OBWESB 17

Chapter 17

What a Feast for the Eyes You Were

…And that is how we end up in the middle of making sweets. First step: making the choux pastry dough.

I pour water and milk into a pot, adding a pinch of sugar and salt. Next go the butter cubes, chopped to the exact same size, which I melt over medium heat while stirring continuously with a wooden spatula. The moment it comes to a gentle boil, I dump in the sifted cake flour all at once and mix. After vigorously and swiftly kneading it over high heat for about ten seconds, I remove it from the stove. I keep kneading it thoroughly until the dough comes together into a single mass and pulls away cleanly from the sides of the pot…

Phew… Baking sweets is unexpectedly heavy labor with all this stirring and kneading.

I pour in about half of the beaten eggs and stir until smooth and cohesive, then continue adding the remaining egg in tiny increments, mixing thoroughly after each addition. When I scoop up the dough with the wooden spatula, it’s perfect if it drops off slowly, leaving a thick, sticky triangular shape trailing from the spatula.

I transfer the dough into a piping bag fitted with a round nozzle and pipe it out onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. The key trick here is to dip your fingertip in a little bit of water and gently press down the pointy tips left behind on the piped dough. This ensures the shape comes out beautifully round once baked.

I mist the surface with a spray bottle to keep it from drying out and hardening too quickly…

Then, I repeat the exact same process. Except this time, instead of the previous circular shape, I pipe the dough into slight ovals. Next, I put a small amount of dough into a piping bag with a fine tip and pipe out “S” shapes, making one end just a tiny bit pointed.

Furthermore… I put more dough into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and pipe a large circle. Then, following that circle, I pipe another one right along the inside to create a wide ring. For this one, I brush it with beaten egg and scatter sliced almonds over the top.

Each batch of piped dough goes into the oven. They are baked twice at shifting temperatures.

And then, I leave them alone for a while. This part is crucial!

If you take them out too early or if they are underbaked, the precious pastry will deflate completely. Therefore, during these three stages of thorough baking, you absolutely must not remove them or even open the oven door.

While they are baking, I get to work on the custard cream.

I place the egg yolks and sugar into a bowl, whisking them swiftly until combined, then add the sifted cake flour and cornstarch, mixing lightly. I pour in just a tiny splash of milk to loosen the mixture, then gradually add the rest of the milk—which has been heated to just before the boiling point—in small streams, whisking constantly.

After straining the mixture through a sieve back into the pot, I cook it over medium heat, constantly stirring with a wooden spatula. I make sure to scrape the bottom of the pot, and once it thickens into a rich, smooth consistency, I add vanilla beans. Once it has cooled down slightly, I add butter. Finally, I fold in some whipped cream beaten to medium-stiff peaks, adding a splash of rum for aroma.

With that, the custard cream is complete!! Personally, I prefer my custard to be rich and heavily speckled with vanilla beans.

As I took a quick breather, shaking out my tired hands…

“Your movements are incredibly efficient.”

“…”

Rian’s praise as he peered over at my work left me momentarily speechless.

Crap!! I was supposed to be doing this for the first time…

I had inadvertently displayed the efficiency from my previous life. Helping my mom out and cooking in place of my older sister back then completely backfired on me… I was so focused that I hadn’t paid any attention to how I looked.

“D-Do you think so?”

“To be able to bake sweets on top of everything else, you truly are amazing, Lord Kaiser! There is simply nothing you cannot do!”

Despite my transparently awkward reply, Rian still directed a sparkling, admiring gaze toward me. What a good boy. I’ll let you eat as many sweets as you want later as a reward, okay?

After letting the freshly baked choux pastries sit in the oven for just a brief moment, I finally took them out.

For the oval-shaped pastries, I sliced off the top third horizontally, then cut the top piece in half vertically. As for the large ring-shaped pastry, I sliced it in half horizontally to let it cool.

With that, it was time to fill the three different types of choux pastry with cream.

“I barely managed to be of any help at all.”

“That is not true at all~. Look at me, I have done nothing but offer my commentary from the sidelines.”

“…” “…”

Rian and I quietly averted our eyes at Lilia’s words.

Yes, truth be told, Miss Lilia had been standing here the entire time. And unlike Rian, who was actively helping me fill the pastries with cream at this very moment, Lilia hadn’t lifted a single finger.

She had fulfilled the role of a pure confectionery information vendor and nothing more, but that was perfectly fine.

After all, Lilia possesses a catastrophically disastrous sense for cooking!! It’s honestly at a level where I wonder how she even manages to keep her job as a maid.

I will absolutely not allow her to touch these pastries!!

I know from firsthand experience that when someone who is terrible at cooking tries to pitch in, a major disaster is bound to happen.

It happened during Valentine’s Day in my previous life. The tragedy struck when my cool-headed yet clumsy second-oldest sister suddenly announced that she was going to make chocolates.

Even though we are triplets, why does not a single one of my sisters know how to cook? And why do they always ask their younger brother for help? I had thought, casually tossing out instructions while holding a gaming console in one hand.

