Precise Measurements

Guzma’s steps came to a halt as he arrived at his destination. He pulled the wrinkled flier from his pocket.

“This is the place…” He muttered to himself.

Guzma glanced up from the flier. The shop was an exact match to the one on the flier. Cakes, cookies, and sweets crammed in the display window. Decorative Bug-type webs hanging from the corners.

He sauntered up to the counter, where the cashier was just finishing up with a customer.

“Hello, and welcome to the Patisserie Soapberry, where our sweets and Bug-types are packed with power!” She greeted warmly. “How may I help you today?”

“Hey. I’m lookin’ for the uh...baking class.”

The young woman’s eyes widened. “O-Oh…you are?”

Guzma didn’t miss the way her tone had shifted slightly. He arched an eyebrow at her.

“What? A big dude like me can’t wanna learn how to bake now?”

She let out a quiet eep. “N-No, don’t be silly! A-Anyone can learn how to bake…it’s just don’t get a lot of men who join the class…so it’s kind of…a shock to see that…”

“Oh…”

He scratched the back of his head Mareepishly.

“Er…s-sorry ‘bout that…”

“I-It’s fine…Come round the side, I’ll take you to Katy.”

A door opened from the side of the shop. The young lady waved him over. He followed her. Immediately, the sweet smell of freshly baked bread and sweets wafted into the air and up Guzma’s nose. His tongue swiped over his lips.

The cashier led him through another door, leading towards the kitchen. The sounds of chatter filled his ears.

“We’re missing just one more person. They should be arriving soon.” A soft voice spoke.

“Miss Katy!” The cashier called as they came into view. “We have one more for your class.”

Katy spun around with a delighted smile, clasping her gloved hands together. “Oh wonderful! You’ve made it!”

The room was filled with a dozen other people. Their purple and orange uniforms made it clear these were students of the famous Naranja-Uva Academy. At the far end stood a large, burly man dressed in all pink, Guzma assumed to be their teacher.

“Just take a seat over there and we’ll get started.” Katy pointed to an empty chair at the right corner of the table.

Guzma gave a soft grunt before strolling to his seat, plopping down next to a tiny blonde girl in a white beanie.

“Hello and welcome to the Patisserie Soapberry!” Katy greeted as she stood in front of a table of her own. “My name is Katy Mercado, founder and owner.”

“Good afternoon, Miss Katy!” The students chorused.

“Now, before we begin, I’d like to learn your names as well. So we’ll go around from left to right. Tell me your name and why you are here today.”

One by one, the students introduced themselves. Some stated they were there because they loved to bake. Others stated that they loved sweets. One kid straight up said he was there because he was hungry, which drew out laughter from the crowd.

The little blonde girl beside him introduced herself next. Cala was her name and she was here because she loved to bake. She spoke in a meek, almost Tandemaus-like voice. She couldn’t have been older than twelve.

Finally, it was Guzma’s turn. He gave a haphazard wave. “Hey, I’m Guzma. You can call me Guz, or G, or whateva. I’m here ‘cause…I want to learn a new skill.”

And it was the good and honest truth.

“Wonderful! Now I’m sure you academy students have done a bit of baking and cooking with Mr. Saguaro, is that correct?”

The students nodded in response.

“Splendid! Cooking and baking go hand-in-hand. Baking is actually a subset of cooking, however they are vastly different from each other. Does anyone know a reason why?”

The room filled with murmurs, the students glancing at one another, not a single hand raised.

“Don’t worry, there are no wrong answers.”

Still no hands.

“Hmm…how about…” Katy’s eyes fell on Guzma’s. “Guzma.”

Guzma’s head jerked up. How he hated being randomly called on, hated it ever since he was a kid. It always ended up with him being laughed at for his answers and the teacher shaking their head in disapproval.

Though…he was there to learn. So why not take a crack at it?

