solo Cake's Always a Good Idea! Errand

Summer 2020 (Everything bold black is spoken in Korean)

“Baking?” Carolyn muttered under her nose thoughtfully. She only just came back from the summer camp and she was home alone again. It was true that she was a bit bored and her grandmother wanted her to know her way around kitchen but was that really what she wanted to do right now? “Eun-ji! Where are you? Come and help me with the bags!” Speaking of devil, the young witch stood up to greet the elderly woman at the door. “Halmoni! (grandma) I missed you,” she hugged her grandma eagerly. The woman in question swatted at her hands. She was not one to show affection but Carolyn knew how happy she was to see her granddaughter anyway. At least judging by the amount of food she brought with her. “What’s the letter about?” The woman asked as they walked towards the kitchen. “It’s from Hogwarts…they want me to bake something,” she answered hesitantly. Carolyn already knew what kind of reaction she would receive. “Good, finally you’ll do something useful. I taught you to make desserts, go and start working. What ingredients you have here?” The young witch was standing by the counter before she even managed to answer the question. "Eggs, milk, gelatine, whipped cream peaches and you even have the peach drink. Perfect! You’ll make the Peach mousse cake. I’ll supervise.” Carolyn loved that cake but she only made it two times so far. What if she messed up and it didn’t taste good? “Halmoni…” She opened her mouth to protest but the old woman would not listen. “Hush, get to work. I will start working on lunch in the meantime.” And that was it. There was no sense in arguing with her grandma. She was way too stubborn.

Carolyn sighed and gathered her ingredients. “Start with the gelatin Eun-ji.” It was so strange to hear her Korean name after so many months. “Al gess-eo (roger that).” She muttered patiently as she started mixing the peach drink with sugar and gelatin. “And make it pink.” Her grandma was not even looking and she already knew the girl would forget that part. Carolyn turned around and quickly searched for the pink food coloring. It was not necessary but it would look better. After she was done with the mixture, she poured it into a 12 centimetre mold and put it in the refrigerator. Now was time for the mousse mixture. That meant mixing the egg yolk, sugar, and vanilla extract and slowly pouring hot milk into it. Then, she poured all of it into a pan, stirred over low heat until it turned slightly thicker and added soaked gelatin. When it cooled down, she finally added her favorite ingredient, which was whipped cream, mixed it and then to add even more flavor, she poured grounded peaches into the mix. “Here, take a bigger mold for that one and don't pour it all in. “Her grandmother warned her. “It’s not a competition halmoni.” She reminded the all too serious looking woman. Well, she supposed it kind of was but her strict supervisor didn’t need to know that.

Myung-hee mumbled something but eventually turned back to her own cooking, leaving her granddaughter to fend for herself. And fend for herself, she did. She carefully put a sponge cake sheet in the offered mold and poured most of the mousse on it then she left it harden in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. “What are cooking?” She asked the other woman. “Bulgogi, Sundubu-jjigae and Kimbap. You look way too skinny. Did they not feed you there?” Myung-hee asked her granddaughter looking almost offended. Carolyn chuckled. “Trust me, there was plenty of food. Just not as good as you make it,” she complimented her grandma. “Will we have some Japchae too?” She asked hopefully. Those were her favorite. “Yes but you are going to help. You need to know how to cook. Now add a bit of pink food coloring to the remaining mousse and pour into a mold, so it can all harden in the refrigerator. We have 3 hours to spare before you can decorate so you have plenty of time to help me.”

And so both women spent most of their afternoon in the kitchen. When Carolyn's parents came in, dinner was already served and the young witch was decorating her cake with small peaches and leaves. Just to make it look extra pretty. “Let me make sure it gets to Hogwarts safe and have some dinner sweetheart,” her mother caressed her daughter's hair, obviously very proud of the child. “It look delicious. Shame we can’t have any,” her father winked in her direction. Looks like I’ll have to bake more often! "I just hope it tastes delicious as well," she pondered quietly. Her previous attempt at the cake was successful and she did taste everything during the process but it was always different eating the final product. "You did well, now sit and eat." Her grandmother ushered her towards the dining table. "Before your father devours everything."