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"Well then, see you in the evening!", Annabeth shouted and rushed out the door.
Finally. It was about time she left. She had told me her friends were meeting her at the nearest subway station at 3pm. So, naturally it was now 5 minutes past three. I don't think I will ever understand why girls spend so much time in the bathroom before going out. Or just generally.
Anyway, now that Annabeth was gone, I could finally start baking.
We had most of the ingredients I needed at home anyway, but there were a few things that would surely have gotten Annabeth's attention - the coconut milk, for example - so I had hidden those in my wardrobe.
I gathered up everything I needed and put it on the dinner table to get a better sense of what I would have to do. The ingredients alone took up almost a third of the table. I should've realised the cake wouldn't be a simple one when my friend had given me the recipe. After all, she was a daughter of Fornax, the goddess of baking. According to her, this was an easy recipe, but that probably just meant it was easy for her.
On the bright side, she had given me three cake tins, because apparently you needed more than one and I only had one.
I took a deep breath, clipped the recipe to the kitchen clip board and started working.
The first steps were actually pretty easy. Turning on the oven, separating eggs, mixing ingredients; nothing I hadn't done before. I only had a bit of a problem with mixing the whipped egg whites into the cake batter, but after stirring a bit more vigorously, the last bits of egg white were also fully mixed in.
I poured the batter into the three cake tins, but only then realised, that our oven wasn't big enough for three tins. I mean, sure, it was big enough if you stacked them on top of each other, but I had a feeling that that wasn't such a good idea. At some point, one of the upper two tins might fall down and the batter would spill out.
With a lot of effort and a fair bit of squeezing I managed to get two of the cake tins onto the baking tray. I just hoped I hadn't damaged the cake tins permanently, since they weren't mine. The third cake tin would have to go into the oven as soon as the other two were done. I didn't really see any other way.
While the cakes were baking I started to decorate the dining room. Annabeth and I had never been on a proper date. With all the monster that were out to kill demi-gods like us, and having to save the world twice, we never really got to do that. Sure, we could've had a date at Camp Half-Blood, but wherever we would've tried to hide, someone would've found us and the whole camp would've heard about it faster than Hermes could carry a message from here to Olympus.
However, now that we were in New Rome, this would hopefully change. It wasn't New York or San Francisco or any other big American city, you could feel that anywhere you went. But it was as close as you could get with a city built solely for demi-gods and their families. It had restaurants, schools, museums and even a stadium and concert halls.
I looked down into the now empty box of candles in my hand. I had gravely underestimated how many candles you needed for a candlelight dinner. There were some on the table, some on the sideboard and some on the shelf, and with that, the pretty tall ones were already used up. I distributed all of the tea lights we had across the kitchen and the rest of the dining room. Maybe the difference wouldn't be too obvious once they were lit.
I was just done with the decorations - which looked pretty romantic, if I may say so - when the oven rang for the second time, telling me that the last cake was done.
I let it cool on the balcony, while I made the frosting. Or rather, the sauce. I'm sure it was supposed to be creamy, like a typical frosting, but what I ended up with resembled more the custard you usually served with pie, rather than a cake filling. I had done everything exactly like the recipe had said, so I couldn't explain what had gone wrong. I just hoped Annabeth like cake with sauce, because I also had no idea how to fix a liquid frosting.
At least I still had lemon curd and coconut flakes to put between the cake layers. I put the filled cake and the frosting-sauce into the fridge and cleaned the kitchen.
When I checked the time after I was done, it was already 7.50pm. Annabeth was supposed to come back around eight, so I frantically grabbed all the boxes and left-over cake ingredients that were still lying in the dining room and threw them into my room, not paying attention to where they landed. I took the fastest shower that I had ever taken and put on a nice shirt and trousers. I had barely finished buttoning my shirt when I heard a key turn in the lock of the front door. I rushed into the kitchen, took out the cake and set it into the middle of the dining table. I poured the sauce-y frosting, which - lucky for me - had become a little thicker in the fridge, over the top of the cake and hoped it wouldn't run off the platter and onto the table.
"Hey, I'm home!" Annabeth called from the hall. I gave myself a quick once-over in the mirror, to see if I had gotten any crumbs or sauce on my clothes, then went to welcome her.
When I walked into the hall, Annabeth was just putting her shoes on the shoe rack.
"Hey there, wise girl! Had a good time with your friends?" I asked, leaning against the doorframe. Annabeth looked up to meet my gaze. She seemed a bit surprised that I was wearing semi-fancy clothes. She hid it well, but I could see her eyes glisten with excitement.
"Yes, we had a lot of fun!" Annabeth answered my question. "They have this new exhibition at the hands-on museum, about viking warfare. They present you with different scenarios that happened at some point in history and you can act out what actually happened or try to find another way to deal with the situation. We should go sometime, you'd love it." While talking Annabeth took off her coat and hung it onto the hallstand. Then she came up to me and placed a gentle kiss on my lips.
"Let me just quickly go change and I'll be right with you." She winked, turned around and disappeared into her room.
I decided to wait for her in the dining room, since she had undoubtedly already figured out that I had a surprise waiting for her there. Nervously, I fumbled around with the table decoration. Annabeth was normally the one putting up decorations and she was always very picky about it, so I hoped she would like what I had done.
Impatiently, and because my ADHD always kicked in at the most inconvenient times, I started pacing up and down the room.
As it turned out, I wouldn't have had to worry. As soon as Annabeth stepped through the door and she saw the cake, her eyes lit up like Camp Half-Bloods campfire on a party night. She was now wearing a burgundy-coloured nylon blouse and a knee-length skirt. Despite my hyperactivity I froze mid-step, completely stunned by how... well... stunning she looked. Her hair was a mess from changing in a hurry, but that just made her look even more beautiful. Not even Aphrodite would be a match for her, in my eyes.
"You look amazing", I managed to say, while trying to remember how to walk.
"Well, it is a special occasion after all", she responded, her eyes beaming with joy. "And so do you, by the way." She paused for a moment, then continued with a smirk. "Although, you could've taken the dark blue trousers instead of these ones, they would've matched the colour of the shirt even better."
I let out a fake huff. "Maybe you should pick out my clothes next time then, wise girl." I smiled and pulled out her chair for here, but before she could sit down I pulled her into a soft kiss. Her lips were still a bit cold from the chilly night air outside, but they were quickly warming up. After a short while I pulled away slightly and looked her deep in the eyes.
"Happy Birthday, Annabeth", I breathed, barely audible. We stayed like that for a few more moments, just holding each other and taking in the atmosphere. When I finally let go of her, I realised that I had been holding my breath and breath out as slowly and quietly as I could.
As we sat down, Annabeth gleamed amusedly at the cake. I had to admit, it was a bit of a sticky mess, but what could I do?
"The birthday girl gets to do the honors!" I announced and handed her the knife and the cake lifter. Swiftly and with the precision of an architect, Annabeth cut off two equal slices.
I watched her as she placed one slice on each of our plates and took the first bite from hers. I suspected I wouldn't taste as good as it was supposed to, seeing as I had no experience with baking and had completely messed up the frosting, but I hoped she would still like it. However, what actually happened was something I had not expected at all.
Annabeth had barely put the piece of cake into her mouth, when her eyes widened, she spit the piece back out and onto the plate and started gagging. She drank a few big gulps of water, took a couple of deep breaths and then just started laughing.
I was completely dumbstruck, and that must also have been written all over my face, because as soon as Annabeth looked at me she started laughing even more.
"Oh, seaweed brain...", she stammered between laughs. "Next time... check... what ingredients you... prepared before... actually putting them into the cake." Annabeth picked up her napkin to wipe away the tears of laughter rolling down her cheeks.
Curiously, I looked down on my own cake slice. I picked up a few crumbs with my fork and put them into my mouth. The fork hadn't even left my mouth yet, when I was hit by a single smack of flavour, so intense it was disgusting.
Salt.
The cake tasted of nothing but salt. And lots of it.
Now I understood why Annabeth was laughing. Since they were in a similar container, I must've confused salt and sugar when I was baking, so instead of a pinch of salt, I had put in 2 cups and practically no sugar. Obviously, this meant that the cake was pretty much inedible.
I was very embarrassed, but Annabeth was still laughing so enthusiastically and not maliciously at all, I couldn't help but join in.
After a few more minutes we managed to calm down and stop laughing.
"That was unexpected and sort of fun, I have to admit" Annabeth said, still giggling a little. "But please use sugar next time, okay?" She leaned forward and kissed me.
"But now I think I'll have to brush my teeth to get that taste out of my mouth. That was disgusting!"
With that, she got up and left for the bathroom. I just sat there for a few more moments, thinking about what had just happened. How lucky I was to have her as my girlfriend.
Next time I would make sure I didn't make a mistake with the recipe. I would make a cake she would love.
Or like.
Well... Hopefully.