~Chapter 14 – Sweets Royale (Stage 1/9 Cheesecake)~

            “Are you guys ready for this!?” cheered Chanyeol as he became hyped up with energy.

            “Oh yeah! Let’s bring this competition down!” replied Kai high-fiving Chanyeol.

            The twelve boys were heading over towards the competition hall for the very first stage of the Sweets Royale after receiving their confirmation letters two days before the Sweets Royale came quicker than many had anticipated as all the competitors took advantage of their two prep days in order to prepare for the upcoming event.

            Upon entering the huge room, the twelve of them took notice of the large amount of participants who were beginning to line up to get their assigned number and check in, “There seems to be even more entries this year than ever,” noted Suho.

            “Yeah, no kidding. Ugh the tension is so thick it’s almost palpable,” complained Chen as he observed the serious looks on about every single student’s face.

            “Same as always, nothing new about that, come on let’s get checked in so we can begin our preparations,” said Xiumin ushering all the boys towards the long line.

            The long line moved swiftly enough as the boys finally checked themselves in and got their numbers, everyone who was a competitor was assigned a small kitchen station and given the same amount of ingredients, if any specific ingredients or items were needed then the participant must notify one of the many staff directors at least two hours before the competition begins.

            Luhan was assigned to a station in the middle of the competition hall and looked around the room to see if any familiar faces were close by only to find that everyone was separated as well and placed in random spots. As his eyes glanced about five stations down on the opposite side of his own station, he spotted Sehun with his usual stoic expression on ‘So indifferent, aish’ Luhan was about to look away but Sehun apparently sensed someone staring at him and looked over to spot Luhan. ‘Ack, he’s looking over! I hope he doesn’t think I was oogling him…’ thought Luhan as he gave a bright smile at Sehun and waved, receiving a small wave in return from Sehun before he looked away again.

            Luhan sighed as he turned around and went to observe his equipment ‘I’m not letting what happened last time happen again,’ looking over the wires and checking over the supplies he was given Luhan was satisfied so far knowing that none of his things have been tampered with.

            As he turned back around an announcement was made over the loud speaker “Attention to all participants please stop what you are doing and place your attention towards the front of the competition hall where the headmaster of SMACSE will introduce the judges and begin the Sweets Royale.”

            Everyone in the room instantly became quiet as they put their full attention toward the stage that was set up in front of the entire room, without much delay the headmaster walked on to the stage as a light applause rang throughout the students. “Thank you all for coming to participate in the Sweets Royale, I’m very glad to see students making such great effort in their education and deciding to showcase their knowledge in this competition. I will not be delaying this competition for much longer as I will now begin the introductions for the judges. Please give a warm welcome to these company CEOs, ‘Confectionary Stops’’ Zen Lao, ‘Sugar Frost’s’ Rin Fujika, ‘High End Delects’’ Hyo Yim, ‘Tasty Delights’’ DaeHo Pak, and ‘Deer’s Bakery’s’ Meili Xi.”

            Luhan felt a shock run through his body at hearing the last name called ‘GRANNY!? WHAT THE HECK!?’ as the judges’ names were called they began stepping on stage one by one. When the last judge who was an elder woman with graying short hair walked on stage with a confident stride and smile on her lips, Luhan instantly recognized his grandmother as his mouth dropped open in surprise and shock ‘OH MY GOSH! WHEN DID SHE COME BACK TO KOREA!? WASN’T SHE ON VACATION IN BEIJING FOR THE LAST MONTH!?!?!?’

            As the round of applause ended the judges all took a seat on the front of the stage and the headmaster continued with his speech “With these judges hand picked by myself, I am sure students at SMACSE will greatly impress them. Now for this year’s competition, all participants are required to create a cheesecake dessert based on the theme of passion within the time limit of two hours. Once again your creation will be graded upon three categories of visual, taste, and theme. Now I am elated to finally announce that this begins the Sweets Royale.” A bell rang out of the loud speaker and every participant began moving at once.

            Luhan threw his thoughts about his grandmother being a judge at the Sweets Royale out of the way as he refocused on his current task, having prepped for this day Luhan knew exactly what he wanted to create. ‘Deal with that later focus on cheesecake now.’

