A Messy Baker Solo Errand Finished

August 15th
London, England
- Greatgrandmother's Manor -

Akari was sitting on the ledge of her window sill in her room on a regular Sunday morning. She was catching up on some reading that she had meant to do for a while now but didn't get a chance to when she was interrupted by her father yelling something up to her.
"Akari! Come Downstairs!"
Akari finished the sentence she was reading then shut the book and placed it down then slipped off the ledge and started to make her way downstairs to see what her father needed her for.

Once when she got downstairs she went into the kitchen where her father was standing and holding a letter.
"Yes Papa?"
She asked curiously peering at the letter wondering if it was for her.
Her father handed her the letter and said "The keeper of the grounds of Hogwarts sent a letter to all the students asking to bake him something. What do you think? You could make him Japanese cotton cheesecake that we made a few weeks ago with Mum? I think you should make him something unique that he probably has never tasted"
Akari nodded in agreement and then reached out her hand and took the letter from her father and quickly read through it then furrowed her brow slightly, contemplating what she should make.
"Hmmm... yes I think I would like to make the cheesecake"
She replied then placed the letter down on the counter and pulled a hairband off her wrist and used it to put her hair up in a messy bun then walked over to the sink and washed her hands preparing to make the cake. The particular cake that she wanted to make had a somewhat strange fluffy/wobbly texture and it is easy to mess up since it cracks easily so you have to be very precise with how long you let it bake for.

She turned back to her father and then asked where the paper with the recipe was. He fumbled through a small stack of papers before finding it and passing it to her. He then told her that if she needed any help to call him but he needed to go and do a few things around the house. She had nodded nervously as he left, worried that she would screw the cake up since when she made it before she had the help of both her mother and father. She took a deep breath and decided to accept the challenge and looked for the first ingredients on the list which were cream cheese, butter and milk. She walked over and opened the door of the fridge and first took out the cream cheese and butter and placed them on the countertop then went back for a carton of milk. Once she had the three ingredients she opened the cupboard and took out a bowl then put them all together in it and walked over and set it in the microwave for 1 & 1/2 minutes
so it would melt like the recipe instructed. When the time was up she took it out and whisked it determinedly attempting to get rid of any and all lumps in what was the start of the batter but accidentally made it spill over the edge of the bowl and didn't notice that it was dripping all over the counter. She sighed as she lowered the bowl then used her forearm to wipe a bead of sweat that appeared on her forehead. The mix of the summer temperature and the one in the kitchen made it quite hot.

Then she grabbed 6 large eggs and separated the yolks and whites into different bowls. She grinned to herself proudly seeing that the whites didn't have any parts of the yolk and vice versa for the yolks, then emptied the yolks into the bowl from the microwave and gave it a stir before adding a tiny bit of lemon juice and some sugar, then whisked that together. Right after she added cake flour, corn starch and a pinch of salt before decided she needed a bigger bowl. Out of the blue, she sneezed, luckily not in the direction of the food but she had jerked slightly causing the bag of flour to kind of erupt and go everywhere including her face. But she just ignored it and told herself she would clean later. Then she peered in the cupboards before finding a bowl big enough for her purposes but it was too high for her to reach so she pulled a chair from the table then stood on it and then got a hold of it and hopped off the chair then transferred the mixture while looking over as her father came in to check up on her. He examined what she was doing then looked around at the untidied kitchen and shook his head telling her to clean up. Then he saw her progress on the cake smiled approvingly and said "Looking great... now its time to start whipping the egg white correct?"
Akari glanced at the recipe to confirm then nodded and asked her father to get the stand mixer for her.
He brought it to her and plugged it in the wall and watched her turn it on and pour the whites in. Then all of a sudden she looked over at him with a puzzled face and asked "Papa what is cream of tartar? It says I need to add that... Do we even have that?"
Her father thought to himself for a few moments then responded "If I am not mistaken its a type of powder and I think we have a jar in the drawer".
The both of them pulled open the drawers searching for this odd ingredient. "Aha! Found it" Her father exclaimed. She grinned in relief then took it from him and put it in the mixer that seemed to be creating a meringue sort of cream. Then her father verbally guided her through the process of folding the meringue into the other batter until it was light and airy.

After that, she put the cheesecake batter into a cake pan then placed the cake pan in the larger dish and with the help of her father set both in the oven. Her father then poured hot water into the outer dish making it a water bath and stopped when it was about halfway up the sides of the cake pan. But was careful not to splash any water into the batter. They turned on the oven then left the cake there for 30 minutes. As soon as the timer chimed stating that it was done they took it out and left it to cool at room temperature. When it was cooled off Akari carefully place it in a container then took some icing sugar and sprinkled it over the top of the cake before adding a couple blueberries and strawberries as a nice decoration, then sealed the lid and tied it with a string then went over to her father's owl and gave it to her and said "To the gatekeeper of Hogwarts please girl". The owl chirped and took off in flight leaving her to turn around and stare at the huge mess she made in the kitchen, then sighed, she really hoped that the gatekeeper would enjoy what she made at least then it would be worth the chaos she created.

Why am I such a messy baker?