Spring comes to the desperate place

Chapter 320 Cake Shop Opening

Song Chunlin looked at everyone who was in order, nodded with satisfaction, then went to the front to help put down the chairs and put them in place, as well as the things on the bar. After he had prepared everything, he also brought over the roasted pig that had been ordered, which would be used for worshiping gods when the shop opened.

The roasted pig had just been delivered, and Madam An Huaibo and Madam Meng also came together. This time, even Yan Qing came to join in the fun. He got up early just to be the first person to eat the cake and milk tea.

As a burst of firecrackers sounded, the red cloth outside the cake shop was also torn down. The people nearby had known about this shop for a long time. They had been working on it since before the Chinese New Year. First, they pushed down the wall facing the street, and then they did something mysterious.

It's even worse these past few days. Every time I pass by here, I can smell all kinds of aromas emanating from inside, but when I go in to ask, I'm told that the store isn't open yet and isn't selling anything. When I ask when it will open, the kid in charge of watching the store doesn't know either. But today, it's bustling here early in the morning, and when I come over to take a look, it turns out that this store has indeed opened.

"Hey, that shop is finally open. Let's go take a look. I can smell the delicious aroma inside every day, but they don't sell anything. Really, I'm so greedy."

"Hahaha, you're too greedy."

"That's because you haven't smelled it. The smell is so fragrant that it makes people itch. I don't know what is being made inside, but it smells so fragrant. It's even sweeter than Shengji's cakes."

"Hey, what is that? Why is there no wall in this shop?"

"Really? Why does it only have window frames? Wouldn't the wind blow in?"

Everyone came forward in confusion. The transparent glass made everyone think that the wall was hollow for a moment. When they got closer, they found that it was not empty, but there was a layer of transparent glass-like substance.

There are still many people in the capital who know what goods are. When they saw that the entire wall of this shop was made of colored glaze, they were all amazed.

"My goodness, with so much colored glass, the things in this shop must be sold at sky-high prices to earn back the money from the colored glass, right?"

"Not only that, look inside, there are even bigger pieces of glass."

When everyone looked closely, they saw that there was indeed a huge display cabinet in the shop. The clear and clean glass allowed people to see the pastries on display inside at a glance.

All the pastries in the display cabinet are cream cakes. The children’s icing is not as delicate and gorgeous as modern ones, so Song Chunlin simply asked them to spread the cream on the cake evenly and put cut fruits on it, creating a fresh and minimalist style.

However, just the simplest fruit cake was enough to amaze everyone. After asking about the price, everyone gasped.

"Such a small piece of cake costs one tael of silver? Why don't you just go and rob it!"

Song Song, who was in charge of the front desk, smiled and said, "Sir, the cream and fruits used in the cake are relatively rare ingredients, especially the fruits. Look, the strawberries, cherries, grapes, mangoes, and cantaloupe on it come from several different places of origin. In order to collect these fruits, our boss spent a lot of money, so the price is naturally more expensive."

After listening to Songsong's explanation, everyone looked at the fruits on it again. Sure enough, there were not many that they recognized, but they all looked delicious. Pastries with such exquisite and rare ingredients should indeed be sold at a higher price.

After seeing that their expressions had eased a little, Songsong recommended other cheaper pastries to them, such as the simplest egg cake, egg tarts, rolls, toast and the like. These were the first pastries that the Salesian Bureau learned to make, so they are their best at it. They are produced quickly, taste good, and are priced similarly to ordinary pastries, so they are within the range that most people can afford.

In addition to cakes, Songsong also recommended the store's milk tea to them. When they heard the word milk tea, their first reaction was how could milk be used to make tea. However, after trying a small cup, they were also impressed by the deliciousness of the milk tea.

"Mm, this is the taste. It has neither the fishy smell of milk nor the bitterness of tea. Wow, I didn't expect that milk tea would taste like this. It's wonderful, really wonderful."

Amid the customers' endless praise, the business in the store was booming. The clerk at the front desk kept packing up the food for the customers, and the people at the bar were also skillfully making milk tea. The finished milk tea was poured into a bamboo tube and a reed tube was inserted into it. It was a very novel combination of ancient and modern times.

