“That’s not true. Charlotte did half of these herself.”
“Well done,” said Alison. “They look—and taste—incredible.”
Charlotte appreciated the compliment, although she was fairly certain Alison would have said the same even if Charlotte had done a terrible job.
The real test of her skills would be Keir’s reaction. He wouldn’t insult her in front of her boss, but he also wouldn’t lie if he wasn’t impressed.
“It’s good, but it needs a little something else,” he said after trying a chocolate sponge with chocolate ganache for the groom’s cake. “Why not add a bit of the pepper? A bit. Not too much.”
Charlotte grinned. “Not as much as the other night?”
Keir told Alison and Mrs. Knox about Charlotte’s experiment and little prank.
“Is that the recipe you’ve been telling me about?” asked Mrs. Knox. “Let’s try adding the pepper to the ganache. Unless you were only joking.”
“No, not at all,” said Keir. “She did go a bit overboard with the brownies, but the first bite before the pain began was delicious.”
“Just what every baker dreams to hear. ‘It was delicious until the pain started,’” said Charlotte.
They tried the rest of the mini cakes: a tropical-inspired cake with mango and coconut that Alison adored but not quite as much as the raspberry, a carrot cake that even actual medical doctor Keir thought was too healthy for a wedding, a lemon poppyseed cake that Keir said felt too much like breakfast at university, and a white chocolate sponge with champagne and strawberry buttercream that left Alison quite torn.
“They’re both so lovely,” she murmured, mouth half full, her fork going back and forth between the raspberry and the strawberry champagne cake. “Keir, I need help.”
Keir tried both cakes in turn, but he too was undecided.
“What if we did them both together?” suggested Charlotte. “The vanilla sponge with the champagne Gallic meringue buttercream, then we’ll add in both strawberry and raspberry jams, and we can top it off with the white chocolate ganache.”
“And those lovely little sugar flowers,” said Alison. “What do you think?” she asked Keir.
“If you’re happy, I’m happy,” he said.
“Then that’s exactly what we’ll do,” said Mrs. Knox. “Three tiers for the bride, one for the groom?”
Alison was confused. “Why should the bride’s cake be bigger? Can we do them both with two tiers?”
“Of course.”
As they were leaving, Keir pulled Charlotte aside. “You did a wonderful job. If you hadn’t told us you helped, I would have thought Mrs. Knox made them all. They looked professional. Well done.”
Charlotte beamed with pride. She just may have found her calling here in Mrs. Knox’s bakery.
If they could only keep it in business.
Chapter Seven
THE SOLSTICE TREE
Alison
In the morning, Alison ran into Gwenla out in the lane on the way to her planning meeting with Rinka.
“Finnli, put that down!” cried Gwenla. Finnli was holding something small and furry.
“I found it sleeping in the wall,” said Finnli. The dwarf boy, a son of Gwenla’s industrialist cousin, was generally quiet and well-behaved, but he had an insatiable curiosity that often got him into trouble. “Look. It’s blonde like me.”
Alison came over to see what he was holding. “It’s a little dormouse,” she said. “They sleep all winter, you know. Better put it back now so it can get its rest.”
“Do as she says, boy,” said Gwenla, sighing.
