Dark chocolate, butter, eggs, egg yolks, rum, low-gluten flour, salt, powdered sugar, mint, fruit, fresh cream…
After Bai Baozhu gathered all the ingredients needed for the lava molten chocolate cake, she began her culinary filming once more under the expectant gazes of all the photographers from ‘Love Cottage’.
The camera guy who had been following Bai Baozhu really felt that ever since she started cooking, her whole vibe was completely different!
While the other dating guests were earnestly falling in love, Bai Baozhu was… earnestly making delicious food!
Moreover, even the filming atmosphere was different!
Clearly, their show was a dating reality show. The filming tone should be ambiguous, bubbling with pink romance. Yet… now, whenever the camera shifted to Bai Baozhu, whenever it entered the kitchen, he felt he wasn’t filming a dating show at all! It was a food show!
Even more terrifying was that he was also a fan of food shows, having watched quite a few, like ‘A Bite of China’, ‘Once Upon a Bite’, and so on.
So, when he filmed Bai Baozhu cooking, he subconsciously employed those food-shooting techniques and angles to capture her…
Thus… he truly felt the more he filmed, the more it resembled a food program! Not some dating reality show!
Case in point, when Bai Baozhu started making the lava molten chocolate cake, pouring the dark chocolate and butter into a pot to melt over a water bath, he couldn’t help but give her hands a close-up!
Slender, delicate fingers, fair and tender, ten jade-like digits holding a wooden spoon, gently and continuously stirring the butter and chocolate.
White and brown, this scene possessed an indescribable beauty.
Gradually, the chocolate and butter were thoroughly stirred into a uniform liquid.
Bai Baozhu then whisked the eggs with a beater, poured the melted chocolate and butter into the evenly whisked egg mixture, and stirred it once more…
And so, as Bai Baozhu’s delicate hands kept stirring various ingredients, the lava molten chocolate cake quickly began to take shape!
She poured the final chocolate batter into the pre-prepared molds. Since the amount of batter she made was quite substantial, Bai Baozhu simply made over a dozen palm-sized lava molten chocolate cakes in one go.
After placing all the cakes in their molds into the oven, it was just a matter of waiting nine minutes.
When the oven dinged, all the staff members standing in the kitchen watching Bai Baozhu make dessert subconsciously swallowed their saliva.
After all, they had one hundred percent trust in Bai Baozhu’s culinary skills!
Not a single dish that came from Bai Baozhu’s hands was anything less than delicious!
Now, they only hated themselves for being just ‘Love Cottage’ staff and not dating guests on the show!
That way, they could openly eat the delicacies Bai Baozhu made!
Originally, most of these staff members were men, not particularly fond of desserts.
They thought, it’s just sweet stuff, they’d just watch, and definitely shouldn’t compete with the dating guests for food again. That would be too unprofessional.
But—the moment the oven was opened, the steaming aroma of chocolate, cream, and a hint of rum instantly made this group of dessert-indifferent staff feel they’d been proven wrong!
The sweet scent of chocolate and cream permeating the kitchen was practically driving people crazy!
Even though they were a bunch of big men who didn’t like sweets, smelling the aroma of the lava molten chocolate cake Bai Baozhu made still made them involuntarily swallow.
And when Bai Baozhu placed one portion of the lava molten chocolate cake on a beautiful dessert plate, finally dusting it with a layer of white powdered sugar and garnishing it with fruit for the final presentation, everyone was captivated by its gorgeous appearance!
A spoon descended. Those fingers, slender as scallion roots, gently broke through the crispy surface of the still-warm, deep brown lava molten chocolate cake, revealing its molten core.
Instantly! The chocolate erupted like a volcano, chocolate lava pouring out. The air in the kitchen filled with an intensely rich, sweet cocoa aroma.
The camera guy following Bai Baozhu reacted with lightning speed, capturing this scene worthy of a blockbuster food film, even using extreme close-ups and slow motion.
This made the camera guy, who originally didn’t like sweets, feel during the filming that perhaps he wasn’t as averse to sweets as he’d imagined!
Facing that sweet, enticing aroma, he desperately wanted to put down his camera and taste the lava molten chocolate cake Bai Baozhu had just made.
But he still had professional integrity!
The lens slowly followed Bai Baozhu’s fair, slender hand as it moved upward bit by bit. A golden spoon held a full load of chocolate. Her pale pink lips parted slightly, her tongue lightly licking the chocolate sauce from the corner of her mouth…
Instantly, a phrase involuntarily surfaced in the minds of all the staff filming Bai Baozhu.
That phrase was—a feast for the eyes.
Delicious food paired with a beautiful woman. Such a scene, whether for men or women, was overwhelmingly impactful.
The kitchen, originally filled with the scent of chocolate, instantly gained another layer of alluring atmosphere…
“Ahem!”
A sudden light cough snapped the staff out of their trance, bewitched by Bai Baozhu’s beauty and food.
Everyone came back to their senses and discovered that Bo Shenyu, who had gone out horseback riding in the morning, had returned at some point and was now in the kitchen.
“You made…”
Bo Shenyu’s gaze drifted almost imperceptibly towards the lava molten chocolate cake Bai Baozhu was holding. His Adam’s apple bobbed slightly.
“Lava molten chocolate cake. It tastes pretty good. Would you like to try some?”
Bai Baozhu looked at Bo Shenyu and spoke very amiably.
Among the four male guests, Bai Baozhu was the least familiar with Bo Shenyu. Since transmigrating here, she hadn’t spoken more than five sentences with this man, and those five were all said when everyone was together. She hadn’t spoken to him privately or had any contact with him.
However, to be fair, Bai Baozhu still quite admired Bo Shenyu.
