Domesticating Max

Max vs. the Cake

As Dan's birthday neared, Chloe thought she might take Max under her wing and teach him how to bake a cake. A birthday cake, to be exact.

At first, Max seemed overwhelmed by the idea and tried to get out of it, but Dan's girlfriend was persistent.

"I'm sure it would mean a lot to Dan if his favorite teammate made him a birthday cake," she smiled sweetly.

"Favorite teammate? Did he say that?" Max started to smile, but shook his head. "No, I don't think I could manage to bake whole cake; remember what happened when I made chicken with you guys?"

"That was nothing, don't worry about it. It's not as hard as it seems, I promise. It'll be, as they say, 'a piece of cake'." She smirked.

"I don't get how a piece of cake is supposed to be easy..." Max complained.

"I'll be right there the whole time," Chloe coaxed.

Max sighed and knew there was no getting out of this, since he knew she was right - it was Dan's birthday, and it would be nice for Max to make up to him for the recent life lessons Dan has taken upon himself to teach Max. Max recalled the mountain of laundry in his bedroom before Dan had showed him how to use the washing machine, and the endless string of take-out deliveries he survived off of before Dan and Chloe showed him some basic cooking skills, and realized Chloe was right. "Okay, let's bake a cake!"

Later that week, when they knew Dan would be out for a few hours, Max slipped down to their apartment. Chloe had all the ingredients set out, as well as any bowls, pans, and measuring cups/spoons they would need. She handed Max an apron upon entering the kitchen, and bubbly explained what they were going to do today.

"Okay, so we're going to make a very basic yellow cake with a standard buttercream frosting," she stared.

"What makes it yellow?" Max interrupted.

"It's just from the eggs."

"So, no food coloring?"

"No, okay first-"

"Wait, what do you mean by 'buttercream' frosting? Is it made with butter and cream?" Max asked.

"Yes, but we'll get to that later. The cake will need to cool off completely before we frost it, or the icing will just melt off. Any more questions?" Chloe asked and eyed him. Max shook his head 'no' so she returned to explaining the ingredients. "First, we will mix the dry ingredients in this bowl here."

"Okay..." Max looked around and identified the 'dry' ingredients, or what he thought that meant. He dumped the flour, salt, baking powder, and the sugar into the bowl.

"Oh, actually...well, never mind." Chloe bit her lip. It would be okay. "Normally the sugar is mixed with the butter in a process called 'creaming'."

Max snickered at that, and instead of rolling her eyes at his immaturity, Chloe just laughed. "We'll just cream the butter on it's own, I'm sure it'll be fine. So, whisk the dry ingredients, and I'll just add the butter to the bowl of the mixer."

When they both completed their tasks, Chloe preheated the oven to the correct temperature. "Okay, now we add the eggs to the butter. Do you know how to crack an egg?"

"Um, no, I don't think so," Max sheepishly answered.

"That's fine, we have four to add to the cake, so you'll get some practice. Okay, I'll do the first one. Just lightly hit it against this bowl to break the shell, and dump the contents into the bowl." She explained as she demonstrated. "Then, check for any pieces of shell, before dumping the egg from this bowl, into the mixing bowl with the butter. Okay?"