14 Mar 2020, 20:34
Cupcakes are healthy muffins, yes?
Finally something that Tyranni could do to earn a few house points, some money, and show off her skills. Growing up, Tyranni would often visit her Uncle Lothar and Aunt Nadia in Spain over the summer. Auntie Nadia was working in her parents bakery at the time, and so she would spend hours teaching the young girl how to make all sorts of different baked goods. Eventually she graduated to decorating. She still needed a TON of practice on some things, but to start simple, her first baked good she practiced decorating techniques on were cupcakes. Her mom always joked that cupcakes were healthy because if you just licked off the frosting, they were basically muffins, and everyone thinks muffins are a healthier breakfast option.
She approached the table filled with cupcakes, decorating tools, and frosting. There were so many different shapes of pipette tips for the frosting that she could work with. Grabbing a handful of cupcakes, the frosting tips she desired, and many different colors, she went to work.
For her first set up cupcakes, she spread a thin layer of red frosting on a few cupcakes, and blue on others. Grabbing small round candies in the corresponding colors, she carefully placed the candies on the frosting, slightly pushing them in so they would stick. Around the rim of the cupcake, she took tan frosting and a small piping tip, piping little peaks around the rim. In criss-crossing patterns, she then piped the same tan colored frosting across the top of the candy. When completed, they appeared like miniature blueberry and cherry pies, very reminiscent of the ones she had seen in America on vacation. Pleased with her work, she set those cupcakes aside on the completed table and got to work on the next set.
Native to New Zealand, her Dad once had to take an emergency trip to Australia to help relocate a roaming Antipodean Opaleye that was causing panic among the wizards and native animals of Australia, starting huge fires. With Tyr's mom already gone on a trip, he brought her with him. That was the first time that she had ever seen cacti. She only poked on needle on a cactus before she learned her lesson, but still, the plants amazed her. How tall they could get, and how they could survive such heat and desert conditions was incredible. Funny enough, she learned that cacti are not native to Australia and were colonized along with humans that had traveled to the island. Using these pervasive and persistent cacti as her inspiration, she started working on the next cupcakes. Since there was no color tan she like, she took white frosting and began mixing colors, making the perfect desert sand colors. Using a spreading knife, she placed a thin layer on the top of each cupcake. I order to make the large cacti one normal thinks of, she found a HUGE pipette tip and placed it inside the piping bag. She then filled the bag with green frosting, and piped on large, and somewhat tall pile of frosting on a cupcake. Taking another pipette bag with a tip that only allowed a small bit of frosting out, she took a lighter green colored frosting and placed small spikes along the ridges of the large green dump of frosting. Finally starting to take shape and cease to look like a green pile of crap junk, she smiled pleased at her work. Finally she took some pink frosting and piped a small pink flower on the top of the frosting cactus. Using other shades of green, she began to pipe out different shapes on the remaining cupcakes she had set aside for the cacti decorations. Some appeared more like spikes going every direction, similar to how aloe vera grew, while others looked a tad more flower like, similar to an iceberg lettuce head. She placed smaller cacti and flowers around the base of some. Adding her final touch, she crushed up a gingersnap cookie and crumbled some of the cooking crumbs on the tan frosting to imitate rocks and sand.
Finally, putting her skills to the test, she took out the remaining cupcakes that she had piled next to her. Grabbing white frosting and blue dye, she mixed together many different shades of the desired blue coloring. Using a very thin, flat tip, she began by placing lines of light blue on the cupcake in a circular motion, layering the straight lines around each other in three different areas, creating three separate flowers on one cupcake. When they reached the size where the edges began to touch, she took another pipette bag full of white frosting and piped small white dots between them to appear like babies breath flowers. Repeating this technique but with dark blue frosting, she started in the center of another cupcake, creating one large flower. Her aunt initially taught her this technique when showing her how to make roses. Taking the light blue frosting again, she filled another bag that had a smaller thin tip in the bottom. This time instead of going from left to right, she started at the cupcake and pulled upwards, making spikes. She continued in a circle forming a small blue flower. Switching to white frosting, she continued around the edge, making a large dahlia like flower that had a blue center with white outer petals. Finally, she made her last design using a similar technique but on wax paper. She then placed the smaller flowers on top of the remaining cupcakes.
