Baozi Xishi's Struggle

Chapter 116: Beautiful and Novel Cake Molds

Jiang spoke slowly but thoughtfully and considerately. Shen Yu couldn't help but think, how great it would be if Li could become like this someday.

Shen Yu agreed and went to wash his hands.

The breakfast that Jiang made today was different. There was a plate of golden fried cakes, a bowl of salty millet porridge with egg drops, a plate of finely chopped pickles sprinkled with green chopped coriander, and a plate of crispy fried eggplant.

Shen Yu said to Jiang happily, "Aunt Jiang, if you cook for us like this every day, within two months, we will all have to buy new clothes."

Jiang looked at Shen Yu lovingly and said kindly, "Miss Yuzhi is so thin, you should eat more. Since I came here, I have been watching you every day, busy at home and outside. I can't help you much, I can only cook some home-cooked dishes."

Shen Yu looked at the dining table with a happy expression on her face. Jiang said, "Young lady, please enjoy your meal. I'm going to learn how to make buns. Sister Li is waiting for me."

The fried cake is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. It is soft, glutinous and crispy when you take a bite, and has the unique aroma of wheat flour.

The millet porridge is added with egg drops, which makes it salty and fragrant, and has just the right thickness.

Add balsamic vinegar and sesame oil to the shredded pickles and mix them evenly with chopped coriander. Break the fried cake in half, put a piece of shredded pickles into the fried cake with chopsticks, and take a bite. The taste is salty, fragrant, crispy and fresh, which relieves the greasiness of the fried cake and is refreshing and delicious.

The fried eggplant with ghee looks like it is fried and is sprinkled with sesame seeds, but it tastes crispy on the outside and salty on the inside. It turns out that it has been marinated with a little sugar and salt before being coated with flour and fried. It has a soft and crispy texture.

Shen Yu's eyes relaxed as he ate the delicious food. After a busy morning, it was a great satisfaction to be able to eat such a meal.

Shen Yu was eating at this end of the small table, and he saw Dun Dun holding a brush on the other side of the table, writing stroke by stroke, saying as he wrote: "You can't write the word jujube like this, Sister Yuzhi is wrong to write it like this."

Yu Cheng blushed and murmured, "How could Big Sister write it wrong?"

Shen Yu's heart was filled with alarm bells. He still had a piece of fried cake in his mouth. He quickly stood up to take a look. Sure enough, what Dun Dun had written on the paper was a traditional Chinese character for "jujube", while the one used for comparison was the simplified Chinese character for "jujube" that he had written in the booklet.

Shen Yu swallowed the oil cake in his mouth with all his strength, reached out to take the book, crossed out the word "jujube" he had written, and said with a dry laugh: "This is what Dun Dun wrote. I was lazy when I was writing it, so I only wrote half of it. Don't learn from your elder sister."

She asked Dun Dun, "Dundun, you have been educated. I see that your handwriting is very neat. You must have started practicing since you were very young."

Dun Dun lowered his head to write the next word, and said without looking up: "Of course, I started to learn when I was five years old, sir..." He stopped talking halfway, and stopped moving his hands. After a while, he said uncomfortably: "That was all in the past, and I didn't study for a long time. When I was bored, I would use a branch to scratch on the ground. I almost forgot everything."

Shen Yu thought he was thinking about his past family affairs, so he comforted him, "It's all my fault. I shouldn't have mentioned these things. It will get better in the future. Yucheng hasn't been studying for long either. In the future, can you practice calligraphy together? I think you know more characters than Yucheng and Yutao, and you write better. You can teach them."

After thinking about it, he smiled playfully and said self-deprecatingly: "I forgot to mention that you must know more characters than I do. I will also learn calligraphy from you in the future."

Dun Dun blushed and said embarrassedly: "I haven't written for a long time, and I have forgotten some words."

Yu Tao also smiled and said, "That's much better than us."

Dun Dun rubbed his nose with the back of his hand embarrassedly, then lowered his head and continued writing seriously.

Shen Yu heaved a sigh of relief, thinking that he really had to learn to write traditional Chinese characters carefully, otherwise he would be exposed if he met someone who was truly knowledgeable one day.

After breakfast, Jiang cleaned up the dishes, and Shen Yu started to wrap the buns with Li and Yutao and put them in the steamer. The porridge also started to cook. They added some hard firewood to the stove so that it would cook for a while.

A few people had some free time, so they gathered together to look at the small box of cake molds that Shen Yu brought back.

The small reunion cakes that Shen Yu saw at Fu Sheng Kang Bakery were all round, probably to symbolize reunion, so there were no other shapes.

Shen Yu thought that if his own small reunion cakes were also made into round shapes, not only would there be nothing new about them, but the traditional patterns would all be almost the same.

So the small cakes that Shen Yu customized, except for the three round ones in the traditional jade rabbit worshiping the moon style, the others were all in various shapes.

There are square carvings of landscape patterns, which represent the vastness of the world and great potential.

There is a gourd-shaped carving with a string of copper coins, which symbolizes good fortune and luck.

There are pomegranate shapes with pomegranate flowers carved on them, which symbolizes many children and good fortune.

There are ones in the shape of money bags and carved with treasure bowls, which are clearly auspicious symbols for seeking wealth and fortune.

In addition to these lucky and auspicious ones, there is also a group of cute ones.

There are ones in the shape of little rabbits, a small moon with colorful clouds chasing the moon and a few osmanthus flowers on it, small crabs, carps, goldfish, ruyi, copper coins, flowers, etc.

There are a total of twenty-seven patterns.

It made several people dazzled and amazed.

Yutao carefully picked up the little crab and looked at it, then picked up the little goldfish and looked at it. She exclaimed, "Sister, this is so beautiful. Is the cake made in this way the same shape as the cake mold? It looks just like the real thing."

Shen Yu nodded with a smile and said, "Master Song of Qiaozuoju is worthy of his reputation. My drawing is far inferior to this cake mold. After being made by Master Song, it is really vivid."

When Li heard about Master Song, she asked nervously, "Yuzhi, why did you order so many cake molds at once? How much did it cost?"

She stretched out her hand to count and said worriedly, "What if no one wants this small reunion cake? Then we won't even be able to make back the money we spent on the mold. Madam Lin said that the Qian family spent more than ten taels of silver just for one mold to make a large reunion cake."

Shen Yu answered truthfully: "Mother, these cake molds only cost five hundred coins."

Li asked again in disbelief, so Shen Yu had to tell her about Master Song who refused to charge more for the new cakes. He added, "Twenty coins each, twenty-seven in total, five hundred and forty coins in total. Master Song not only rounded off the amount and only charged me five hundred coins, but also gave me some beautiful boxes for the cakes. He also said that if I used his boxes to package the cakes, he would charge me 10% of the normal price."

Li said with a look of surprise, "There is such a good thing, Yuzhi, could it be that the Buddhist beads that the monk gave you are really useful? Look, since you have been wearing them close to your body, all the good things have happened to you."

Shen Yu was stunned for a moment, then laughed and said, "Mom, why don't you say your daughter's flower painting is good?"