“‘Cause… say yous makin’ some fish, right. And ya add too much salt to it. You could squeeze somethin’ acidic, like a lemon or somethin’ to make it less salty. With bakin’, yous can’t really do that. You make a cupcake and you add too much sugar and try to squeeze a lemon in the batter, not only do yous have a crappy lookin’ cupcake, but a crappy lemon-tastin’ cupcake.”

A few snickers could be heard.

“That’s right, Guzma!” Katy applauded. “In cooking, adding an extra ingredient, like an extra clove of garlic or using an acid to combat saltiness won’t change the trajectory of the dish too much. Baking is all about precise measurements. Even the tiniest bit of extra sugar or butter can drastically change the outcome of your dish.”

Katy gave Guzma a smile. “Well done.”

Guzma smirked to himself.

“I’m glad you mentioned cupcakes, because for today’s class, we will be making our own batch of vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting.”

A few of the students let out excited gasps.

Cupcakes. Guzma thought. Should be simple enough.

“Since working in a bakery requires teamwork, for this task, you’ll be working in pairs. Your elbow buddy to your left will be your partner for today.”

The small blonde girl beside him turned around, her blue doe-eyes flitting.

“Looks like you and me is partners,” he said.

“Y-Yeah…guess so…” she whispered.

Katy and the pink burly man —Guzma had learned that his name was Mr. Saguaro— passed out a bunch of supplies for each group, including cupcake pans, measuring cups and spoons, mixing bowls, whisks, a dough scraper, and all the ingredients they will need, along with the recipe.

“Remember class: baking is about precise measurements. Make sure to follow the recipe exactly as is. You may begin.”

Guzma grabbed the scrap of paper, scanning over the ingredients list.

“So it says here to do the dry ingredients first. First thing we need is one cup of flour.”

“I-I can get it,” Cala offered. She reached for the one cup measuring cup and scooped out a plentiful helping of flour. A small peak of flour peered over the edge of the cup

“One cup of flour.”

She went to dump it into the large mixing bowl, when Guzma abruptly stopped her.

“Hang on a sec, kid.”

Cala jumped slightly. “Wha?”

“Rememba what the teach said: precise measurements. Yous gotta brush that extra flour off the top.”

“O-Oh…r-right.” Cala reached for the dough scraper and carefully scraped off the excess dough from the cup before plopping it into the bowl.

The other dry ingredients followed and both made sure to remove any access before adding it to the mixture. After the salt was added, Cala whisked the dry ingredients together before setting that bowl aside.

“Now, we whisk together the butter and sugar. Half a cup of butter and three-fourths cup of sugar. Now…” Guzma glanced at the one pound block of butter.

“How are wes gonna measure that?”

“W-Well, m-my Oba told me that half a cup of butter is one stick and four sticks make one pound of butter…” Cala murmured.

“Ah, I see. So we just gotta cut it in half, then half again.”

“Right.”

Once the butter was cut and added to the bowl, Guzma whisked the soft butter-sugar mixture.

Next were the two eggs.

“It says add them one at a time.”

Guzma grabbed an egg and lightly tapped it against the rim of the bowl to break the shell. The egg plopped in.

“Ahh shit…” Guzma swore. “Got some of the shells in the mix.”

“That’s ok. My Oba showed me this neat trick. You can use the egg shell to scoop out any shell bits.”

Cala grabbed the discarded shell and easily scooped up the extra bits of shell.

“And because the edges are sharp, it can cut through the egg whites easily, unlike a spoon.”

“Wow. You know your stuff, kid,” Guzma nodded, impressed.

Redness spread across Cala’s cheeks. She twirled her cowlick around her finger shyly. “I-I’m just repeating what my Oba taught me…”

“You shouldn’t sell yourself short, kid.” He beat the egg into the mixture before adding the second along with vanilla extract. The flour mixture was last. Cala carefully added the flour and buttermilk in parts of three, alternating between the two as Guzma mixed. He was much more suited for mixing than she, as her arms tired out rather quickly.

“Alright, we have our batter!”

