Pumpkin Cake (2)

Chapter 83: Episode 36 - Pumpkin Cake (2)

Middle school division cooking lab

Once we'd gathered a variety of pumpkins for our dessert, we returned to the cooking lab, ready to get started.

"All right then, let's each create our own pumpkin cakes," Andou said excitedly, a wide grin forming on his face.

"Ones that take too much time will be a disadvantage," Kashino stated bluntly.

"Also, let's not forget the Halloween motif," Hanabusa said.

"We'll help too!" The sweets spirits said cheerfully.

I looked at the variety of pumpkins we brought in and pondered on my idea.

'We have a lot of pumpkins but I wonder how we can each make a different cake. It'd be too boring to just make a plain pumpkin cake, so what can I do to make it match Halloween?'

"What's on your mind, Keiko?" Fraise asked from my side as she could see my thinking face.

"I'm wondering what I should make. Although our dessert is a pumpkin cake, don't you think it would be too boring if we just made a regular-looking cake?" I asked Fraise.

"I agree. It would be too boring if we made a regular-looking cake. I don't think that we'd gather a lot of people if we were to do that but maybe if we separated ourselves from others? Try thinking outside of the box. If we do that, then maybe we can gather a crowd," Fraise explained.

'Hm… if we separated ourselves from others? Think outside of the box…' I thought hard to myself and locked my eyes on the various pumpkins.

'Pumpkins are well known for their iconic shape. What if I did something that played off of that? Ah!'

"Okay, I got it," I said, finally coming to a conclusion.

"What are you going to make?" She asked.

"As you help me, you'll see. Fraise, how good are your icing skills?" I asked.

"Ah, I guess I would say that I'm exceptional. I can do well enough to the point where I can get the job done," Fraise said.

'There she goes again, being modest about her skills. Either way, for the dessert I'm going to make, I'm going to need proficient speed, technique, and quality. All right, let's do this.'

"Fraise, can you get started on making an orange-colored buttercream?"

"Leave it to me!" Fraise said confidently.

As Fraise started working on the orange buttercream, I began working on a pumpkin sponge cake as a base, incorporating a pumpkin puree into the batter.

'There are going to be lots of people at the fair ranging from children and their parents, the elderly, and friends & couples. If I want to make a pumpkin cake that will make everyone smile, I would want to involve the eaters into the Halloween spirit.'

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"Done!" We all announced.

After 1 hour and much of Fraise's needed sweets magic, I managed to make my dessert and cut down on the estimated time by half. The dessert turned out perfect due to Fraise's icing skills and it was exactly how I envisioned it. As we progressed through the dessert, Fraise quickly figured out what my plan was.

"This is Kashino and Chocolat's chocolate pumpkin cake, "Dark Night"," Chocolat presented. Their dessert appeared as a beautiful slice of a one-layered pumpkin cake with a white frosting and a black bat that had the words "Halloween" on top. They also had a white chocolate ice cream designed to look like a ghost.

"This is Hanabusa and Cafe's pumpkin cake, in the shape of a crescent, "Halloween Moon"," Cafe showed. Their cake had been cut out to form a crescent moon as it had small stars on top and gold glaze on top.

"Andou and Caramel's caramel custard pumpkin cake, "Pumpkin Cat"," Caramel introduced. Their cake was formed into a ball with small pumpkin slices cut into cat ears and placed on top. The cat had cute black eyes, an open mouth, whiskers, with even a bow tie and pointy witch hat.

"Lastly, here is Keiko and Fraise's pumpkin cake shaped like a pumpkin, "Pumpkin Patch''," said Fraise. Our cake was formed to replicate a pumpkin. We used an orange buttercream for the outside and had a pumpkin cake and cheese cream filling on the inside.

"Let's eat!"

We all took a bite of each other's rendition of a pumpkin cake and expressed our opinions.

"Oh, you mixed chocolate into the filling, Kashino?" Andou noticed.

"A cake designed to look like a cat is cute and I like the caramel custard on the inside," Hanabusa complimented Andou's idea.

"Your crescent-shaped cake is interesting, Hanabusa," I said after taking a bite of his dish.

After having a taste of Andou, Kashino, and Hanabusa's dish, I concluded that they all tasted good.

'This is tough.'

"Wow, Michiko and Fraise, I'm surprised you managed to make a cake shaped into a pumpkin," Hanabusa stated.

"Somehow, it actually looks like a real pumpkin but you guys made it in an hour…" Andou said in amazement.

"It looks like it will take a lot of time to make," Kashino pointed out.

"Hm, I guess it would take a lot of time to make one but—that's if I did it by myself. Fraise's skills and magic are advanced so making this dessert allowed me to cut down on the time by half," I explained.

As they each took one of my pumpkin cakes (I made four for each of us), they cut into it and took a bite.

"Ah, that is really good!" Hanabusa complimented.

"Yeah, the buttercream, pumpkin sponge, and cream cheese frosting aren't too sweet. Instead, they balance each other out," Andou brought up.

"The pumpkin flavor really comes out as well. It's not being overpowered by the other elements," said Kashino.

"This is hard because they're all really good," the sweets spirits concluded as they tested each cake.

"Should we make all of them?" Andou asked us.

"No, four is too much. It's better to limit it to two…" Kashino said.

"We might as well make all four, how about it?" Hanabusa said.

"Well, if we think about the supply and demand, if we were to make all four of them, it would be more hard work on us because we'd have to make four separate desserts. What happens if our customers want 2 types or 3 types, or even 4 types? Would we be even able to keep up?" I consulted with concern and they all thought about it more.

"Hm… you're right," the boys agreed in unison.

"If anything, if we can't all decide on one, how about we bake some more and give them to our classmates? Then, we can hear their opinions," I suggested.

"Agreed!!!" Said the boys and their sweets spirits.