Judging the Final Round (1)

Chapter 139: S2 Episode 38 - Judging the Final Round (1)

Both teams focused on forming each element of their cake; it was satisfying for the viewers who watched in person and at home. They could see everything occurring right before their very eyes as several cameras focused on each student busily doing something.

It looked as if these eight students could be painted in paintings, and no matter how much you looked at them, you'd be mesmerized by it each time.

Countless hours have passed since the start of the final round. Since concessions were open for 10 hours, audience members bought food from the school's cafeteria, used the restroom, or even walked around the prestigious academy's school grounds. Since the school installed multiple screens throughout the entire academy, the audience members could still see what was happening in real-time, even during their breaks, meaning that they wouldn't miss out on anything.

As they looked at the screens with the eight students, even the audience members figured that it wasn't as good as seeing it in person. While they sat through those hours watching those eight students create their cakes, it was much more satisfying to sit in the auditorium and watch them move instead of watching them from home. How lucky were they to be able to see this spectacle live?!

"It is now 5:30 P.M! It's been a long 9 hours so far, and there's only 1 hour left. Each part is being finished up—Sugar sculptures, chocolate sculptures, petit gateau, and the teams' entremets are being finished," the student commentator spoke through the microphone, signalizing that the final round was drawing to a close. Each camera focused on each team's members finishing up their separate pieces.

Even though 10 hours seemed like a long time, it felt like it passed by quickly when they watched the eight students up on the stage. Even the audience members forgot just how much time had passed since the beginning.

"From here on, all parts will come together as one piece," he said as the teams gathered together at a large circular table at the front to set up their Dream cake. The team members from both Team Tennouji and Team Michiko brought their completed elements to the white circular table, where they would begin the process of assembling everything.

As Team Tennouji gathered around their table, they placed down Kaidou Rui's checkerboard as the base and assembled white chocolate doors that opened up. Then, the white sugar flower petals that Saeki Ryou was in charge of were massed together to form a beautifully bloomed flower, and he fastened it to a sugar plate to keep it together. Next, Tennouji Mari placed her decorated white entremet below the flower that would be secured on top.

Their team moved rather quickly, directing each other on where to put each piece. In a way, their teamwork was simple yet elegant.

On the other end of the spectrum, it was apparent to the eyes of those watching that Team Michiko didn't need to say anything to one another as they started assembling their cake. Seeing how they knew how every element was going to be placed on their final cake, they could see that they practiced so much to the point where their movements became almost telepathic.

They didn't rush to put things together, but they didn't waste any unnecessary movements to assemble it either.

Their team leader, Michiko Keiko, moved with such lightness and accuracy as she fastened her elements together and aided her teammates in thoroughly constructing their items together. She showed such an air of brilliance that absorbed both the audience members and those watching on their TVs. They couldn't describe how she could radiate such a brilliant light as she and her teammates worked together by using their eyes.

Kashino Makoto was in charge of assembling the 2ft tall chocolate Angel on their cake. He used white chocolate for most of the Angel, such as its wings, clothes, hair, and body. For most of the time he spent at his station, he carved out each part of her body beautifully but kept them dismembered so he could put them together in the end. He now focused on painting the angel with edible *luster dust.

(*Luster dust is a type of decorating power used to decorate cakes and candies to add color and sparkles to desserts.)

He used this decorating powder to add more depth to the Angel's figure, like adding shadows and shine to her white wings and dress, painting her hair to a blonde hair color, and painting the expression on her eyes and face. This task called for a steady hand as he painted each part of her separated body. When he finished adding shine and depth to the Angel, he would "glue" the body parts together with a white chocolate seal that would be hidden within. As the Angel was coming together, even by just seeing how he detailed and carved out each element, the audience's eyes were stunned by just how realistic this "chocolate sculpture" was.

Michiko Keiko readied her white entremet cake that would be used as the base of the cake. She decorated the genoise cake with white feathers that poked out of the cake from all over. She used white chocolate to make these realistic white bird feathers and placed white cotton candy around the top of the cake to interpret white clouds. Even by itself, it looked stunning, but that was just the start of the cake. They still had many more elements to put on.

After Michiko Keiko's entremet was placed as the base, next up was Hanabusa with his many candy sculptures. On top of the white clouds previously placed on before, Hanabusa began placing his white-colored pillars, each at different heights. These pillars were spiraled and had just a touch of sparkles to them. After placing the white pillars in a specific pattern, he assembled the shiny gold helix staircase that stunned the audience with his stunning performance. With the help of Cafe's sweets magic, the spiral staircase that Hanabusa detailed with many stairs had a sparkling glow from within them. Nobody knew how this gold staircase could glow from within with such light—it appeared magical.

