/
Melly asked her with a worried expression,
“What are we going to do then?”
When she lived in the palace, she’d always been beaten by Serena every time and in the end, she only gave up on fighting afterwards, but things were different now.
‘I don’t want to avoid a fight that I initiated first.’
This time, it was clear that Serena had set this trap to get Erin in trouble.
Her needless persistent malice was astounding.
‘I’d rather have the innocent kind of malice like Lady Caterina’s.’
Maybe Lady Caterina just wanted to get her friends together and make fun of Erin, but Serena didn’t seem to have such childish goals.
She was planning to humiliate Erin to the core.
Serena had always gotten her way in the past, but this time it wasn’t going to be like that.
“Don’t worry. I know what you’re thinking, and I’m more than capable of fighting back.”
‘How I’m going to fight back is still in the works though.’
I’ll just have to think about it for the rest of the day.
As Erin was thinking this, Melly, who had been looking into the basket, exclaimed in surprise.
“Oh, no… I forgot to buy pickled roses.”
“Oh, now that I think about it, pickled roses are the only cake ingredient you wrote in the note.”
In social circles, it was fashionable to decorate a white frosted cake with pickled roses as decorations.
“It’s okay, I can get some tomorrow.”
Erin tried to talk her out of it, but Melly insisted on going back.
“No, I’ll just run and get them since they’re close by.”
Melly grabbed the basket and ran back outside.
“No, it’s really okay, it’s just for practice—”
Erin had only offered for her to work in the shop because she didn’t want her to get into trouble at the palace, and she felt bad because her close relationship would only make things difficult for her.
Melly had been working so hard and she really appreciated that.
‘If sales keep going up like.this, I’ll be able to give her a raise in wages.’
Click .
Erin was about to put away the mountain of chocolate boxes when the bell rang.
An auburn-haired girl who looked to be about 14 years old, opened the shop door and was about to walk in when she saw Erin.
“Is the shop—closed?”
“It is. we closed an hour ago.”
“Oh–.”
The girl looked so deeply disappointed that Erin almost felt sorry for her.
‘If they’ve come a little earlier… Too bad.’
Just then, a pink-haired girl popped out from behind the other child.
“Sis, are they close?”
“Yep. I guess we’re too late.”
The bubbly pink-head turned out to be a young girl, maybe around 10 or 11 years old.
Her reaction when she heard the shop being closed was even worse.
Her round, cute face instantly turned grim.
She even had tears in the corners of her eyes. The auburn-haired child, who she called big sister, comforted her teary-eyed sister.
“Sharen, don’t cry. I’ll come back tomorrow and buy it for you.”
“..But I really wanted to buy it today.”
Erin, who was watching, was also confused.
“Is it urgent?”
Erin wondered what could possibly be so urgent that she needed to buy a cake today.
The teary-eyed pink-haired girl stammered, then answered.
“It’s my birthday…”
“Oh. So you came to buy a cake because it’s your birthday.”
People would occasionally just buy a finished cake for consumption. But so far, no one had ever ordered a birthday cake in the shop before.
In the Empire, most birthday cakes are made at home.
Adults who hold birthday parties have cakes made by friends or family, and children’s birthday cakes are usually baked by their own parents.
The shabby dresses the two girls were wearing caught Erin’s eye.
Their light blue dresses with white flowers were frayed at the ends.
She’d never seen them before, but one thing was certain…
“So, are you here to buy a birthday cake? I have some genoise baked in the kitchen, and I’ll make it for you in a minute, if you’ll excuse me?”
“Yes, thank you!”
The little girl’s grim face lights up immediately. It made Erin feel good to see her so happy.
“I was just practicing anyway.”
Genoise was just the right birthday cake. It was baked just the right size to be held by these little girl’s hands.
Erin led the two girls to a table and brought them leftover homemade lemonade from the counter.
“Here, have some for now.”
“Thank you. We’ll drink it~”
“Thank you!”
The older one was sitting quietly and looking at Erin, but the younger one was looking around the store with curious eyes.
‘They were a pair of contrasting sisters.’
Her older sister had light auburn hair almost the color of caramel, while her younger sister had pastel pink hair the color of strawberry macaroons.
The younger one was also chubby with a bit of baby fat on her face, while the older girl was skinny enough to be considered spindly.
( T/N : Spindly is a person with a long or tall and thin body.)
“What kind of cake do you like, and how do you want me to make it?”
She thought, ‘If they’re boys, they’d probably prefer whipped cream? Since they’re girls, maybe they’d like strawberry cream?’
But then the pink-haired child gave an unexpected answer.
“I want a cat cake! Please make it like a cat!”
‘… What?’
“What cake?”
Looking at Erin’s confusion, the pink-haired girl explained.
“A cat…”
“Why… Can’t you draw a cat on the cake?”
Sharen urged her sister with a perplexed look on her face.
“Oh, you mean put an animal decoration on it.”
‘Yeah, well, they’re kids, and they’ll probably like it more if it looks cute rather than if it tastes good.’
“Sharen, I don’t think you can put that on a cake.”
“Really? I see… Sorry.”
The child quickly turned sour.
“My mom used to always make cat-shaped cookies…”
“That’s from a cookie mold.”
The older sister was berating the younger one, but when she saw that she looked too wilted, she moved closer to comfort her.
“Cakes don’t have to be shaped like cats to be delicious, and it’s your birthday, so let’s eat some delicious cake and be happy, and your mom will be happy too.”
For some reason, there was a sadness in the air. Erin thought for a moment and accepted the children’s order.
“Okay. I’ll make it as cat-like as possible.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I’ll make it out of marzipan.”
Most people use marzipan, kneaded with ground almonds, to decorate cakes. it’s a lot of work, but It wasn’t hard to make.
The children’s faces instantly lit up with joy.
“Thank you.”
“Is it okay if the cream is fresh cream?”
“Yes!”
“Then give me a minute.”
Erin left the children and headed for the kitchen.
She walked through the moonlit garden and entered the house.
As soon as she entered the house, she saw the clutter on the living room table.
These were the materials Melly had used to make the dessert models.
Clay, carving knives, paints, etc.
She used them to make dessert models for the glass display case.
‘Cat-shaped molds…’
When Erin heard the kids’ request and saw the tools used to make the models, she had an idea.
‘I think this would work pretty well.’
The Genoise was a practice for Serena’s order. But for now, she had to deal with the kids’ cake order first.
While she was Lost in thought, Erin quickly went to the kitchen to mix the almond flour with the powdered sugar and ground almonds she had in her pantry to make a flaky marzipan.
Lady Caterina’s sachertorte had similar flavors, but she made the flowers out of chocolate.
‘Chocolate was very difficult to shape and you can’t make it very detailed.’
Fluffy marzipan, on the other hand, is easy to shape by hand and color by mixing pigments.
Marzipan decorations that are often put on top of cakes are usually in elegant shapes like flowers, gardens, and fruit, but….
‘This is a cake for kids.’ Erin thought, ‘So I thought it would be a good idea to include some cute animals.’
Erin mixed yellow almond flour with sugar powder and sifted it through a sieve.
She also mixed the fluffy beige powder with the egg whites and kneaded it into a batter. The texture was like touching soft clay.
She also took out the chocolate flowers she had used for lady Caterina’s cake.
She made a cake with genoise and whipped cream, and topped it with marzipan decorations.
She then placed the cake in a paper box and carried it back to the shop.
“There you go. It’s done.”
The children, sitting quietly at the table, peered expectantly into the cardboard box.