            Luhan began by getting out all the necessary items, taking a bowl he poured in honey graham cracker crumbs, crushed pecan nuts, and melted butter mixing these items until they were evenly coated and crumbly and then pouring it into a circular pan while using a spatula to flatten it to the bottom to make the base of the cheesecake. Quickly setting that aside for a moment, Luhan grabbed the juicy and ripened raspberries from the fridge and began pouring those into the blender to puree it. Leaving the raspberry puree in the blender, Luhan took out another bowl and placed in cream cheese beating it with a mixer until it was smooth and fluffy, then adding in condensed milk and half of the raspberry puree he mixed it once more until the cheesecake filling had a consistent pink hue to it. Once that was finished, Luhan took the pink cheesecake filling and scooped it into the base mixture pan while using a spatula to smooth out the top, before placing the entire cheesecake into the quick chiller.

            ‘Alright cheesecake is finished for now, need to start the sauce toping for it’ thought Luhan as he took out a sauce pan and began heating it up. Taking out blueberries, Luhan dumped them on to the sauce pan, taking a masher to squish the berries to get the juice out, when the berries were done being squished, orange and lemon juice was added to it as the fruit mixture and was brought to a boil. Getting out another small pan, Luhan began whisking together water, cornstarch, and brown sugar over the other side of the stove until all the lumps were smoothed away; lifting the sugar mixture he slowly whisked it into the fruit mixture in order to thicken up the citrus blueberry sauce. After the mixtures were combined, he took the sauce pan and poured its contents through a strainer into an open bowl to rid of any chunky blueberries left.

            Leaving that on the counter, Luhan went back to the quick chiller to retrieve the now firm raspberry cheesecake, removing it from the pan and placing it nicely onto a clean white plate. Moving on to the last step Luhan took his blueberry sauce and drizzled a design over the top of the raspberry pinked cheesecake, and then proceeded to further decorate it by arranging even more fresh raspberries over the top of the dessert just as the bell rang once more indicating that the first stage of the Sweets Royale has finished.

            “All participants stop and place everything down at once; you may now begin to place your dessert in the center of the counter of your kitchen station alongside your assigned number. Please wait to be dismissed and do not move from your station until told to do so by a staff member. You will be able to see your score on the screening board outside of the competition hall on the monitors around noon make sure to check if you will be advancing to the next round. All participants must now listen carefully, in the next stage all advancing participants are expected to create a sorbet based on the theme of summer. That is all and we once again wish you the best in your endeavors,” as the headmaster finished his announcements the staff immediately came forth and began ushering people out of the doors one by one to ensure no tampering with another contestant’s entry.

            When Luhan finally made it out of the doors, he was instantly swarmed by the others who had managed to get out of the hall first. “Luhan! So, how do you think you did!? I bet your going to advance all the way this year!” asked Baekhyun with a grin on his face.

            “Not too bad, I managed to finish at least, but I’m more worried of how I represented the theme, I think the only thing showing passion on my entire cheesecake was only the pink and red colors…” worried Luhan.

            “I wouldn’t worry about that, I bet you’d still pass with flying colors,” reassured Chanyeol patting Luhan on the back.

            Luhan smiled “What about the rest of you guys?”

            “Us? We did so well that I bet all the judges would be so amazed they’d give us an award,” replied Chen confidently with a smirk on his face as he high-fived with Kai standing next to him.

            Everyone laughed along as the mood became lighter with Chen’s statement. “Hey, speaking of judges what was Granny doing on stage!? Did you know about that Luhan!?” asked Tao with excitement in his voice.

            Luhan simply shook his head “I thought she was still on vacation in Beijing, I almost had my jaw drop off when I saw her walk on to the stage.”

            “Saw who?” asked Suho as he walked through the competition hall doors followed by Sehun and DO.

            “Granny!” explained Tao happily.

            “Oh yeah, not that I’m not happy to see her or anything but it was pretty shocking seeing her as one of the judges for the Sweets Royale,” replied Suho.

            “Wait you’re talking about the old lady that came on stage last right? Because she was the only one old enough to be called Granny,” stated Kai confused with who the group was talking about.

            Receiving a light smack in the head by DO and Xiumin simultaneously, Lay told the younger “I think you could have possibly phrased that better Kai,” (as he felt bad for the now pouting boy rubbing his head where the two older boys hi