“It’s Xinxin’s turn now!” Xiao Lan grinned. Her friend’s two-layer cake was making her tummy grumble and her mouth salivate just from the look of it. Lu Xinyi’s cake was a smooth, clean, and professional-looking layer cake that would surely impress anyone who could see it.
There was something very comforting about seeing Lu Xinyi’s perfectly smooth buttercream frosting. It also put her cake above the others that lack professional smoothness and evenness in their frostings.
For someone who had been targeted for sabotage, Lu Xinyi was relaxed and serene. There was no trace of panic or unease on her voice. Was she able to conquer the issues of her devil’s food cake?
“Let me see what you have here.”
Han Zhiling took the honor of cutting Lu Xinyi’s cake. With its white buttercream frosting, it would take one’s undivided attention and tempt one to take a bite of it. The judges noticed the clean and even frosting inside once it was cut.
‘Lu Xinyi knows the concept of making a crumb coat,’ they thought of the same thing.
Crumb coating was a technique where the baker locked in the crumbs so when it was time to decorate the cake, the baker wouldn’t drag up the crumbs through the icing, making it look dirty and unpresentable. Lu Xinyi used this to make her devil’s food cake nice and clean.
The anticipation within the stadium was high. The audience held their breaths as the judges took a bite from Lu Xinyi’s devil’s food cake. Unlike the other examinees’ cakes, her cake was denser, chewy, and fudgy. Han Zhiling had already expected it since the cake flour was replaced with a regular one.
Lu Xinyi’s cake wasn’t left behind just because her items got switched! Using cake flour would yield a light, soft, and tender cake with a fine, close crumb while using all-purpose flour would have more of an open crumb. In other words, there would be bigger pockets of air within the cake—like what happened to Surya Rathore’s.
Lu Xinyi was able to solve this problem by mixing two tablespoons of cornstarch for every cup of all-purpose flour she used. Whoever switched Lu Xinyi’s items wasn’t very bright as they forgot to remove cornstarch from the box. Cornstarch helped inhibit the formation of some gluten in the all-purpose flour. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
The result? A cake that’s just as tender as it would be if one used store-bought cake flour.
A shame though that this problem became a huge advantage to Lu Xinyi because she was able to present a cake using the all-purpose flour, compared to using cake flour like the rest. What made Han Zhiling curious was why Lu Xinyi chose to make a dense cake.
The judges simultaneously took a bite from their cakes and were instantly dragged from reality. Lu Xinyi became a demoness who tricked and deceived them, welcoming them at the threshold of temptation and throwing them into a wave of chocolatey flavor. The cake itself wasn’t overshadowed by the white buttercream frosting. In fact, it even highlighted the sinfully dark, bittersweet, and intense chocolate flavor.
The frosting was made with butter with powdered sugar, vanilla, salt, and a bit of milk and then whipped into the perfect buttercream frosting. It tasted light, airy, and like sweetened whipped butter with a hint of mint. The cake was full of that dark chocolate flavor that was enhanced by using coffee instead of water, as most devil’s food cakes required. Also, the buttermilk Lu Xinyi made with a lemon gave it a rich flavor and nice crumb texture.
Han Zhiling couldn’t believe how Lu Xinyi was able to turn the tables. Had the perpetrators underestimate Lu Xinyi’s capabilities? She brought down her plate, surprised to see that it was clean—no trace of the cake was left.
“How did you achieve the snow-white color of your buttercream frosting?” she inquired. As far as she knew, the common buttercream frosting had a tinge of yellow; some may even have a barely off-white color.
Lu Xinyi regarded Han Zhiling for a moment and smiled.
“I used a purple gel paste color to neutralize the yellow undertone of the butter. I used it sparingly making sure that I wouldn’t add too much, or else I wouldn’t achieve the color I wanted,” she answered.
‘A purple food coloring!’ The judges were surprised. How come Lu Xinyi knew such a trick? Only experienced and professional bakers knew about it! The woman in front of them was full of surprises. They couldn’t tell if she could be compared to Tian Lingyu’s innate talent or if she was better.
Cheating was the result of the hard competition within the academy. At Silver Leaf, competitiveness was common ground; and in fact, students who excelled were well rewarded with fame and money. In years of handling the problems of Silver Leaf, Han Zhiling could honestly say that there were few people she’d met that was able to turn the tide in their favor.
There was no doubt that today—despite all the crap that she had had to deal with, not only Lu Xinyi surpassed her fellow examinees but also demolished a wall set in front of her with ease.