Not because his looks were the most outstanding among the four male guests, but because this man, whether speaking or acting, exuded a noble son’s refined politeness, steady yet carrying a hint of aristocratic air.
This temperament gave her a sense of familiar reassurance, so subconsciously, she felt a natural goodwill towards this man she had little private contact with.
“Ahem!”
Just as Bai Baozhu extended her dessert invitation to Bo Shenyu, she was promptly refused.
Bo Shenyu gave a light cough, his expression seeming somewhat odd, then shook his head and said flatly.
“I don’t really care for sweets.”
Hearing his words, Bai Baozhu nodded, not insisting.
Having been refused, Bai Baozhu paid Bo Shenyu no further mind. She scooped another spoonful of the lava molten chocolate cake into her mouth.
The slightly bitter taste was masked by a rich, mellow sweetness. The intense sweetness, carrying threads of bitterness, melted on her tongue, spreading a faintly intoxicating bliss.
Having never eaten such a dessert in the Female-Dominant Kingdom, Bai Baozhu fell in love with this flavor in an instant. She closed her eyes, her face full of bliss as she slowly savored the mouthful of chocolate cake.
“So delicious… If Sister Tian Tian eats such a delicious dessert, her mood is sure to improve~”
Bai Baozhu couldn’t help but murmur.
“What’s wrong with Xia Tiantian?”
Just as Bai Baozhu was lost in the deliciousness of the lava molten chocolate cake, Bo Shenyu’s voice sounded once more.
She opened her eyes and discovered that Bo Shenyu, who ‘didn’t care for sweets’, was still there. She blinked in confusion.
“Why are you still here?”
“Ahem! I…”
Put on the spot by Bai Baozhu’s question, Bo Shenyu immediately felt somewhat awkward. He raised a hand to rub his nose, his gaze drifting again, seemingly unintentionally, towards the lava molten chocolate cake Bai Baozhu was holding.
“I just wanted to ask why you made so many chocolate cakes.”
“A lot? It’s fine. There are so many staff here.”
Bai Baozhu smiled and pointed at the circle of drooling staff members standing in the kitchen.
She truly loved this feeling—the food she made being liked and desired by everyone.
This feeling gave her great satisfaction.
So, she didn’t mind making a bit extra every day when cooking, sharing it with these staff members who always enthusiastically appreciated her creations.
Hearing Bai Baozhu say this, the production team staff in the kitchen were all deeply moved.
Originally, they were too embarrassed and didn’t know how to ask Bai Baozhu for cake, but it turned out the lava molten chocolate cakes she made also had a share for them!
How could they not be moved!
While the ‘Love Cottage’ staff were moved, a certain dating guest was truly not moved at all.
He glanced at the irresistibly tempting lava molten chocolate cakes, looked at the chocolate lava flowing from the plates, and felt his heart was bleeding!
Just thinking that these incredibly delicious lava molten chocolate cakes had nothing to do with him, that they all belonged to others, made this male guest, whose words didn’t match his heart, feel utterly miserable and heartbroken!
“What’s wrong? Are you in a bad mood too?”
Bai Baozhu looked at the man standing at the kitchen door, his brows tightly furrowed as if he were in great distress, and asked curiously.
“Hmm…”
Distracted, Bo Shenyu’s attention was completely captured by those lava molten chocolate cakes that didn’t belong to him. He hadn’t heard what Bai Baozhu said at all.
“When you’re in a bad mood, eating sweets can make you happy. Have a piece of cake too. It’s really delicious. I guarantee even if you don’t like sweets, you’ll absolutely fall in love with this lava molten chocolate cake.”
Bai Baozhu smiled, bringing a portion of the lava molten chocolate cake before Bo Shenyu, speaking very straightforwardly.
Looking at the lava molten chocolate cake offered to him, then at Bai Baozhu’s bright, cheerful smile, and… the bit of chocolate sauce still at the corner of her mouth, Bo Shenyu seemed bewitched. Subconsciously, he reached out and took the exquisitely presented, sweet-smelling lava molten chocolate cake.
By the time he came back to his senses, he could no longer return the chocolate cake in his hands!
Reason screamed at him that they were recording a show; he couldn’t expose his love for sweets in front of the entire nation.
But—his body was completely out of his control. It had already acted before his mind, driving his limbs to begin tasting this incredibly delicious lava molten chocolate cake.
“You told me to eat it. I can’t waste it.”
Bo Shenyu said to Bai Baozhu with a very ‘pained’ expression as he ate the lava molten chocolate cake bite by bite.
“…???”
Bai Baozhu watched him eat the lava molten chocolate cake she made while simultaneously acting as if she had forced him to eat it. Her head was full of question marks.
What the heck? When did she say he absolutely had to eat it?
“Zhu Zhu! What delicious thing have you made behind my back again!”
Just as the atmosphere between Bai Baozhu and Bo Shenyu grew somewhat awkward, Xia Tiantian’s voice came from outside the kitchen.
Seeing that Xia Tiantian was awake, Bai Baozhu’s eyes immediately lit up.
“Sister Tian Tian, I made lava molten chocolate cake today. It’s especially delicious! I guarantee after you eat it, your mood will be sweet all day long~”
“Wow—! Lava molten chocolate cake! Zhu Zhu! You’re simply an angel!”
“Oh my god! Zhu Zhu! The lava molten chocolate cake you made is absolutely the most delicious cake I’ve ever eaten! It’s crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, with a soft, glutinous texture, and the chocolate sauce is so sweet and rich… Ah, one bite is pure bliss!”
……
Time passed, little by little, in this pleasant moment of culinary enjoyment.
And the highly anticipated Episode Six of Love Cottage was about to air…