"There you go," Max cheers him on. "See, I told you. A natural. Might need to look into bumping you up off dishes and into cupcakes if you keep it up." He's not just saying that either. The cafe staff has fluxuated recently, to the point where he could use the extra help.
"Okay, go ahead and turn the heat off on that and let it sit a minute while we mix the rest of our wet ingredients. Eggs, sour cream, and your old friend vanilla. You can use the whisk on those, too, we're about to blend it all together anyway."
He makes a face (good-naturedly) at your old friend vanilla, as he joins Max to start on the next step. Cracking eggs neatly is something he hasn't quite mastered yet; after he crushes the first one into a useless mess and manages to get a clean crack on the second, he backs off to let Max do the next one.
Sour cream is a lot easier, he finds -- just spoon it into the cup measure and then smooth the top off level before dumping it into the mixing bowl.
Yep. That's the face he was hoping to get. Just a little gentle ribbing between friends.
"Don't worry," Max coaches him. Watching the eggs crack messily is slightly painful, but he is careful not to show it. "That skill just takes time and practice. No one masters it overnight." That said, he does crack the last eggs using only one hand into the bowl with quite the level of mastery.
"Okay. Once we get all the wets mixed up. Now it's time to add the dry. Good thing to remember is you generally always want to mix dry into wet, verses the other way around. You wouldn't think so, but it does make a difference."
"When you mix it the other way, sometimes that takes longer and you have to mix harder, which changes the texture of the baked product. Basically, if you beat it too hard you start to break it down and add too much air at the same time." He probably should have chosen different wording to explain that, but it's true none-the-less.
"Baking can be a very precise science sometimes. But it looks like we're in good shape here with this batch."
Max reaches for the baking pan, which he has already rubbed down with shortening. "Oh, another tip you want to heed is: always grease the pan before you pour the batter in. If you don't, the cake will stick and it won't come out nicely."
"Right." He nods, trying to commit the advice to memory -- if Max is serious about having him start working on cupcakes, he's going to need to learn all this.
Max raises his eyebrows not so much in surprise but because he's impressed by the swiftness of that answer.
"Sure, white is easiest of all. We won't have to mix color into this or the frosting if it's white. Here, try rolling this in your hands to get a feel for it." Max offers over the now cylindrical hunk of soft modeling chocolate. "We're going to use that to form some of the smaller detail stuff like the eyes. We'll do the main body of it in buttercream, though. That's what will taste the best."
"That's exactly what we should do," Max tells him with a decisive note of pride. Edgar catches on quick and Max loves him for it.
"We'll probably use it for the tip of the tail too. Now, here's where the sculpting comes in. You want to pull off a chunk of that big piece and then use a rolling pin to flatten it out for a wing. For an eyeball, you'd want to roll it between your palms to get it round instead." Max demonstrates the motion by miming it with his own palms rubbing together.
"When I was a kid, my dad got me a play-dough set which is a lot like this, but you weren't supposed to eat it. Even though it wasn't actually food, I used to love to pretend I was cooking by rolling it out, or tossing it over my head like a pizza chef. Guess you could say I got started young. It's a lot of fun to practice."
He experiments with pulling off a piece about the size of his thumb, and rolling it into a little ball.
"Huh," he says, a little reminiscent. "When I was ... oh, real little, like four or five ... used to like playing around with bits of protein blocks. Lot of the babies did that. You couldn't roll it like this, but you could squeeze it and it'd sort of ... squish, like."
"Just goes to show," Max says, keeping his tone light to mask his inner disgust at what Edgar and all the others on the train had to put up with, "Playing with your food is about as universally human as you can get.
"If I'd ever gotten a chance to have kids, you never would have heard me say 'Don't play with your food.'" Too bad he'll never have the chance.
Edgar laughs. "Oh, we got that all the time. Kids old enough to know better, none of that messing around. Couldn't waste it. You telling me they told kids that even before the train?"
He sets down the little ball of modeling chocolate, and starts on another bit about the same size.
"They sure did," Max said, shaking his head with mirth. "Lots of people used to say 'there's starving kids in Africa' that would gladly eat it if we didn't. Generally. My dad didn't use that one because we were scraping the line of poverty often enough ourselves that we knew better than to waste what we had.
"Don't get me wrong, we never actually went hungry. Dad worked really hard to make sure of it. But it took a lot of juggling to make it happen." The way Max speaks about his dad leaves no room for doubt, he was a good father and he gave Max a happy childhood.
"Might be why I like spoiling people so much now. I want to pass the goodwill on where I can--be the kind of person he'd have wanted me to become, I think. I want to make him proud."
Edgar makes a sound of agreement and understanding, studying the second eyeball he's rolling.
"It makes a difference, yeah?" he says after a long moment, not lifting his eyes from his work. "Like, even if they don't know, never will, it makes a difference to act like they'd want you to. Right?"
"Yeah. It does." He gently lays a hand on Edgar's shoulder. "Because it means we haven't forgotten the lessons we were raised with. It wasn't for nothing, because we carry it on with us. That makes all the difference in the world."
(It isn't Curtis he's thinking about, for once; Curtis at least he's been able to talk to since. It's Tanya, who hasn't come to Milliways, who hasn't come here either.)
(... Although to be honest he's a little grateful she hasn't shown up here.)
Max administers a gentle squeeze, letting the moment of quiet linger just a bit longer before taking a sharp breath in and straightening. A smile once more blooms on his face.