Bringing all her work to the completed table, she took a step back and smiled. Her Aunt Nadia would be so proud of her, and the many hours she had spent in the bakery with her aunt over a few summers had finally paid off. Having been raised in a family that wanted her to experience the muggle world also, she had spent many hours watching The Great British Bake-Off. It was her dream to keep perfecting her skills so that one day she may be able to compete on the show and make her auntie proud.
Word Count (without styling and image codes): 1008
Last edited by Tyranni Whitethorn on 20 Apr 2020, 14:15, edited 1 time in total.
Andrew Vance
18 Mar 2020, 04:12
Cupcakes are healthy muffins, yes?
The errand notice caught his interest and his stomach, but just as quickly sank with disappointment when Andrew found out he wouldn't be able to sample any of his creations.
"Not even just a little bite?" He begged. Not even a dab of frosting? That was downright cruel.
But it was a firm 'no'. Andrew sulked his way into the Great Hall. His mouth watered at the plates of confections students were decorating at the tables. Never mind how beautiful some of the masterpieces were. All sugar was good sugar to Andrew. So long as they tasted the same, he was no picky eater when it came to the appearance of his desserts.
One of the House-elves handed him a large apple from the Kitchens, just so Andrew would have something to munch on to distract his cravings. Once those sugary juices rolled over his tongue, perking him up, Andrew could think more clearly, and decided he'd stay to help decorate after all. Out of all the options available, the cupcakes stood out most to him. Not to mention buttercream was his favorite type of frosting to gobble up—he always ate the frosting/icing first off of any dessert—so of course he wanted to work with that.
His decision-making didn't take long. He would combine his favorite flavor and color together. He quickly assembled a tray of half a dozen, nude chocolate cupcakes, and a piping bag of bright blue frosting with a standard star tip. All he had to do was put the frosting on top of the cupcake and voilà, finished! But compared to the intricateness and amount of detail others were pouring into theirs, Andrew began to feel a little self-conscious about his simple-minded process.
Oh well, he shrugged off his concern. The errand notice didn't say anything about his creativity being judged. He could do whatever he wanted.
Casting a glance around the Hall, Andrew spotted one of his Housemates, Tyranni Whitethorn, decorating cupcakes in her own little space at the table. Andrew would approach her with his tray of items in hand.
"Hey, Tyr!" He greeted cheerfully. "You're doing cupcakes too?"
He was glad to see a friendly face and had no qualms sitting next to Tyranni, keeping her company while they worked. Concentrating on his cupcakes, Andrew kept his conversation to a minimum. He didn't want to talk too much with food—intended for other people to eat, he assumed—in front of him. Blowing germs on them, right? Unless if magic was used to sanitize them afterward.
It became clearly evident that Tyranni was the more experienced baker and decorator, between the two. Andrew frequently peered over to watch Tyranni's progress, taking mental notes of her techniques, while trying not to gape in awe as her canvas of creations took shape.
Holding the piping bag with both hands, Andrew began squeezing the swirled cone of bright blue frosting onto his cupcakes, trying to maintain even pressure and uniform peaks. His older sister, Stacy, was the artist and baker of the family. Combined together, she became an expert decorator of cupcakes and iced sugar cookies she'd make for every holiday and celebration. Although Andrew had often watched his sister slave away for hours in the kitchen, he hardly ever felt inclined to help with the actual baking or decorating of the goods. It was too tedious work, and his was never enough to meet Stacy's standards of perfection. He was always eager to eat them afterwards, though.
Andrew set his piping bag aside, and for the longest time, stared blankly at his tray of frosted cupcakes. Though they were technically finished, surely there must be some way he could spruce them up. Sprinkles? No, too cliché…
What could he possibly turn these heaps of blue frosting into?
He stared blankly for a few moments more… when it struck him. Andrew had to blink twice and wonder how in the world his brain would've conjured such a thing. In fact he hadn't watched the show in years, so why would it suddenly occur to him now?. . .