“Time to fill the tins.”

Cala lined each cup with green cupcake liners thematically decorated with white Spinarak webs.

“C-Can I fill it?” She asked. “I-I won’t drop it, I promise.”

“Sure, kid.” Guzma handed her the bowl.

Cala let out a small exhale as she poured the mixture into each cup.

“Careful, not too much. Don’t want it to overflow in the oven.”

“R-Right.”

After every cup was filled with batter, Guzma brought them over to the oven to bake. Now it was time to make the frosting.

“Hows about we make that..uh…buttery frosting, you know, the one in the store bought cupcakes.”

“You mean buttercream?”

“Yeah, that one! Buttacream.”

“Okay,” Cala smiled. “I like buttercream frosting. But…I-I don’t want to make just vanilla buttercream. It’s kinda…well…plain…”

“Aight then. What are yous thinkin’?”

“W-Well…” Cala’s eyes fell on the supply table where Katy had laid out some fruit, presumably for their cupcakes. Some strawberries caught Cala’s eye.

Guzma’s gray eyes followed hers and he smirked.

“I like the way yous think.”

———————————

“Aaaaaaalrighty, students!” Katy sang as she clapped her hands to get their attention. “We have about fifteen minutes left of our session today. How about we take a gander at everyone’s hard work? Please bring your cupcakes to the front.”

Cupcakes were set along the table with their owners standing behind them. Cala and Guzma took note of the others’ cupcakes. One pair’s was deflated, another pair’s looked dry, and another pair’s frosted top just looked a mess.

“Good effort,” Katy nodded. “But the reason your cupcakes sank was because you overmixed the batter. Mixing it at a higher speed doesn’t make it mix faster or better.”

She moved to the next one. “They look beautiful, but the cake itself is dry and crumbly. You used a bit too much flour. Too much flour absorbs the moisture. You have to be careful to measure your ingredients precisely.”

Soon, she came down to Cala and Guzma. “My, my, your cupcakes look stunning!” she complimented. She grabbed one and took a bite.

“Mmmm…your cupcakes are very moist, a result of precise measurements. And is that…strawberry buttercream? An excellent addition. You two seem to be the only ones who didn’t do a standard vanilla buttercream.”

“It was all Cala’s idea,” Guzma stated, proudly patting the small girl on the back.

Cala blushed. “B-But I wouldn’t have gotten this result if it weren’t for Guzma’s input. He helped me with measurements and stuff.” “Well, I must say, you two make a wonderful team, and even more wonderful cupcakes.”

“Can I try one?”

“Me too! I wanna try!”

The other students clamored to try their cupcakes. The room was filled with their hums of approval.

“Wow, these are great!”

“These are way better than mine!”

Guzma and Cala grinned at each other. He held his hand up and Cala slapped him five.

———————

“Cardinal! Cardinal!”

Guzma strolled gleefully into the living room. Cardinal looked up from her book.

“Hey. You’re in a good mood this afternoon. The class went okay?”

Guzma leaned down to give her a peck on the lips. “Better than okay, birdie! I learned so much! And I made these!”

He pulled out a cupcake from the paper bag and handed it to her. Cardinal took a bite and hummed.

“Mmm! Guz, this is so good! I didn’t know you could bake!”

“Me neither! But I had a great partner to help me! And our cupcakes were the best in the class! Yous shoulda seen it! No one else’s cupcakes looked or tasted like ours!”

Cardinal smiled, giving him another peck. “Seems to me like you found something you’re really good at, buggy boo.”

“Huh, ya think so?”

“I know so, bug. I think you should really go for it. Who knows what else you could make. I think you’ve just dug into your untapped potential.”

Maybe Cardinal was right. Maybe Guzma did find his calling. He definitely wanted to continue baking. He was by no means a pro, but everyone had to start somewhere, right? And with the way things were looking, he would unlock great things he didn’t know he could even achieve. After all, baking is about precise measurements.