As it was noon, more and more people were attracted by the large transparent glass in the store. Many people gathered on the street and stood there watching. There were admiration and jealousy in their voices, but no matter what, the reputation of this cake shop was completely established.

Mrs. An Huaibo and Mrs. Meng sat upstairs, looking through the glass at the hustle and bustle of people below, with happy looks on their faces.

"Young people are smart. Look at the flow of people. It's not much less than during the Chinese New Year."

Mrs. An Huaibo pursed her lips and smiled: "This is just an appetizer. You'll see later. I'm afraid there will be more people than now."

Mrs. Meng became interested as soon as she heard it. She asked Mrs. An Huaibo with great interest: "What's going on? Tell me about it."

Mrs. An Huaibo pointed downstairs and said, "Look over there in the kitchen."

Mrs. Meng walked to the corridor and looked down from above. She could just see that everyone was working together to place a smaller cake on the base of another cake.

"Hey, what are they doing? Are they trying to make a multi-layer cake?"

Mrs. An Huaibo nodded. "Of course not. I thought the cake looked like the one below. I didn't expect Chunlin to have such a brain. I don't know what he was thinking. He actually thought that the cake could be made into several layers. Now, the old mother of the Minister of Agriculture is turning 60, and Song Chunlin volunteered to give her a gift, which is the one below. It is said that he wants to make six layers. I don't know if he can succeed."

A six-layer cake is indeed a bit technically difficult, but it’s not a big problem. Song Chunlin and Song A-mo supervised the whole process, making sure each layer was placed securely before starting to pile fruits on top.

Because no one is very good at decorating flowers, this cake is decorated purely with fruits. However, Song Chunlin feels that the Grand Minister of Agriculture would probably like it more if it were decorated with fruits. It is said that he has a deep love for the land and likes anything produced from the land.

The cake was decorated, but sending it out was still a problem. Song Chunlin had inquired in advance and knew that the birthday banquet of the Sima family would be at noon, so it should be just right if it was sent there at this time. The difficulty was how to send the cake intact.

Finally, Song Chunlin planned to put the cake in a glass cover, lift the base onto a board, and arranged ten people to escort it all the way to Da Sima's house.

In fact, there is a better way, which is to put Song Chunlin into the space to escort him. This is not only safe, but also ensures that the cream will not melt so quickly.

But what he needs now is to promote the store, so he cannot put it in the space. Instead, he needs to show it off to the public. It would be best if all the people in Beijing can come and see the big cakes produced by their Xingchengfang, and let them all know how beautiful and tempting the cakes of the newly opened Xingchengfang are. Moreover, this thing is specially used for birthday celebrations. Look at the big birthday peach on the top layer. If he gives it to his own elderly to celebrate his birthday, it will be so face-saving.

Song Chunlin followed the cake delivery team all the way to Da Sima's house. The journey was not too far. Song Chunlin felt a little regretful that he could not walk around a few more streets, but he was always well-informed about gossip. He believed that by tomorrow, everyone in the streets and alleys of the capital would basically know about this rare thing called cake.

Da Sima was urged by the housekeeper to come to the mansion gate. When he heard that the person who sent the gift was Song Chunlin, he was a little puzzled. If the other party wanted to give a gift, why did he ask him to go and receive it in such a high-profile manner?

When he walked to the door, he saw a mountain of fruits that was almost as tall as a person. He walked closer and saw that most of the fruits on it were ones he had never seen before. There were red, yellow, purple, and green fruits. They were so colorful and beautiful that they didn't look like something edible. From a distance, he thought they were just decorations.

Song Chunlin came over with a smile and bowed to the Minister of Agriculture: "Minister of Agriculture, how about this gift? Are you satisfied with it?"

The Grand Minister of Agriculture also stroked his beard with a smile and said, "Satisfied, satisfied, very satisfied. Oh, don't stand at the door anymore. Hurry up and take it in."

"Hey, Brother Song, why didn't you come earlier? We just started eating."

Song Chunlin said that he was either here to eat or to deliver goods.

"It's okay. We're not hungry. I came to deliver the cake and to tell you how to eat it. We even brought the plates. I'll help you share it later."

