Donut Holes (2)

Chapter 110: S2 Episode 10 - Donut Holes (2)

As Keiko left to grab the ingredients for the donut holes, Kashino had a strange look on his face.

'There she goes again,' Kashino thought to himself as he watched the beautiful girl's figure go towards the cafeteria's kitchen.

"Ooh, are you interested in Michiko Keiko?" Kaidou Rui, the vice president of the high school division on Team Tennouji, asked Kashino who couldn't take his eyes off of the distant girl's figure.

A bit flustered by his words, he gathered his composure again to face the upperclassman.

"Mind your own business," Kashino brushed off cooly and returned to delivering chocolate cakes to children.

"You're Kashino Hospital's only son, right? Why do you want to be a patissier?" Kaidou Rui asked Kashino curiously.

"My story is boring. What about you, Kaidou-senpai? Is it all right for you not to inherit the Kaidou Group?" Kashino rebutted but Kaidou Rui had a slight smirk on his face.

"I'm the second son, so I have freedom, you know? We're different from your family. Here, try a truffle," Kaidou Rui said as he shoved a truffle into Kashino's mouth.

As Kashino chewed the truffle Kaidou Rui gave him, he was taken aback by its unique taste.

'D-Delicious!' Kashino praised inside his mind.

Right beside Kashino and Kaidou Rui stood Hanabusa and his sweets spirit, Cafe.

Hanabusa was busy piping a red rose onto a cupcake.

"Satsuki, that rose is made with royal icing, isn't it?" Cafe asked his partner.

"You got it, Cafe," Hanabusa responded.

"Wow, the flowers are so pretty!" Little girls praised. Hanabusa turned his head with a smile to face them.

"Is that so? Here, a present for you—"

To his dismay, the little girls weren't paying any attention to him. Instead, the spotlight was fixated on Saeki Ryou, a member of Team Tennouji, who was building bouquets of candy sculptured flowers.

'Making candy sculptures at that speed, with that beauty—Saeki-senpai is fearsome…' Hanabusa thought to himself as he wavered in place.

And just last down the line were Andou and Caramel.

"Andou, Hanabusa's all stiff," Caramel took notice of their teammate's noticeable wavering.

For some reason, Andou hadn't moved from his place after he took a bite out of something.

"W-What's wrong? Don't tell me it's happening here too!" Caramel complained worriedly once she saw her partner go stiff.

"T-this prepared *anko… it tastes the same as *"Yumezuki's"," Andou said with a baffled look.

(*Anko is sweet red bean paste.)

(*Yumezuki's is Andou's family restaurant.)

"I'm a big fan of Yumezuki's daifuku, even though I'm the son of a French confection shop," a boy's voice interjected as Andou turned his head toward the direction of the boy.

"T-Takigawa-senpai," Andou acknowledged in awe.

"Recreating the tastes of things I've eaten once is my specialty!" Takigawa Reiji said with a playful wink.

Even so, it seemed that the three sweets princes had all turned stiff as they tasted and witnessed the creations of their seniors who were on a completely different level. It was then that they realized that they had to start pushing themselves more to match up to their competition.

The princes were already good, but in comparison to Team Tennouji, it seemed that they were much too far behind in skill, taste, and technique. No wonder Michiko Keiko wanted to polish her skills right away when they learned that they were going against Team Tennouji.

They realized that she simply didn't want to just even up to Tennouji Mari and her team, but that she wanted to surpass them. As if the hard-working virus had jumped onto the three boys, they decided that they would have to practice the same amount of discipline Michiko Keiko did when she practiced her arts.

* * *

I came back from the cafeteria's kitchen and grabbed flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, butter, and milk.

Once I made it back to my station, Yui was standing on the stool patiently waiting for my return.

"Okay, I know the basic measurements for a donut hole recipe. Just instruct me on how your mom did it, okay, Yui?" I explained and she nodded her small head in response.

"Okay. Let's work together and figure out how you and your Mom did this."

Measuring out a reasonable ratio of each ingredient, Yui began instructing me on how her mother mixed her ingredients.

Her mother mixed flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together into a large bowl until it was well combined. Then, she said that her mom cut up some cold butter and added it to the dry ingredients so it could form a crumbly mix.

Next, I transferred the coarse crumbly dough onto a floured surface and began kneading it gently until it could form small firm balls.

Then, I readied a pot and began heating some oil until it reached the needed temperature to thoroughly fry things. As I waited, I turned to Yui who watched in amazement.

"Wow, you're moving so fast and beautifully! Mommy was never that quick but Yui thinks you're doing good so far," Yui complimented and I nodded my head along.

"What kind of frosting did your mom dip these in?"

"I think it was just cinnamon and sugar. Mommy didn't like frosting because she thought it was too sweet but she did like her donuts with sugar and cinnamon."

Continuing to wait for the oil to heat up, I readied a small bowl filled with cinnamon and sugar to coat the donut holes in after they were done frying.

Once the oil was hot enough, I carefully dropped the donuts and began frying them for about 3.5 minutes. When they had a golden brown color, I took them out and drained the excess oil with a paper towel. After getting rid of the excess oil, I placed them into the cinnamon sugar mix and rolled them around. Finally, it was done.

"Okay, try them now while they're still warm," I instructed, handing Yui a donut hole on a fork.

She put the small donut ball into her mouth but her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she chewed. At this moment, I could tell something was wrong.

"It looks similar, but the taste is not the same… The donuts are a bit heavier than how Mommy made them. Somehow, Mommy's were softer and tasted a bit more grainy!" Yui brought it to my attention as I thought about it.

'These are too heavy but her mom's donuts were softer? Not only that but her mom's donuts were apparently grainy to Yui. What could I use that could make these donuts grainy?'

I scanned the table of ingredients I prepared to make sure that I wasn't missing anything. It surely was a simple recipe that anyone could make, but what could be so hard about making it match perfectly to her mom's?