Dubious Cake [Cooking]

Dubious Cake

“Once again, this was an amazing experience.”

   Dhao sighed in joy as he leaned back, letting the last bits of the soup settle in his stomach. Draharu didn’t gulp her share down as fast as Dhao did, so she still had the bottom of it to eat. Still, both of them had managed to solve the whole pot full of food, and Dhao was considering giving the third recipe a try as well.

“Since it’s been a cooking day, I might as well have a look at the last one.”

   He reached behind him to grab the scroll case to pull out the last recipe and started studying it while Draharu finished up her meal. After some reading, Dhao frowned, leaning closer to the recipe to double-check if he read it right. And then he checked once more before shaking his head and extending the paper with lazy handwriting to Draharu.

“Am I reading this correctly - the last ingredient is fish meat?”

   Draharu took it, gave it a quick read herself and then turned her emotionless gaze back at Dhao, giving him a nod. Dhao scratched the back of his head, trying to figure out how this could possibly make any sense.

“It’s a sweet cake, with fish in it?”

   Draharu nodded to that rhetorical question while Dhao was giving it a second thought. The ingredients confused him as he didn’t believe something like this could be edible, but then again, the previous two had been absolutely delicious so perhaps the cake can still positively surprise. 

“Hmm, well, we do have milk, steamed bundleberries and I can probably use the leftover shark meat as fish meat. Just gotta fetch some eggs from the cellar though.”

   He decided to go for it, but his train of thoughts derailed when he saw the amount of dirty dishes, which had piled up by now.

“Damn, have to clean first before I can start working on it.”

   He uttered as he stood up to take the dirty bowls and glasses to the kitchen for washing. Draharu, however, had interpreted it as a request for help, so she followed him and started piling the rest of the used bowls, cooking utensils, pots and pans to the enormous sink in the corner. Dhao stopped for a moment to observe her in surprise, he definitely wasn’t used to his occasional guests doing the dirty dishes.

“Erm… you’ll wash them while I start on the cake?”

“Yes.”

   Draharu looked at Dhao to see if he wanted something else from her, but the green Puller thanked her awkwardly before he turned around to the counter to search for missing ingredients. He’d rather work on the food, and as Draharu didn’t seem to mind, he convinced himself to allow her to do it instead.

   Dhao swiftly mixed the dough, trotting between the cellar and kitchen a couple times to bring and return the materials while he was at it. Draharu focused entirely on the dishes, cleaning them strategically and with neat precision, thanks to which she was done by the time Dhao poured the dough into three different circular pans to cook them in the oven. As he was dividing the sticky dough, Draharu once again simply sat next to the sink and watched him in action, making sure she wouldn’t get in his way.

   When the pans were in the oven, Dhao started mixing the filling for the layers between the biscuits. He hesitantly chopped up the meat, after which he considered long and hard if he should really do it. His gut feeling told him to divide the cake in two - one half with the fish and couple other funky herbs as the original recipe required and the other half with just the sugar, berries and cream. He washed his paws, now somewhat ignoring Draharu’s focused stare piercing the back of his head before he grabbed a second bowl and poured about half of the filling over. He then added the meat and seasonings to one of the bowls, mixing it thoroughly. He smelled the mixture and wrinkles appeared all over his snout - that stench wasn’t promising at all. 

   While he was checking on the baking progress and also looking for something, Draharu still stood by and watched, assuming Dhao would give her a command if he needed something. Fortunately, the green guy found what he was looking for - a big thin spatula to divide and smear the filling evenly, after which it was time to take out the biscuits. He cooled them down with his magic, after which he cut them in half. Draharu got to witness how masterfully fast Dhao was with spreading the fillings, after which he lifted the one with fish back in the oven. He was wiping his paws in his apron as he turned to Draharu.

“Alright, the original one needs a little bit more heating but my improvised cake should be ready. Would you like to try it?”

   Having received a stern nod, Dhao cut a piece for her and himself before serving them with some fresh berries on top. Both of them found it really good, while Dhao made a mental note to add a pinch of vanilla to the mix next time.

   When they were done with the sweet version of the cake, the smell indicated the other half was also ready. Dhao lifted it out, cooled it down and cut another two pieces, handing one to Draharu and other to himself. The smell was still rather suspicious, so Dhao waited for his guest to take the first bite, which she did. Unfortunately, she didn’t show any signs of disgust while politely chewing on her piece, so when poor Dhao chomped down on his, he managed to chew it only a couple times before he ran to the sink to spit it out and rinse his mouth with clean water. Draharu somehow managed to finish up her share while Dhao was attempting to flood the sensation away from his mouth, and when he was somewhat done with it, he weakly turned to look at the red lady.

“I’m glad I didn’t start the day with this one.”