The Minister of Agriculture didn't mind him sharing it. He also wanted to know how to eat such a big thing.

The Grand Minister of Agriculture was a low-key person, and most of his friends were officials from the Ministry of Agriculture. Because the Song family often went to the Ministry of Agriculture, these officials also went to the Song family to learn how to farm, so after a while, they all met familiar faces.

Song Chunlin walked in greeting everyone along the way, and when he came in front of the old birthday girl, he bowed deeply to her.

"Happy birthday, old lady! May you be blessed with good fortune and live as long as the Southern Mountains!"

The old lady smiled brightly when she saw the mountain of cake, and quickly asked Song Chunlin to stand up: "Young Master Song, you are here, and you brought such a... uh, tall gift. You must have had a lot of trouble on the way here, right?"

Song Chunlin shook his head. "It's no trouble, no trouble. It's just a coincidence today. I didn't expect that the opening of our new store would coincide with your birthday. It can be seen that today is indeed an auspicious and festive day. On such a festive day, we naturally have to eat something delicious, so I took the initiative to bring you a birthday cake. Look, this is it."

With the help of her daughter-in-law, the old lady walked to the cake and looked at the cake covered by a glass cover. The first thing she admired was not the fruit on the cake, but the glass cover outside.

"This glass is crystal clear and clean, and it's such a big piece. Young Master Song must have spent a lot of money on it, right?"

Song Chunlin: "No, no, these glasses are specially made for transporting cakes. If the old lady likes them, I will give you a few more and ask the Minister of Agriculture to install them on the windows for you. These glasses are very transparent."

The old lady was made to laugh by his trick, but she didn't take it seriously in her heart. How could anyone give away such a valuable thing as glass so easily? He even asked her to inlay it on the window. How much silver would that cost? Even if Song Chunlin dared to give it to her, she would not dare to accept it.

As the glass cover was opened, a rich aroma of cream cake mixed with fruity scent wafted to the old lady's face. She took a deep breath. It was the first time she smelled such a pleasant fruity scent. She originally thought that these things only looked good, but now it seems that they are quite delicious.

Song Chunlin handed the old lady a knife and motioned for her to make the first cut: "Old lady, you are the birthday girl today, so you will be the one to make the first cut."

The old lady said yes repeatedly and cut the first piece under everyone's attention. She asked Song Chunlin to help with the remaining cuts.

Song Chunlin first took down the entire birthday peach cake on top, put it on a paper tray, and handed it to the old lady.

"The birthday man, please eat the first piece. May the rest of your life be as sweet as the cake."

The old lady's face wrinkled into a flower: "Oh, I'm so old, and I'm still sweet."

Then Song Chunlin cut the cake piece by piece, and everyone discovered that there was not only fruit on the outside, but also fruit filling inside. The amount of fruit alone would probably cost a lot of money.

The cake was very big. Each guest was given a small piece, but there was still a large piece left at the bottom. Seeing this, Da Sima asked Song Chunlin to give a piece to each of the people carrying the cake.

These people only then knew that there was such a good thing, and they licked the cake happily.

Even so, there was still a lot of cake left, so the old lady was so happy that she gave it all to the servants as a reward. All the capable housekeepers in the mansion were given a small piece of cake.

"I'm happy today. Come eat and try the cake sent by Young Master Song to see what it tastes like."

The old lady took the first bite as she spoke. The fluffiness of the cream, the sweetness of the fruit, and the softness of the sponge cake all came together in one bite and danced in her mouth. The perfect combination of these flavors made people linger.

"It's delicious, really delicious. This cake is much better than those hard pastries."

"Exactly, what is this bright red fruit? It smells so good."

Everyone kept discussing cream and fruit, which were things they had never eaten before. Some people even started to study how to grow those fruits. One can only say that they were all from the Ministry of Agriculture. They thought about their careers while eating. They were really dedicated.

The old lady took the first bite as she spoke. The fluffiness of the cream, the sweetness of the fruit, and the softness of the sponge cake all came together in one bite and danced in her mouth. The perfect combination of these flavors made people linger.