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“Niki, come on, you know I don’t know how to cook.” Jack huffed, sitting up on one of the bar stools she had around her kitchen island. Niki sighed, placing a bag of flour on the counter.
“It’s not cooking, it’s baking.” she corrected as she pulled a big bowl from the cabinet. “Baking is my job, I can teach you all the little tricks.” she smiled at him. His still very pale looking face was unamused.
“If I mess it up, it's not my fault.” Jack agreed, Niki chuckled before sliding over the recipe to him. It wasn’t too long which he hoped meant it was less complicated. “Zebra cake?” He read the title.
“Zebra cake is this chocolate and vanilla swirl cake! It’s rather easy but tastes and looks amazing” she replied not even looking at him as she continued to take out the ingredients and equipment. The amount of things on the counter slightly overwhelmed Jack. Niki took a deep breath finally putting the last item on the counter. “You can do the dry ingredients and I’ll do the wet ones.” Jack nodded, standing up and rolling up his sleeves. He washed his hands before continuing.
He read the steps very carefully, re-reading them twice before starting to measure his ingredients. Flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. He wondered what baking powder and baking soda was but didn’t bother to ask, finding it to be a stupid question.
Jack started out gently whisking it as if the ingredients were about to jump out at him and attack him. Speeding up as he got more confident. Glancing over at his friend, who was standing infront of a mixer. He hadn’t even realized she had turned it on when he was measuring his ingredients. Niki was slowly adding the eggs.
Jack continued to stir for a minute. Guessing that the mixing was done. He picked it up and walked over to Niki, holding out the bowl to show her like a child with mediocre artwork. She nodded and smiled up at him.
“Looks great Jack! You’re a natural” she complimented as he set the bowl down beside the mixer, noting that it said in the recipe to mix the dry and wet. Niki started adding the dry mixture as Jack inspected the mixer. He had never been so up-close with one before and found it rather confusing. Being so lost in this baking business made him feel like a child in a neutral way.
“Can you make us both drinks while I make the half and half mixes?” Niki asked, motioning with her head to the corner of the kitchen. Jack didn’t reply, just walked over to the other side of the kitchen. He didn’t really pay attention to his movements, having done the whole making drinks shebang multiple times over his time there, it was part of his muscle memory at this point.
He was really glad that Niki was so calm and patient with him. He knew that some of his ‘friends’ would have gotten mad that he didn’t know what he was doing. Niki was certainly the best person he had ever met.
“Jack it’s cake time” she giggled, he made his way over, placing the two drinks on the counter. There were now two bowls on the counter, one filled with brown coloured batter and one filled with cream coloured batter. “You can do the vanilla batter.” she picked up the spoon in the bowl closest to her, placing a scoop in the baking pan. Jack copied. The two continued until the pan was at the right level.
Niki placed it into the oven and the two sat on the floor infront of it. “That was fun, thank you Niki” Jack spoke as she placed her head on his shoulder.
“I’m really glad!”