Going out on a whim, he stood up and went over to the table of decorations and shortly came back and sat down with two pinch bowls, one with candy eyes and the other with mini chocolate chip cookies that had been chopped in half.
It took only a few minutes for him to stick all the eyes and cookies on. When he was finished, he couldn't help but chuckle in amusement.
"Look, it's Cookie Monster!" He held out one of his cupcakes for Tyranni to see. How many people here at Hogwarts knew about Sesame Street? Even so, those that weren't familiar with the Muggle TV show might still find some amusement in Andrew's child-like creation. Either way, Andrew was fairly satisfied with the way his cupcakes had turned out, though their design certainly paled in comparison to Tyranni's.
His jaw dropped three separate times with each new batch of flawless cupcakes that Tyranni produced.
"Those are amazing!" He exclaimed, resisting the urge to show off Tyranni's cupcakes in front of everyone. Wouldn't want to embarrass her, after all. "You and Stacy would definitely get along," he commented, though he doubted the two would ever meet.
He turned in his tray of finished cupcakes for the House-elves to take away into the Kitchens.
"They said you couldn't eat the final product, but not the decorations," he remarked at Tyranni, popping a leftover chocolate chip cookie fragment into his mouth.
He spent an hour more in the Hall, getting a master class in decorating cupcakes from Tyranni. While sticking to his original design, he began experimenting with different tips, like the "spaghetti" one to give the Cookie Monster's fur a stringy texture. After that, he tried his hand at recreating the flowers and cacti like the ones Tyranni had done for hers, more or less turning out like abstract toppers. Clearly he needed more practice, but he had fun doing so. Wasn't that what it was all about anyways?
"Not even just a little bite?" He begged. Not even a dab of frosting? That was downright cruel.
But it was a firm 'no'. Andrew sulked his way into the Great Hall. His mouth watered at the plates of confections students were decorating at the tables. Never mind how beautiful some of the masterpieces were. All sugar was good sugar to Andrew. So long as they tasted the same, he was no picky eater when it came to the appearance of his desserts.
One of the House-elves handed him a large apple from the Kitchens, just so Andrew would have something to munch on to distract his cravings. Once those sugary juices rolled over his tongue, perking him up, Andrew could think more clearly, and decided he'd stay to help decorate after all. Out of all the options available, the cupcakes stood out most to him. Not to mention buttercream was his favorite type of frosting to gobble up—he always ate the frosting/icing first off of any dessert—so of course he wanted to work with that.
His decision-making didn't take long. He would combine his favorite flavor and color together. He quickly assembled a tray of half a dozen, nude chocolate cupcakes, and a piping bag of bright blue frosting with a standard star tip. All he had to do was put the frosting on top of the cupcake and voilà, finished! But compared to the intricateness and amount of detail others were pouring into theirs, Andrew began to feel a little self-conscious about his simple-minded process.
Oh well, he shrugged off his concern. The errand notice didn't say anything about his creativity being judged. He could do whatever he wanted.
Casting a glance around the Hall, Andrew spotted one of his Housemates, Tyranni Whitethorn, decorating cupcakes in her own little space at the table. Andrew would approach her with his tray of items in hand.
"Hey, Tyr!" He greeted cheerfully. "You're doing cupcakes too?"
He was glad to see a friendly face and had no qualms sitting next to Tyranni, keeping her company while they worked. Concentrating on his cupcakes, Andrew kept his conversation to a minimum. He didn't want to talk too much with food—intended for other people to eat, he assumed—in front of him. Blowing germs on them, right? Unless if magic was used to sanitize them afterward.
It became clearly evident that Tyranni was the more experienced baker and decorator, between the two. Andrew frequently peered over to watch Tyranni's progress, taking mental notes of her techniques, while trying not to gape in awe as her canvas of creations took shape.