He was in charge of making different colored candied butterflies, and so he fastened them onto the spiral staircase as if they were climbing up. At the top of the stairway, Hanabusa and Cafe worked together to make a white door with a mysterious bright light shining at the end.

Using Michiko Keiko's white clouds that she made, he added more around to fill in the empty gaps that needed filling.

With just this spiral staircase placed on the cake, it already looked so perfect to the peoples' eyes that they were shocked. How could a group of 2nd-year middle schoolers produce this intricate work of art? At the sight of it so far, it was unbelievable that they weren't sure what else the team would add to it to make it even better. Was it even possible to make it better?

After Hanabusa arranged the main components of his part onto the cake, Andou stepped in to place his petit gateaux. He had several alluring mini cakes that he would put on top of some of the smaller white pillars that were empty as if it was on an altar. The petit gateaux were of different types. One was a white and pink macaron; another was a chocolate hazelnut praline cake, a caramel crémeux, a chocolate mousse, etc.

Each had beautiful garnishes that elevated the cake as the pillars climbed up to the top. By just seeing what Andou was capable of, they were completely wrong when they thought that the cake couldn't get any better. His petit gateaux would be the pillars guiding the viewers' eyes to the top as they followed those butterflies to the top of that staircase, and each one of those mini cakes provided an amount of vibrancy to the otherwise white-colored cake.

Now, all of the team members of each team had to add the finishing details to their dream cakes.

For Team Tennouji's last piece, they would set up their white candied flower between the white chocolate doors that opened up, urging the watchers to see the flower that was beyond those ajar doors.

"It's complete," Team Tennouji announced calmly after exhaling in relief. This was it, their dream cake was finally done.

On their table, the cameras panned to the beautiful cake they'd created. It had a glossy black and white checkerboard base that shined with white chocolate tulip garnishes and pearl candies. Just on top of it was the white entremet and the gorgeous white candied flower that appealed to the eyes of the audience seeing it. It was a large 1ft tall chrysanthemum flower that bloomed beautifully as the centerpiece, but it appeared as if the large flower was at an angle, pointing directly at the cameras. Just behind it were the white chocolate doors that opened up behind it and a shiny crescent moon about 1.5ft tall.

The audience didn't have any other words to describe their cake, other than just—

"Beautiful… It looks so mysterious that I can see the luminescence," the MC spoke into the microphone as the crowd went silent.

Truthfully, it was impressive. It's maturity and grace drawed people's eyes in and it was like the flower was floating in mid-air.

After Team Tennouji finished with their dazzling "Flower of Dreams" cake, many people from the audience and at home wondered how Team Michiko could compete with that. It seemed as if nothing could go against Team Tennouji when it came to their cake, but as the cameras panned back to Team Michiko who was still in the process of assembling things, the audience didn't know what to think.

It was almost as if Team Michiko hadn't heard that Team Tennouji was finished with their cake as they continued assembling theirs. From its look, the 4 of them and their sweets spirits appeared to be in their own little worlds as they made this cake together. Nothing mattered in the outside world, but they weren't concerned that they were still the ones going.

Although Team Tennouji finished before them with their simple but elegant cake, it was obvious that Team Michiko had more elements on their cake than them. Even though they were still busily constructing their cake, the audience were just in shock by just how much the team had done.

"Is it even possible for *them* to compete against *that*?"

"It's like an ethereal beauty…"

"They have so many elements so it's no wonder that they're still not done yet. Compared to that cake, this one is just…"

For Team Michiko, the main focal point of their cake was their white chocolate Angel that Kashino was in charge of. They'd made a sturdy stand of white chocolate painted gold to place the beautiful 2ft tall angel on. It would be centered just a bit behind the candy staircase that would slightly cover her torso.

All members of Team Michiko aided Kashino to put that heavy Angel at the center of that cake. It was a bit easier since they left enough space to allow the angel to get in the center between the stairway and the pillars. Soon, they would add in more white clouds to fill in that gap to cover the grey areas.

Team Michiko fastened large edible sugar pearls of different sizes onto their spiral staircase. These shiny pearls would be used to show "bumps" along their path as they gleamed in the light like stars in the night.

And for the finishing touches, the four sweets spirits—Caramel, Chocolat, Cafe, and Fraise—used their sweets magic to make the cake shine a magical, brilliant light. As if it already didn't look good before, the mouths of the audience gaped open in shock.

"H-how is that p-possible?!"

"It's glowing? How did they manage to do that?!"

"W-wow…"

"Team Michiko is done with their cake," Michiko Keiko spoke up, signaling that their cake was complete. But by how no one reacted as the peoples' mouths remained agape, the large room was filled entirely with absolute silence as they stared at the cake made by them.