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 Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2011 7:03 pm
"It's makes for rather tasty icing! Did you want to try it?" She tilted her head at the dragon, and then head towards the fridge to pull out a block of the scream cheese for the boil to examine. "I-I mean, it's not...well, it's not very healthy, but..." But then again who ate cupcakes for their healthiness content (or lack of) anyways?
"Good choice! Chocolate it is!" Xiu went to fetch some cocoa powder and chocolate while she was at it, mentally going over the necessary steps in her head. They would make the cupcakes first, then the icing while they were baking, and they could sprinkle some chocolate shavings on top of the cupcake at the very end...
...Yup! It really was a fairly simple recipe, fortunately. Xiu set down the ingredients on the counter, and then placed the mixing bowl and other utensils between herself and Sheridan. "Ready? Let's start by sifting together all the dry ingredients." Reaching over, she put the sieve over the bowl, and then nodded. "I'll tell you the measurements of each ingredient, and you'll dump them on the sieve and them shake it all out, okay?"
She slowly began to recite the recipe. Flour, baking powder, cocoa...it was a good thing everything had labels on them.
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Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2011 8:49 pm
His tail twitched, eyeying the scream cheese curiously. That went on cupcakes? It didn't look much like icing as it was.
"What do you mean by not healthy?"
He didn't want to use something that would make them ill if that's what she meant. But if she meant full of sugar and other fattening ingredients, well could it really have much more than cupcakes already did on their own? And well...considering his high metabolism and light weight it wasn't going to hurt him.
Watching Xiu as she moved through the kitchen, Sheridan looked over each utensil as she set it on the counter, silently wondering what they were for. He was especially curious about the sieve and why it was needed. Couldn't they just put the ingredients straight into the bowl?
"Okay."
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Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2011 11:06 pm
Grinning sheepishly, the Baku gestured towards box that the wrapped cheese had been sitting it. It looked as if she was trying to indicate the nutritional information that was printed on its side. "I mean, um...scream cheese is very fattening? And we'll be adding some sugar and such to it, so..." Laughing, she gave a little shake of her head, "It's just not something you'd want to eat too much of." So long as Sheridan wasn't allergic to dairy products though, Xiu didn't think there would be any other problems with using it.
"Okay, so...1 1/3 cups of flour, 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda..." She read the list of ingredients slowly, her gaze focused upwards towards the ceiling as she carefully recalled each ingredient and measurement. She wasn't really paying attention to how Sheridan was doing--for all she knew, he could have been dumping flour and cocoa powder all over her counter.
After she was done listing off these, Xiu pointed to the other bowl she had set aside. "So shake all the ingredients in the sieve into the bowl. Next, with that new bowl I set aside, cream together the butter and the sugar. It's just kind of like...mashing them together until they're smooth!" That was a fairly simple task!
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Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 9:12 pm
"Oh, I don't think I have to worry too much about fat."
It was a slightly nervous smile that he gave her. While it was true the dragon was very tall, he was most certainly not broad. On the contrary, his build was thin and light, one might have thought he were underweight if they did not know celestial dragons were meant to be built as such.
Sheridan listened as Xiu spoke, measuring out the ingredients careful (although rather messily). Well, at least he wasn't dumping it all over the counter, or at least he was trying not to. That did not mean that the counter would not be a complete mess by the time he was finished, or that there wasn't already a dusting of flour, baking soda, and various other ingredients scattered across the counter.
Okay, so he was supposed to shake this into the bowl? Ack! Well that was certainly very messy, the dusting of ingredients on the counter growing with every shake. Maybe he had shaken it too hard?
"I...um...okay."
Sugar and butter, right. This was a lot harder than the last time!
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Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2011 8:45 pm
...Oh! Well, good! So long as Sheridan didn't mind so much...though then again, Xiu did have to emphasis the fact that no one ate cupcakes because they wanted to be healthy. So long as the dragon didn't eat all of them at once, then there wasn't really any harm.
Xiu glanced down briefly for a moment, taking in her dusted counter top with a blink. He had gotten a fair bit of the four and cocoa over her counters but...oh well? It, er, wasn't that big of a mess!
Not yet, anyways.
"Yup! So, cream together the butter and sugar until it's smooth. After that, you'll want to add both eggs--one at a time--and a little bit of vanilla." That was an easy enough step! There wasn't really any way to accidentally mess that one up!
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Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2011 8:09 pm
Sheridan eyed the second bowl for a moment. Okay, butter and sugar successfully added to said bowl with minimal mess added to the already existing dusting on the counter. So did he...use a spoon to stir it? Where was a spoon? Oh, here, a spoon.
Eggs, that was easy enough right? Picking up one egg he tapped it lightly on the edge of the bowl to crack it, then dropped it into the bowl, followed by the second egg. Uh-oh, he hoped he hadn't just dropped a shell in there! Errr...
He stirred the mixture, not quite certain if he was doing this right. Had he forgotten...oh, the vanilla. How much was a little bit? Maybe just a few drops, or...OOPS! That....might have been a little too much vanilla, at least he didn't think half the bottle counted as a little.
"I...how much vanilla?"
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Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2011 12:49 am
Xiu really needed to pay more attention to her student next time. As it was, she hadn't seen the egg shell go into the batter, nor had she noticed just how much vanilla he had poured in either. Not until Sheridan spoke up to ask about the amount, at least.
"Hm? Oh! Umm, just a tiny bit! Like...two millilitres, mayb--oh my." Her gaze fell onto the contents of the mixing bowl, and she eyed the dark puddle of vanilla with a slow blink. And then another.
Uh oh.
"That's...that's a little too much. U-um...don't worry, though!" Maybe they could scoop some of it out--oh Jack, was that an egg shell floating in the batter?