Holding the piping bag with both hands, Andrew began squeezing the swirled cone of bright blue frosting onto his cupcakes, trying to maintain even pressure and uniform peaks. His older sister, Stacy, was the artist and baker of the family. Combined together, she became an expert decorator of cupcakes and iced sugar cookies she'd make for every holiday and celebration. Although Andrew had often watched his sister slave away for hours in the kitchen, he hardly ever felt inclined to help with the actual baking or decorating of the goods. It was too tedious work, and his was never enough to meet Stacy's standards of perfection. He was always eager to eat them afterwards, though.
Andrew set his piping bag aside, and for the longest time, stared blankly at his tray of frosted cupcakes. Though they were technically finished, surely there must be some way he could spruce them up. Sprinkles? No, too cliché…
What could he possibly turn these heaps of blue frosting into?
He stared blankly for a few moments more… when it struck him. Andrew had to blink twice and wonder how in the world his brain would've conjured such a thing. In fact he hadn't watched the show in years, so why would it suddenly occur to him now?. . .
Going out on a whim, he stood up and went over to the table of decorations and shortly came back and sat down with two pinch bowls, one with candy eyes and the other with mini chocolate chip cookies that had been chopped in half.
It took only a few minutes for him to stick all the eyes and cookies on. When he was finished, he couldn't help but chuckle in amusement.
"Look, it's Cookie Monster!" He held out one of his cupcakes for Tyranni to see. How many people here at Hogwarts knew about Sesame Street? Even so, those that weren't familiar with the Muggle TV show might still find some amusement in Andrew's child-like creation. Either way, Andrew was fairly satisfied with the way his cupcakes had turned out, though their design certainly paled in comparison to Tyranni's.
His jaw dropped three separate times with each new batch of flawless cupcakes that Tyranni produced.
"Those are amazing!" He exclaimed, resisting the urge to show off Tyranni's cupcakes in front of everyone. Wouldn't want to embarrass her, after all. "You and Stacy would definitely get along," he commented, though he doubted the two would ever meet.
He turned in his tray of finished cupcakes for the House-elves to take away into the Kitchens.
"They said you couldn't eat the final product, but not the decorations," he remarked at Tyranni, popping a leftover chocolate chip cookie fragment into his mouth.
He spent an hour more in the Hall, getting a master class in decorating cupcakes from Tyranni. While sticking to his original design, he began experimenting with different tips, like the "spaghetti" one to give the Cookie Monster's fur a stringy texture. After that, he tried his hand at recreating the flowers and cacti like the ones Tyranni had done for hers, more or less turning out like abstract toppers. Clearly he needed more practice, but he had fun doing so. Wasn't that what it was all about anyways?
Word Count: 1012
31 Mar 2020, 19:01
Cupcakes are healthy muffins, yes?
Hearing a familiar voice greet her, she glanced up to find Andy with a handful up cupcakes and supplies for decorating. Joining her at the table, he got to work. Working diligently, she occasionally glanced up in the corner of her eye to see Andy watching her work. It was kind of cute. He was obviously trying to not show his amazement, but sometimes it could crack through the facade he wore.
"Look, it's Cookie Monster!" Tyranni looked up and began to laugh when she saw the creations Andrew had made. "Those are wonderful Andy! I promise I am only laughing because they look so good and I bet there are a ton of students here who will have no idea who Cookie Monster is! Very creative!" Smiling at the boy, she continued working.
With each new set she had created, the could see Andy become more impressed. When he told her that her work was amazing, she blushed. She did not have many friends at Hogwarts yet, and was still relatively self-conscious about showing her passions, but the compliment from her friend meant a lot.
"The more I learn about your sister, the more I like her! She loves horses and can bake and decorate? It would be fun to meet her someday." Andy went to place his finished cupcakes with the other completed desserts.
"I learned how to decorate cupcakes from my Aunt Nadia. Her parents own a bakery in Spain, where she is from. She is a muggle you know. Uncle likes to joke that her desserts put a spell on him, so she had to have been magical. If you want, I can teach you some techniques?" she asked the young boy. Over the next hour, they spent time going over the different tips with her demonstrating how to make certain designs. He certainly had some work to do, but it was a solid beginning.
Interacting with: @Andrew Vance