"Okay, let's see how those eyes are looking. Pretty good, but the one might be a smidge too big."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2022-02-18 08:10 pm (UTC)"Hey, it's working," he reports happily. "What next?"
(no subject)
Date: 2022-02-18 08:47 pm (UTC)"Okay, go ahead and turn the heat off on that and let it sit a minute while we mix the rest of our wet ingredients. Eggs, sour cream, and your old friend vanilla. You can use the whisk on those, too, we're about to blend it all together anyway."
(no subject)
Date: 2022-02-20 07:28 pm (UTC)Sour cream is a lot easier, he finds -- just spoon it into the cup measure and then smooth the top off level before dumping it into the mixing bowl.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-02-23 06:47 pm (UTC)"Don't worry," Max coaches him. Watching the eggs crack messily is slightly painful, but he is careful not to show it. "That skill just takes time and practice. No one masters it overnight." That said, he does crack the last eggs using only one hand into the bowl with quite the level of mastery.
"Okay. Once we get all the wets mixed up. Now it's time to add the dry. Good thing to remember is you generally always want to mix dry into wet, verses the other way around. You wouldn't think so, but it does make a difference."
(no subject)
Date: 2022-02-23 09:30 pm (UTC)The mixture's starting to resemble goopy mud more than anything else, but it's also actually starting to smell appetizing.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-02-24 07:45 pm (UTC)"Baking can be a very precise science sometimes. But it looks like we're in good shape here with this batch."
Max reaches for the baking pan, which he has already rubbed down with shortening. "Oh, another tip you want to heed is: always grease the pan before you pour the batter in. If you don't, the cake will stick and it won't come out nicely."
(no subject)
Date: 2022-02-27 03:07 am (UTC)"Now we pour it in, yeah?"
(no subject)
Date: 2022-02-28 09:44 pm (UTC)"While that bakes in the oven, we can prep for the really fun part: making decorations and frosting. How are you at sculpting?"
(no subject)
Date: 2022-03-01 04:00 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-03-01 07:52 pm (UTC)Max pulls a tub close to him and pries off the lid. Inside is a tacky white substance which he scoops out and starts to roll between his hands.
"This is modeling chocolate. We can use it to make the parts of the dragon. What color do you think we should make it?"
(no subject)
Date: 2022-03-02 04:09 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-03-02 06:27 pm (UTC)"Sure, white is easiest of all. We won't have to mix color into this or the frosting if it's white. Here, try rolling this in your hands to get a feel for it." Max offers over the now cylindrical hunk of soft modeling chocolate. "We're going to use that to form some of the smaller detail stuff like the eyes. We'll do the main body of it in buttercream, though. That's what will taste the best."
(no subject)
Date: 2022-03-03 04:28 am (UTC)"Think we could make wings out of this? Don't think it'd work to make em out of cake."
(no subject)
Date: 2022-03-04 06:34 pm (UTC)"We'll probably use it for the tip of the tail too. Now, here's where the sculpting comes in. You want to pull off a chunk of that big piece and then use a rolling pin to flatten it out for a wing. For an eyeball, you'd want to roll it between your palms to get it round instead." Max demonstrates the motion by miming it with his own palms rubbing together.
"When I was a kid, my dad got me a play-dough set which is a lot like this, but you weren't supposed to eat it. Even though it wasn't actually food, I used to love to pretend I was cooking by rolling it out, or tossing it over my head like a pizza chef. Guess you could say I got started young. It's a lot of fun to practice."
(no subject)
Date: 2022-03-04 08:02 pm (UTC)"Huh," he says, a little reminiscent. "When I was ... oh, real little, like four or five ... used to like playing around with bits of protein blocks. Lot of the babies did that. You couldn't roll it like this, but you could squeeze it and it'd sort of ... squish, like."
(no subject)
Date: 2022-03-08 08:18 pm (UTC)"If I'd ever gotten a chance to have kids, you never would have heard me say 'Don't play with your food.'" Too bad he'll never have the chance.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-03-10 12:04 am (UTC)He sets down the little ball of modeling chocolate, and starts on another bit about the same size.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-03-10 05:30 pm (UTC)"Don't get me wrong, we never actually went hungry. Dad worked really hard to make sure of it. But it took a lot of juggling to make it happen." The way Max speaks about his dad leaves no room for doubt, he was a good father and he gave Max a happy childhood.
"Might be why I like spoiling people so much now. I want to pass the goodwill on where I can--be the kind of person he'd have wanted me to become, I think. I want to make him proud."
(no subject)
Date: 2022-03-10 11:46 pm (UTC)"It makes a difference, yeah?" he says after a long moment, not lifting his eyes from his work. "Like, even if they don't know, never will, it makes a difference to act like they'd want you to. Right?"
(no subject)
Date: 2022-03-13 04:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-03-14 03:45 am (UTC)(It isn't Curtis he's thinking about, for once; Curtis at least he's been able to talk to since. It's Tanya, who hasn't come to Milliways, who hasn't come here either.)
(... Although to be honest he's a little grateful she hasn't shown up here.)
(no subject)
Date: 2022-03-14 05:59 pm (UTC)"Okay, let's see how those eyes are looking. Pretty good, but the one might be a smidge too big."
(no subject)
Date: 2022-03-15 01:20 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-03-16 03:28 am (UTC)"Use this." He takes up a wood rolling pin and sprinkles it with flour first before handing it over.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-03-17 02:41 am (UTC)"Uh," he says, eloquently.
(no subject)
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From:what do you think of starting to fade this one out?
From:Sounds good!
From:End~
From: