Let's Start A Bakery!

Chapter 36

As Lionel worked on beating those egg whites, which would take quite a while, I started mixing the other ingredients together.

I had already mixed the dry ingredients into a bowl earlier, so I took out my other bowl and poured the milk, egg yolks, and melted butter together. Taking my whisk, I mixed the liquids until they were evenly incorporated. Then, I made a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and poured the wet ingredients into the bowl. I continued to mix, making sure I didn't see any lumps in the batter but also being careful so that I didn't overmix the batter.

In the background, I heard Lionel's whisk moving and hitting the sides of the metal bowl. I looked over at him, noticing that the egg whites were fluffing up a little bit, but it would still take quite a while.

I should help him a bit.

"Hold on, let me teach you a technique," I said, holding my hands out for the bowl and the whisk.

Lionel handed them over to me, shaking his arms after releasing his hold on the items.

I held the bowl against my side, and kept my other arm with the whisk still against the side of my body.

"If you whisk the eggs like this, your arms won't feel as tired after a while," I explained, while demonstrating the technique to him.

He huffed, and said, "I don't need your help, I can do this myself."

Lionel took the bowl and whisk again, but used my technique anyway.

I really don't get what his problem is.

Since I mixed the rest of the batter already, there really wasn't much else I could do besides wait again.

I should preheat the pan as well...

I grabbed the thick over mitts and put them on, and opened the oven. I was met with a blast of heat, radiating out. Then, carefully grabbing the handle of the cast iron skillet, I lifted it off the counter and set it on one of the shelves in the oven. After I closed the oven door, the temperature of the room dropped again.

That is a crazy powerful oven. I should keep watch to make sure the cornbread doesn't burn, or overbake.

Lionel was still mixing using the method I taught him. I took a peek inside of the bowl, and saw that the eggs were close to being soft peaks.

"Just a few more minutes, and the eggs should be done," I said, trying to motivate him.

It'll probably take longer than just a few minutes...

"How long does it take to do this!?" he complained.

With a stand mixer? Much less time than by hand, that's for sure. But I'm not smart enough to invent one of those things yet.

"For soft peaks, you're almost there," I said, "But what I need for the cornbread is stiff peaks, which takes a few minutes longer."

"Alright fine..." Lionel replied, continuing to whisk the eggs.

I leaned against the counter and waited, looking around the kitchen over and over again, occasionally looking back on the bowl to see how much progress Lionel was making.

After a few more minutes of waiting, I stopped Lionel to check on the eggs.

"Let me check them, I don't want the eggs to get over beaten," I told Lionel.

I checked on the egg whites, and they looked perfect.

"These are good! Now I can just add them in..."

I took the spatula and started putting some of the egg whites into the batter, slowly folding the mixture together.

"Why do you need to mix the eggs? Can't you just mix it all together at the beginning?" Lionel asked me, standing off to the side with his arms crossed. He was breathing a little hard and his face was red.

"When you beat the egg whites, it adds air into the eggs. I need to air to help the cornbread become fluffier while baking, or else it will be a bit too dense," I explained while folding the batter some more.

I scraped the rest of the egg whites into the batter and completed mixing everything together.

"Can you help me take out the pan in the oven? I can finally start baking now!"

I lifted the bowl up to prepare to pour, but I saw Lionel reaching for the hot iron pan with his bare hands.

"Hey! What are you doing!" I cried.

He turned around, looking startled and confused.

"Didn't you need help?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Put the oven mitts on, or else you'll burn yourself," I said.

He rolled his eyes and grabbed the handle anyways, nearly giving me a heart attack.

Surprisingly, his hand didn't immediately melt off, and no smell of burning flesh filled the air.

"I specialize in fire magic," he said while smirking. "No fire or heat can harm me."

"O-oh, I see," I said, "That's pretty amazing."

"I hope I can learn some magic soon too," I said, while pouring the batter into the skillet.

"What do you mean by that?" Lionel asked after I finished pouring. He put the pan back into the over and turned towards me.

"You're the one who said you didn't want to use magic in the first place," he glared at me suspiciously. "You said that magic was too hard and was annoying to learn, so you threw a tantrum in front of the knights when they said they wanted to teach you magic in the future."

Yikes, this girl had issues.

"W-well, I kind of had a change of heart," I said, awkwardly. "I've changed a lot since then, haha..."

I guess he still doesn't like me very much. But my trump card is still baking in the oven. Surely this cornbread will make him kneel for me?