Chapter 167

Ch 167 — A Thank-you Gift For Ugor-san

Everyone had finished eating but I still had more cooking to do . I wanted to build up a stock of ready-to-eat food, rice and assorted toppings of minced meat and the like to put away in my Item Box . I set pots of rice to cook on three of the burners of the Black Magic Cooking stove while I made a lot of meat sauce on the fourth . I heated up oil in a frying pan and stirred in minced Orc meat until it browned nicely then skimmed off the fat before I added soy sauce, mirin, sake, sugar and some grated ginger (the stuff from a tube was fine) and kept it at a low heat, stirring continuously until it was ready . I let it cool down before putting into a container and storing it away .

This is a super simple recipe, usable for all sorts of dishes, a topping for rice and as a side so having a good amount to hand was very convenient . The meat can be a mixture of beef and pork or just beef or chicken by themselves, it doesn't really matter . That done, I decided I had something else to do before I visited the Adventurers Guild tomorrow, to repay the kindness of Ugor-san . He had really helped me out a lot today, after all .

Without Ugor-san's intervention the jewellery I was selling would have been purchased for less than it was really worth . I'm not short of money thanks to Fer's efforts, not to mention Dora-chan and Sui too of course, but I don’t know much about gems and if Ugor-san hadn't said anything I would have accepted the first offer Adriano-san made . Even if Elland-san had been with me (that person seems to be useless except when it comes to Dragons) I suspect he wouldn't have spoken up like Ugor-san did .

I didn't know much about how the Merchants Guild in this world carried out their business but I could guess — the phrase "Buy cheap, sell dear" from my own world probably existed in this world too so making a low offer to start with was just a natural thing for Adriano-san to do . I didn't think that a Merchant as skilled as he was had really made a mistake in his first offer, after all . If I knew what the items were really worth I maybe could have negotiated a better price myself but I didn't . Ugor-san knew what they were worth though . I decided that from now on I'd only sell items to the Adventurers Guild, it was safer that way .

Anyway, enough of that, I had to thank Ugor-san for taking care of me today . And what comes to mind for a thank-you present? Sweets of course . I had heard from Elland-san that Ugor-san has a wife and children so something like confectionery that the whole family can share would be even more pleasing .

My first thought was to choose something from the Sanke cake shop but I decided that wasn't something I could safely do, I didn't want the knowledge of my Net Super skill to leak out . So, something hand-made perhaps? Even though I've been cooking all my adult life (and, not to be boastful but I think I'm quite good at it), I've not made sweets much . As I strained to think of something appropriate my eye fell on the pound cake tins I had used for meatloaf .

"Ah, of course I've made pound cake before!" I remembered one of my part-time student jobs, working at a coffee shop which was famous for its delicious coffee and cakes . The most popular cake sets included chiffon cake, cheesecake and yes! pound cake too served up with their own-blend ground and filtered coffee . The cake sets were popular not only with female customers but also with old men . Me too, I should add even though I'm not female or old . Good coffee and simple handmade cakes go well together, that's all .

So, I made cakes working at that part-time job, pound cake, chiffon cake and the no-bake cheese cake too . It had been a while but I still remembered how to make them, well a simple version of a vanilla pound cake anyway .

I paused for a moment to think since all the ingredients would have to come from Net Super . What would be the status effects of eating a pound cake I made myself? I didn't think they'd be too dramatic even with Net Super ingredients . I decided I'd bake one and then use Appraisal on it and if it was too risky I'd not give it to Ugor-san . I knew the Gluttonous Trio would quite happily dispose of it for me, never mind sweet-toothed Deplorable-sama .

The recipe called for unsalted butter and sugar, eggs and plain fine flour, baking powder and vanilla essence . I already had eggs on hand so I purchased the other ingredients at the Net Super along with a whisk and a rubber spatula . At the coffee shop I had used an electric hand mixer but I couldn't use one here .

A pound cake is made by mixing flour and butter and eggs and sugar together, equal weights of all the ingredients . That's what made remembering how to bake it so easy . Baking powder made the pound cake fluffier like the cafe's own speciality version and a little vanilla essence sweetened the taste . Yosh, let's get started .

While the unsalted butter and eggs returned to room temperature I sifted the flour and baking powder together and lined the pound cake tin with a baking sheet before beating the eggs together in a separate bowl . I whisked the warm butter until it became runny, like very thick cream before adding the sugar bit by bit and continuing to whisk until the mixture became fluffy . It was time for the beaten eggs now which I fed slowly into the mix while I kept going with the whisk . Adding all the eggs in one go would be a mistake, it would make the mixture lumpy .

Finally I poured the sieved flour and baking powder into the mix and stirred it quickly and thoroughly with the rubber spatula . Once all the flour had combined it was ready to go into the oven . I spooned the finished dough into the pound cake tin I had lined with baking parchment, made a dent in the centre of the dough and then dropped the tin a few times on the table to displace any air bubbles .

A pound cake is baked for 40 to 45 minutes in an oven preheated to about 170 degrees . There's a trick, after about ten minutes of baking cut a slice in the middle of the top crust . This will make it look pretty when it's finished . Of course because I was using my Black Magic Cooking Stove I couldn't figure out the temperature properly so when the crust looked right I poked it with a bamboo skewer and confirmed it was cooked properly in the centre .

"Yeah, that looks okay . . . " I muttered as I took the tin out of the oven and tipped out the still-hot pound cake before wrapping it up in a clean cloth to let it cool down slowly . I'd leave it like that and unwrap it later to put on a plate for Ugor-san . Maybe I could get a nice basket with a lid instead though? Tomorrow perhaps .

I made another pound cake for Elland-san too although I wasn't sure he'd appreciate it . Despite Elland-san being, well, Elland-san he had helped me out a lot too, with the Earth Dragon disassembly and such . Ugor-san was married and had children so I was sure sweet things would go down well with them but Elland-san was single and presumably childless . Did Elves have a sweet tooth? Well, I'd find out tomorrow . What else . . . Oh, that's right . Appraise . . .

[ Pound cake ]

A pound cake made from different world ingredients . Increases magic power by approximately 1% for 5 minutes .

So the Net Super status boost would only be 1% for 5 minutes? That was insignificant so it would be fine to gift these pound cakes as I had intended . I'd hand them over when I went to the Adventurers Guild tomorrow to receive the payment for the items they had purchased from me . I could drop into a general store and buy baskets with lids on the way .