Doted By The Regent King

Wufu could fight, kill, carve, and even roast meat, but make sweets?

It seemed she couldn’t!

But while she had never eaten pork, she had seen pigs run; Wufu had watched others make cakes.

Therefore, due to Wufu’s arrival, the kitchen at Wu Residence suddenly became busy, arranging a small basket of eggs, flour, fruit, cow’s milk, and other things according to her instructions. freewebnøvel.coɱ

In later ages, making a cake was quite simple, but here there were no baking tools, and everything had to be simplified.

First, the egg whites and yolks were separated, beaten until they formed fish eye-like bubbles, then fine sugar was added, the mixture beaten again, repeating the process two or three times until it thickened.

The beating continued until the egg whites could pull into curved peaks; when lifting the chopsticks from the beaten whites, a short, stiff peak indicated a job well done.

"These eggs can actually be beaten like this?" Sister Ji and Ling Er couldn’t believe the result of their joint efforts, admiring the snow-white, cloud-like egg foam and almost wishing for a bite, they were astonished and looked towards Wufu.

Wufu laughed and said, "Don’t look at me, I don’t know the principle either."

"Miss, what do we do next?" Ling Er, excited, asked.

She was very interested in studying culinary arts. Any novel food or dish piqued her curiosity for research. Despite being only thirteen, her willingness to study hard, coupled with her natural talent, made her cooking skills far more exquisite than Wufu’s.

"Just leave this outside to freeze for now," Wufu indicated.

There was no refrigerator here, but fortunately, it was winter, and leaving something outside to freeze was considered refrigeration.

Following that, the separated yolks had sugar gently beaten into them, then cow’s milk and corn oil added, with fine flour sifted in, and everything was gently folded until even.

"Don’t fold too vigorously, or it won’t steam properly," Wufu said.

Ling Er nodded, carefully folding the flour into the egg yolk mixture with meticulous movements.

"This is good," Wufu said, recalling what she had seen before. Seeing that the egg yolk mixture was about right, she had someone fetch the frozen egg whites. She added a third into the mix and instructed Ling Er to stir slowly. Watching the mixture become more homogeneous, she added the rest gradually until it was all evenly mixed.

By then, the pot for steaming the cake was preheating and drying on the Small Red Furnace, as she had instructed. Several people had gathered around the kitchen, curious to see Wufu halfway using her hands, halfway using her voice to make this cake.

Even Madam Zhou, having heard the news, came over to have a look.

Wufu was both amused and frustrated, and sent most of the onlookers away, leaving only her own maidservants and those helping in the kitchen.

"Pour it into the small pot," Wufu directed Ling Er as she poured the well-mixed batter into the hot pot and covered it to start steaming.

"Miss, how long should this steam for?" Ling Er glanced at the hourglass.

Wufu pondered for a moment and replied, "Let’s steam it for a quarter of an hour first, then make a few more with different ratios of sugar and flour, observing the timing too to see which one turns out most suitable." She wasn’t really certain herself, after all, this was not the kitchen equipment of later ages. So, she simply decided to make several, betting that at least one would be good. Besides, there were plenty of people in the house, and they wouldn’t worry about leftovers.

Ling Er and the others complied, and with many hands making light work, a series of Small Red Furnaces soon had cakes steaming on them.

As the cakes steamed, a sweet scent of milk filled the air, and Wufu felt some delight; at least it was half successful.

Wufu had Ling Er whip up some cream, just like the earlier egg white separation but with two extra spoonfuls of sugar – after all, some liked it sweet. Then she froze the cream for later use.

Time ticked away until all the cakes turned a golden brown. Wufu had them taken out to freeze and cool down. After trying one that looked not too shabby, almost resembling those of her previous life, she chose what looked like the best one, spread on the cream, and began decorating it with fruits and flowers.