August 18th, 2020
Stoneywood, Scotland

Nick was refilling the Floo Powder by the fireplace when his mother came home from her errands, groceries and mail in hand. She dropped both of those on the counter, and he went over to help her. Nick took the bags and started unloading, grabbing the cherries and apples and putting them in the fruit basket. As for her mom, she pulled up one of the stools and started shuffling through the mail.

His mum piped up as Nick was putting the eggs and milk into the fridge. "Hey there's one in here fur ye from Hogwarts." she said, tossing the envelope towards him without missing a beat. He was surprised, had one of the professors forgotten to give some summer work? That was a bit odd, considering it was this late into the year. He had finished all of it a couple of weeks ago, though, so what's a bit more?

Tearing into the crisp envelope, Nick saw that the parchment clearly came from one of the adults at the school. As he read through, the contents started to get more and more... sloshy. By the end, the wording was incoherent, but he thought he understood it. Scrolling down to the bottom, he saw that it was written and sent by the Keeper of Keys and Grounds, which made the contents on the message make a bit more sense.

"What did it say?" Nick's mom said, munching on one of the apples Nick had just put in their fruit basket. It took him a bit to respond since he was still trying to figure it out himself. "I think... I hae tae bake something fur a competition fur the Keys n' Groundskeeper?" Nick said, still a bit unsure of himself.

His mother reached over Nick's shoulder, taking the letter and reading it herself. "Hmm... just make Black Forest doughnuts, ye'v seen me make 'em a bunch o' times." she said, placing the letter back on the table. It was true, she made them a lot during the summer over the years, and the ingredients for it were almost always in the house.

As they finished unpacking the groceries, Nick's mum started leaving the kitchen towards her room. "Yer not goin' tae help me?" Nick said, taking out the recipe she always uses. "Naw, I have shite tae dae." she said lightheartedly, closing the door behind her. He chuckled to himself as he read over the recipe. She had nothing to do, but she definitely needed her alone time.

The serving size for the recipe was a dozen doughnuts and one, he didn't know how many he should make and two, he didn't feel like converting, so Nick decided to stick with twelve doughnuts. As he grabbed all the ingredients, he realized they didn't have any baking chocolate in the kitchen. That was fine since candy addict Nick always had some chocolate in his household. He ran over to his bedroom, where there was an untouched bar of dark chocolate candy in his stash.

Running back, he had gathered all the ingredients he needed and was ready to start baking. The task ahead was a bit daunting, as he's never baked by himself before, but Nick had seen his mother do it a hundred times, how hard could it be? He reassured himself that he could do it as he started to measure out the ingredients on the scale.

He started mixing in the dry ingredients, the first things you always mix in baking, at least that's how Nick was taught. The yeast, the living force of the doughnut, the flour, the structural support of the piece, the salt, the catalyst for the combination of flavours, and, of course, the sugar, the thing to bring sweetness to the dessert. Nick didn't leave the sugar just for the recipe, though, he enjoyed some sugar himself.

Nick blew out a breath of annoyance when he saw the recipe called for hand mixing. He knew this was coming as they didn't own an electric mixer and his mum would always use a hand mixer. It was easy for the dry ingredients, but it got harder as he mixed the milk and the mix started clumping together. He couldn't wait till the butter would be added since then it would mix together a lot easier.

What he hadn't anticipated with the butter was that it would make the mixture sticky. After only a couple of turns with the whisk, he'd have to stop and remove the mix stuck to it. Not only that, but he had to add it in periodically instead of all at once because it distributes the butter better and whatnot.

After a bit, it was finally complete, and it was time for the fun part, kneading and beating the dough. He didn't like using a rolling pin because it's more fun with your hand, so it was time for Nick's hands to get sticky. Nick rolled and beat the dough for a bit, but he knew he couldn't do it forever. He loved doing it, but kneading too long will deflate the doughnuts.

Now it was proving time, Nick put the bowl of doughnut mix into the fridge and then took out the cherries and more sugar. The recipe calls for premade cherry jam, but his mother always made it homemade so he would do it himself. Besides, they didn't have any jam with them, so he had to make his own.

Nick put a strainer on top of a small bowl. Squeezing the cherries, the cherry goop ran through his hands, through the strainer, and into the bowl. After he got through the entire bowl of cherries, he dumped in some sugar and mixed it together. The jam would be great for the doughnuts, but it would also be great to use later on. He switched out the doughnut mix and the jam in the fridge so it could chill a bit.

Taking the mixture, Nick started rolling out the doughnuts into little discs, popping out the centre along the way to get the classic doughnut appearance. He made a dozen in total, but he would only send ten Hogwarts way, one for him and one for his mum. He placed them on the tray and put them in the fridge to prove for another hour. He saved the doughnut holes for Nick to munch on, otherwise, he would probably inhale the dark chocolate he needed.

It was finally time to fry the doughnuts. He didn't have a fryer, but you can have the same effect by heating up the oil. Putting the oil into a pan, it started simmering. He put the doughnuts into the pan and let them sit for two minutes on each side, using a spatula to flip them over. After doing that a couple of times, he was finally done the doughnuts themselves, and it was time for the jam and chocolate.

Taking the jam out of the fridge, Nick put it in the jam syringe and stuck it into each doughnut, filling them with the sweet goodness. Then the chocolate was ready to be melted, so Nick put it into a smaller pan and heated it up. It took all of his power to not have eaten the bar this entire time. Finally, it was melted, and Nick drizzled it on top of all the delectable doughnuts, finally completing them.

Nick wooed a bit in triumph which caused his mother to come out of her room, ready to enjoy the fruits of his labour. "Ye done?" she asked sheepishly as if she didn't already know. "Yes ma'am!" Nick responded as he was packaging up the ten doughnuts in a little brown basket lined with red plaid cloth. "Good, well you better run those over to the owlery while they're still hot." his mum said through bites of the doughnut.

Nick bit into his own and gushed at the taste. It wasn't nearly as good as his mum's, but it still tasted good and was pretty good for his first attempt. After he finished it, he ran to the owlery, which was basically a magical post office hidden from Muggles. He pushed the basket towards the lady at the counter and stated, "Keeper o' Keys n' Grounds, Hogwarts." She nodded and took the basket to one of the owls stationed at the ready. He hoped these doughnuts would satisfy whatever he was doing.

WC:1409/800
Errand Complete