Baking In December

Gingerbread Cookies

100g salted butter

3 tbsp golden syrup
100g dark muscovado sugar
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
225g plain flour
50g icing sugar

"I'm curious. What did you exactly write in your nomination to win this?" Louis asked Lottie the next day.

"Oh, don't worry about that." Lottie tried to brush him off

"Show me. Now." Louis huffed.

Lottie picked up her phone and scrolled a little before she handed her phone over.
"Here, I took a screenshot."

Louis read out loud.
"Hello, we nominate our brother Louis. He's a catastrophe in the kitchen. Once the microwave caught on fire just because he looked at it."

He looked up from the phone.
"It was something electrical. Not me fault."He snorted before he continued to read.

"Louis loves to bake, he's just not any good at it. Please save us from yet another year of his disastrous cookies. He will be a challenge but he also will be eager to learn."

He glared at Lottie.
"You're really throwing me off the bus here."

"It worked." Lottie shrugged.

His sisters gave him directions and he parked outside the bakery ten minutes early. It was closed but he could see someone wiping the tables inside so he knocked on the door.

A man came and opened in and Louis couldn't help but stare at him. Lottie had been right. He was absolutely gorgeous. He had brown, curly hair to his shoulders. His eyes were green and he had dimples. God damn!
"Are you Louis?"

"Eh, yes. Hi." Louis said and held out his hand.

The man shook it.
"I'm Harry. Welcome."

They walked inside. Louis just stood there awkwardly while Harry finished wiping the table.
"I'm sorry about that. I only had that one left. Come on, let's go to the back."

Louis followed him to the back.
"You can hang your jacket there and grab an apron. Wash your hands in the sink over there."

Louis did as he was told. Harry washed his hands as well and put on an apron before he walked over to the kitchen island.
"Alright! This is exciting! I thought we could start by making gingerbread cookies. Now, the dough tastes the best if it's refrigerated for 24 hours so we'll make it today and then we'll make cookies tomorrow. How does that sound?"

"Great!" Louis smiled.

Harry pulled out a paper from the top of a stack of papers.
"Here, I wrote down the recipe."

"Alright." Louis said and read through it.

"Let's start by heating the butter, syrup, and sugar together." Harry said and grabbed a pan.

Harry let him measure the ingredients and Louis almost felt like a small child.
"So, your sisters said that you love to bake." Harry said, making small talk.

"Yeah, but apparently I'm not any good at it." Louis replied dryly.

"A couple of weeks with me and you'll be a pro... Stop, that's salt!" Harry burst out.

"Fuck, sorry." Louis said and blushed from embarrassment.

"No worries. Just throw that away. That's bicarb." Harry smiled and pointed.

"Right." Louis chuckled.

Twenty minutes later they had made the dough. Louis looked at it suspiciously.
"Are you sure we made it correctly? It's all floaty."

Harry giggled.
"Yes, I'm sure. Some time in the fridge will take care of that."

He wrapped plastic around the bowl and walked over to the fridge and opened it. After he had placed the bowl inside he closed the fridge door and turned around and looked at Louis.
"Want a cup of tea? I thought I could go over my plan for everything we will make and you can give suggestions as well and I'll make changes."

"Sure." Louis smiled. He didn't know what the thing with Harry was. It felt as if they already knew each other.