{ELEMENTISTS OF WILLOW FOREST BOOK IV} The Day of Death

Vanilla Cupcakes With Minty Green Icing

4:  Vanilla Cupcakes with Minty Green Icing

 

 

 

My earliest memory, or at least, the only memory I can define, is of making cupcakes.

Don't judge.

I think I was about four.  I'm not quite sure.

Anyway, it was raining.  The weather here isn't always perfect.  It only is when at least one Elementist of each kind is in it.  It was still warmer than most of England, for some reason, but, being England, it did rain.

I was very disappointed, because Gama had made me a slide the day before, and I had been hoping to spend the whole day playing on it.  The two wolf cubs, Kiba and Nioi, whom I had been intrusted with by Gama were sleeping in my bedroom.

I was bored.

Mama had been in the kitchen, so she'd suggested making cupcakes.  I think I might have made cupcakes before, too, but I never did more than ice them and stir the mixture.

Mama handed me the wooden spoon.  I tried to use it to stab at the lumps of butter, to break them apart and mix them in with the sugar.

Gama walked into the room.  "What are you making?"

I turned round.  I had to stand on a chair to reach the kitchen unit.  "Van-i-lla cupcakes."  I sounded out each syllable carefully, and then added proudly, "With minty green icing!"

"Are we?"  My mother asked.

"Yes."  I said.

"I thought we were making vanilla icing."

Gama laughed.

"We were," I said, "But there are mint leaves there," I pointed to a plant sitting on the window sill, "And I know we've got green food colouring somewhere, so why can't we make minty green icing?"

Gama laughed again.  "Because," she said, "It's not in the recipe, and your mother likes following the recipe."

"Oh."  I looked at what I thought was the recipe book.  "I can't read the recipe."

"You can't read full stop."  Mama retorted.  "And it's not that I don't like following the recipe.  It's just that we'd have to pick some mint, then tear up the leaves, then extract some juice, then-"

"I can do that."  Gama volunteered.  "If Livy wants minty green icing, she can have minty green icing."