said with amusement in his voice.

"Oh? What kind of quest is it?" Wei asked curiously.

Melting Snow plodded over to Wei and before Xinya could respond and said, "He has to make a cake for a banquet. Now ask me how he got it."

"How did he get it?" Wei asks playing along with Melting Snow.

"He ran into a pastry chef. The cake went flying landing all over Drifting Cloud's face. It was a sight to see." Melting Snow said, using his whole body while narrating what happened.

Xinya just shook his head at Melting Snow's exaggerated storytelling. Leaving them to talk he walked into the kitchen. He thought it would be good if they used this time to get to know each other because Melting Snow was apart of the team now.

Going over to one of the counters in the kitchen, Xinya opened his recipe collection journal and found the cake recipe that Junipère needed him to bake. Skimming through the ingredients, he started to take out all of the food items from his inventory that he needed to use.

The recipe that he had gotten from Junipère was for a Pink Champagne Velvet Layer Cake. It was only a three-star type of cake, so Xinya knew that he would be able to make it, easily.

The Pink Champagne Velvet Layer Cake, from what it said on the recipe was a moist, tender white cake reminiscent of its buttermilk cake cousin, the Red Velvet Cake. The Champagne Velvet Layer Cake is flavored with a champagne reduction and hints of pure almond and vanilla extracts. It is iced with buttercream frosting, Pink Champagne Buttercream, and is accented with a Strawberry-Raspberry filling that pairs so well with champagne. It's the perfect cake to serve at a banquet.

After Xinya finished reading the introduction of the Pink Champagne Velvet Layer cake, he saw Melting Snow come into the kitchen. "You came to watch me bake?"

"Yup, plus the atmosphere in the other room is kind of weird." Melting Snow said while moving to Xinya's side.

"What do you mean?" Xinya asked concerned. "How is the atmosphere weird."

Shrugging, Melting Snow said, "Well, Wandering Sound keeps on giving Roaming Wind these looks. They were basically flirting in front of me, they should be ashamed."

"What?" Xinya said, almost bursting out laughing from what Melting Snow said. "Well let's leave those two alone, you can help me make the cake."

"How? I don't have the cooking skills." Melting Snow said.

Xinya began taking out the tools needed to make the cake, once they were all situated on the counter he said, "You don't need the cooking skill to measure."

"Your right. Tell me what I need to do." Melting Snow said happily taking the measuring spoons and cups from Xinya's hands.

"Alright first we need 2 ½ cups of…" Xinya began telling Melting Snow which ingredients he needed and the measurements of each. After about an hour the prep was done.

Patting Melting Snow on the head, Xinya smiled and said, "Thank you for your help, now it's my turn."

"Your welcome, I will just watch you from over there." Melting Snow said going over to a nearby table. He couldn't wait to see how the cake turns out.

The first thing Xinya did was prepare the Champagne Reduction, It was lucky for him to grab three bottles when he was in the grocery store. Grabbing a medium saucepan he put it over medium-high heat, pouring champagne into the saucepan he waited until it started boiling.

He boiled it for 15 minutes until it was reduced to ½ cup. Afterward, he removed it from the heat; setting it aside to cool completely. While he was waiting for the champagne to cool he arranged an oven rack in the lower part of the oven and preheated it to 350ºF.

Once that was done he started grease 5 different sized round cake pans with oil. He lined the bottoms of the pans with parchment paper cut to fit the size of pans. Greasing the paper linings, he proceeded to dust the lined pans with flour, tapping out the excess, before setting it aside.

Using a large spoon, he began mixing some flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, stirring it until it was well combined and aerated. Adding some butter, shortening, and oil he continued mixing until everything was well combined

In another bowl, Xinya began to whisk together the champagne reduction, with buttermilk, egg whites, and extracts until well blended. After that, he slowly added half of the liquid mixture to the batter and started mixing it.

Once everything was thoroughly combined he used a spatula to scrape and pour batter into prepared pans dividing them evenly. He then smoothed each top evenly with the spatula and then he rapped each pan on counter surface 2 to 3 times to expel any air bubbles.

After he did that he put the cake pans into the oven to bake while setting a timer for 30 minutes. While he was waiting for the cake to bake he started to make the frosting and filling for the cake.

It was quite easy for him to make, all he had to do was place confectioners' sugar into a bowl. Using some of the champagne that he boiled he began to pour it over confectioners' sugar in a steady stream while stirring.

Stirring until the sugar was dissolved he than added some butter and shortening and continued to stir, scraping downsides of the bowl if it was necessary until the mixture was creamy and almost fully incorporated. Xinya than begin to stir faster until it looked light and fluffy, that's when he knew it was done.

Hearing the ding of the oven knew it was time to take his cakes out. Taking them out one by one he set them aside on one of the counters to cool. He hoped they turned out all right since he wasn't using the cooking guide to help him he would only know once the dish was completely finished.

Turning to Melting Snow who was drooling over the cakes while looking at them, Xinya said, "If you think they look good now, just wait until it's completely done."