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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2011 8:21 pm
The dragon's expression fell. Oh, he hadn't done very well had he, had he ruined the whole thing? He hoped not... He had immediately dropped the spoon he'd been using, a moment before hastily setting what was left of the vanilla on the counter.
"S...sorry."
He his twitched nervously, his gaze shifting from the counter to the bowl. Did this mean they'd have to start over? Or could it be saved? Maybe they'd just have very vanilla-y cupcakes, though that might pose a problem since they were supposed to be making chocolate cupcakes... Oops...
"Is it that bad?'
Cupcakes 1, Sheridan 0.
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Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 6:02 pm
Aw, Sheridan, don't look so down! Trying to look reassuring, Xiu gave him a quick pat on the shoulder, and then dug around for something to spoon some of the vanilla out. "N-no! Don't apologize! You're still just learning, after all!" She smiled at him, and then turned to eye the bowl thoughtfully. Now, how to do this...
The vanilla that has already seeped into the sugar and butter mixture was a lost cause, but the giant puddle of excess that had formed on the bottom of the bowl was easy enough to get rid of, at least. While she was at it, she picked out whatever egg shells she happened to find.
...There, that wasn't so bad, was it? It was still salvageable! "See, it's perfectly fine! It's just be...a little stronger tasting than usual, but some of the cocoa will help cover that up. Now you'll want to alternate between mixing the dry ingredients and milk into this bowl."
Just in case, Xiu went to measure out the milk for him.
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Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 7:22 pm
He gave her an appreciative smile, the twitch of his tail growing thoughtful (fortunately it was not the fact that she may have just barely reached his shoulder that he was contemplating). Well, at least the batter had been saved, crisis adverted this time.
Now he was looking at the bowl with the more vanilla than it should be (but not completely ruined) mixture. He'd have to be more careful next time, and...maybe ask for help -before- he made a near catastrophic mistake. Not rushing might also be a good idea...
Okay, so now what? He was looking just a bit lost, gaze shifting between the two bowls and the measured out milk. Alternate them, did that mean he dumped all of one in, mixed it, and then dumped the other in? Or...
"How much should I add at a time?"
This time he was asking questions first.
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Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2011 2:30 pm
Everyone made mistakes, Xiu knew, and this was Sheridan's first time trying to bake! It was only expected that he would make a couple of little errors (and it wasn't nearly as bad as her own first baking experience). At the question, she nodded approvingly to show that she was pleased he had asked. It was always good to ask for clarification!
"Let's say..." Hmm, what was the easiest way to do this? "Add one third of the dry mixture, mix it, a third of the milk, mix it again, and...repeat?" In that case, he would only have to do it three times in total.
Meanwhile, Xiu went to check to make sure the oven had preheated properly, and began lining the tins with cupcake liners. Soon they would be ready to spoon it into the liners and start baking!
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Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2011 9:22 pm
Sheridan nodded, that made sense.
Being careful not to spill any of the mixture and thus make an even bigger mess of the counter, and perhaps being a bit more precise than he needed to be, the dragon measured out one third of the dry mixture and added it to the bowl. Hmm, not quite a third, maybe a little more, little more, ah, maybe a little too much. Or maybe not, it seemed okay.
Finding his spoon again, Sheridan stirred the mixture (oops, a little over the edge of the bowl there), doing his best to blend it thoroughly.
Okay, milk. The milk may have been a little easier to measure out than the dry mix, or at least he didn't spill any of it on the counter as he added the portion to the bowl. Then more stirring, it took a lot of stirring to mix the ingredients, and he wasn't even halfway through!
"Do you think they'll taste okay?"
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Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2011 12:52 pm
Sheridan had made a little bit of a mess, but it certainly wasn't anything that a simple swipe of a cloth couldn't fix. Ignoring the fact that some of the batter had sopped over the edge of the bowl, Xiu hovered by the boil and watched carefully, taking care to ensure that no further accidents happened. "I...I'm sure it'll taste fine!" She assured him, reaching out to give him a little pat on his arm, "Don't worry too much about it, okay?"
Eying the mixture, she nodded approvingly before pushing the cupcake pan up to the bowl. "Just mix it a little more--you don't want any of those dry clumps!--and then you can start spooning the batter into the tray." A pause. "Um...evenly, please!"
As even as possible, at least!
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Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2011 11:40 am
The dragon nodded, doing his best to not spill any of the mix on the counter as he stirred. There, all the ingredients were added, just a bit more, that looked okay didn't it? He thought about tasting it, but then thought better of the idea.
"Okay."
He eye the pan for a moment. Evenly, hmm, okay, he could do that. Spoon in the bowl, he scooped out a bit of the mix then dropped it (or at least tried to) into one of the cups. Okay, another scoop (hopefully the same size as the first) into the next cup. This wasn't so bad, he could do this, even if it was rather...messy.
Oops, maybe he could still use that bit of batter if he scooped it of the counter before it fell to the floor.
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 10:58 pm
Xiu eyed the batter on the counter, hiding a smile as she shook her head. "Ah--don't worry about that, okay? There's plenty of batter. Just try to be a little more careful with the remaining amount!"
While Sheridan worked on this, the baku decided to go ahead and make the icing. Considering that it was just--in essence--just dumping together a couple of ingredients and mixing them all together, she figured that it would only be a repetitive task for the poor dragon to have to it all again.
She moved quickly, dumping a block of scream cheese into the bowl along with some icing sugar and a touch of vanilla. As she began to mix, she glanced over to see how Sheridan was doing, jerking her head in the direction of the oven. "If you think you're ready and all the cups are filled evenly, just slide them into the oven and set the timer, mmkay? Umm...let's set it for 10 minutes for now."
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