Secret Ingredient

Mixing it

It's official, I have no patience anymore. I watch the machine mix the dough for three minutes, and It feels like the longest three minutes of my life. Eros is pulling out some fruits and syrups. I guess I could pull out some food dye to pass some time.

I open the door to the closet making sure to prop it open with a box. I poke around though there's not much. " So what kind of cupcakes are we making for Halloween?" I shout towards him. I grabbed the box of coloring and some candies that grabbed my attention.

" The usual" He muttered while acting busy.

" Oh, okay but which ones?" I teased. He's way silent for a minute. Then to his savings grace, the machine started beeping.

" Ghosts, monsters, and other stuff." He walked up to the machine to stop its screaming. I walk up beside him. He dismantled the huge mixing bowl.

" You know it's okay to admit that you don't know. I understand that you didn't have a lot of experience with this kind of thing." I gently placed the items on the counter next to him. Though he still refused to meet my eye. He does look at the box of food dye, giving it an affirmative nod. I noticed he placed a few tins on the counter earlier. " Do you not use glass?"

" No, not for cupcakes. Baking tins help retain and distribute heat. It also heats up faster, lowering the time needed to bake the cupcakes. Glass is better for a casserole, cobblers, and on a special occasion different types of pies." He didn't miss a beat. You learn something new everyday day I guess. He then poured the mixture into the silicone cupcake liners.

" Is there a special reason we use silicone liners?" I walked to the oven to open the door for him.

" It's only to cut the cost of paper liners. People only care about the end wrapper. So a few years ago to cut on the cost we got reusable liners. It wasn't that liners were expensive, but over time buying liners in bulk adds up. So I bought a couple of these." He was smiling again. It's nice that he ended up liking the family business. I wonder how hard it would be if he didn't. He walks towards the oven and I open the door. After placing it in the oven he looked at me. " Now for frosting. Pick a flavor." then Eros walked back over grabbing the mixer to start washing it.

" Oh umm, I don't know. How many are there?" I mean I buy the stuff from the store. Something tells me we don't get ours from a container.

" Buttercream, French buttercream, German buttercream, Ermine buttercream, Swiss meringue buttercream, Italian meringue buttercream," please don't tell me every place has its own buttercream! " cream cheese frosting, whipped cream frosting, seven-minute frosting, fudge frosting, and for later we have fondant and Ganache. We'll test them all but which one first." Okay, so it's not a ton of buttercream.

" Okay, then I'll go with fudge frosting." After I said that he opened a cabinet taking out a pot. Then opened a drawer with a bunch of Lindt chocolate bars. He looked at me and then gestured towards the draw. I walked over pulling out a slightly darker chocolate bar.

" Grab some butter out of the fridge" I did as I was told " Okay now half a cup of it. We're going to put it in the microwave for a short few seconds. We're going to soften it. Not completely melted, but not frozen." He gets closer to me as he explains what he's doing. He gets a bowl as I watch the butter in the microwave.

" So what's next, do we just pour in the sugar and cocoa powder?" I ask when I see the butter has softened. Eros places the bowl in front of me.

"Yes and no." He saw the confused look I gave him. " We need to sift one cup of icing sugar. Then one-fourth cup of cocoa powder. We need to sift it in case there are any clumps." I nod, staring into his green. I mumbled okay. " Now we use the mixer to combine everything. With the lever on the side make sure it's on high speed. Only set it for a minute. I'm going to take cupcakes out now." This was kinda fun. Baking has never been my specialty. I watched the mixture spin around till the machine went off.

" What next?" I looked over at Eros. He was already jogging back over with measuring spoons.

" One teaspoon of vanilla essence" I searched the bottles on the counter to find it. When I did I handed it over to him. " Then we need half a cup of heavy cream. Put it in the microwave for a minute to warm it up slightly. All that's left is to cut up the chocolate bars till we have half a cup after we melt it." I did as he said while he mixed it. " Now the hard part is we put it in the fridge for 15 minutes." I walked over to the timer on the counter, and then set it.

" What do we do while we wait?" I asked.

" We make more frosting. I told you. You're going to be trying a bunch of combinations. By the end of today, you're not going to look at cupcakes the same again." He had a devilish smirk play on his face.

He's got to be bluffing. There's no way I'm going to ever look at a cupcake as anything other than delicious. I love cupcakes, I bet I'm going to make him eat his words. I'll wipe that stupid smirk off his face. " Bring it on," I said confidently.

" Oh, you're going to regret that soon. Come on, let's start the buttercream frosting before anyone comes in. It's going to be a long shift. You will need to know this one." It was oddly a little menacing of him.