After all, it was just chocolate… Not a cake or anything complex, just melting and solidifying plain chocolate. I hadn’t anticipated even the slightest possibility of failure…

“First, chop up the chocolate, then melt it in a water bath—”

“A water bath?”

“You can’t reshape it unless you melt it over hot water, right?”

“Understood.”

Following that brief conversation, the catastrophe occurred the very moment I looked away for a split second…

When I raised my eyes from my game console… I saw the chocolate sitting there, having been melted directly in the hot water, turned into a muddy, watery liquid.

“It doesn’t look like it’s going to solidify at all~. So this is how chocolate is made.”

I was utterly dumbfounded by my sister’s words, as she hadn’t even realized she had failed.

No, that is never going to solidify again! Why did you dump hot water directly onto it?!

When people say a water bath, it means you fill a bowl with hot water and submerge a separate bowl containing the chocolate inside it, right?!

Wait, is this my fault?! Did I not explain it well enough?! Did I seriously need to explain something that basic?!

In the end, I was the one who made the chocolates. As a side note, her boyfriend—who was saved from being gifted a biohazard—and my older brother were profoundly grateful to me, and I even received Return Gifts on White Day.

Since the amount of water mixed into the failed chocolate wasn’t terribly large, I ended up adding warm milk to it, processing it into hot chocolate, and serving it to my sisters. It would have been a waste otherwise. It was a bit thin, though… but with water in it, that couldn’t be helped.

Apparently, Lilia belongs to the faction that turns everything into a lump of charcoal. Furthermore, when she tries to alter flavors, her sweets allegedly turn out intensely spicy.

Terrifying. It’s pure horror.

Once the filling of the orthodox cream puffs was finished, next up… For the large ring-shaped choux, I piped custard cream onto the bottom pastry shell, then piped two rings of whipped cream—beaten to stiff peaks—along the inside and outside edges.

“Thanks to Rian’s unique ability, it was a massive help.”

“Oh, no… My unique ability isn’t anything impressive at all…”

Flustered, Rian waved his hands frantically as his voice trailed off smaller and smaller.

“That is not true. You were a wonderful help today as well.”

Seriously, he was a total lifesaver.

Rian’s unique ability is “Cooling.” It isn’t as powerful as ice and isn’t suited for combat, but it is an incredibly useful ability in daily life. Thanks to him, the summer is perfectly comfortable even without air conditioning, and he can cool down injuries for first aid.

He was a massive help today while whipping the cream, too! If it isn’t kept cold, whipped cream won’t form stiff peaks at all. Doing that by hand normally makes your arms feel like they’re falling off, so it was an absolute blessing!

By the way, he is incredibly popular in the kitchen as well. Baking and cooking unexpectedly involve a lot of cooling processes, after all.

“But… it is an incompetent ability that is only useful for daily chores.”

“Are you saying that to me?”

When I replied with a wry smile, a startled Rian hastily covered his mouth and bowed repeatedly in apology.

“I-I did not mean it that way…!! Forgive me. B-Besides, Lord Kaiser, you are entirely amazing even without a unique ability…!”

“I am not useless just because I cannot use an ability?”

“Of course not!!”

“Then the same applies to you, Rian. You are doing an excellent job serving as Garnest’s attendant. Furthermore, your ability is wonderful. After all, with the help of that very ability, we are going to bring joy to our household’s princesses. Come, let us put on the finishing touches.”

“Yes, My Lord!!”

Since I was in the middle of handling sweets, I couldn’t pat his head, but when I met his eyes and smiled instead, he responded with a delighted, cheerful voice. Yes, children are best when they are honest.

“Exactly!! Rian is doing wonderfully. And honestly, if we are talking about abilities, mine is a bit questionable as well!!”

“…” “…”

And once again, we silently averted our eyes.

Lilia’s unique ability… to put it bluntly, it is “Luminescence.” Her entire body glows in fluorescent colors.

It happened a while back… There was a day when the mansion suffered a sudden power outage. In the pitch blackness, Beatrix let out a frightened, insecure cry, to which Lilia’s powerful voice echoed, “Do not worry.”

And there… in the middle of the darkness, stood a beautiful girl with a smug expression, glowing vibrant fluorescent green.

I thought I was going to burst out laughing… My abdominal muscles were trembling like crazy.

Suppressing the laughter and the trembling in my core at the memory, I silently went about placing melons, strawberries, raspberries, and white peaches over the choux pastry layers of custard and whipped cream. After scattering a praline made of almonds and sugar over the top, I placed the other half of the choux ring on top and dusted it with powdered sugar. The Paris-Brest was complete.

Finally, for the oval-shaped pastries, I piled the custard high in the center to form a mound. I arranged the vertically halved choux pieces on the left and right sides to resemble wings. Next, I piped whipped cream right into the center between the wings, placed the “S”-shaped pastry gently on top to serve as the neck, and dusted it with powdered sugar… making a graceful and adorable swan complete.

Orthodox cream puffs, a fruit-filled Paris-Brest shaped like a wheel, and elegant swans.

Now then, I wonder if Beatrix and her friends will be pleased.