Practice makes perfect!

[bufubulous]

Who; Yusuke & Haru
What; Practicing cafe skills!
Where; Noble District at the cafe
When; Mid-February
Warnings; None, but would update if something came up



There was, in Yusuke’s opinion, nothing quite like the thrill of discovering and learning a new form of art. Especially in areas he had very little to no prior experience in, so focused on his own. But in getting to know Haru better since her arrival, he found himself becoming quite drawn in to learn more about her own creative endeavors and encouraging her sometimes uncertain forays into them. The cafe being one such exciting project, allowing him to enjoy the often missed excitement of a collaborative project. Helping with the colours, the accents, making sure the overall aesthetic fit Haru’s own while being stylish and well coordinated to those entering.

Really, they both had their own individual way of looking at things and seemed to balance it all out rather well. Keeping it from getting a bit too loud and over the top, while also colourful and fresh.

And after their last conversation, Yusuke had found himself growing a little more intrigued with the other aspects of the business. They had found some books on latte art to study, and talk of lattes had also eventually turned to other decorative things sold at cafes like the treats to go with them. Cupcakes, for instance, seemed a nice starting point as well. Yusuke having had to admit he’d never really tried baking before for obvious reasons, though fascinated by the idea.

So that was how they found themselves in the cafe, with plans to start practicing both before the opening day rolled around.

Baking with Yusuke, Haru would find, was an odd experience overall. The teen was honest when he said he didn’t have much experience outside general meal prep, and his ideas for flavour combinations could be a bit… adventurous…? Probably due to having to get creative with limited ingredients in the past. Still, they eventually had a batch of cupcakes in the oven and had settled at the counter to practice lattes until the cupcakes were done and cooled enough to ice.

“So… If I read the book correctly, the milk should look somewhat similar to wet paint after steaming it?” He mused, rather intrigued by the idea that milk could take on such a consistency and look. At least, he supposed as he dashed some flour off of his sleeve, he would know what to expect it to look like. His eyes turning back to the books spread out across a clean space of counter, he leaned over to look closer. “Then we can try pouring it into the espressos? Oh. We should make those first, I presume.”

Honestly, it was debatable if either of them had thought of just how much caffeine and sugar they might both consume over the course of the afternoon between the practice lattes and cupcake icing.

Comments

[haruine]

For most of her life Haru had paid at least some attention to the various things that went into her father's day to day life. At least as much as she had been permitted to. A part of her had always wished he'd included her just a bit more, but that had never been in the cards. When she'd found out about her grandfather she'd found herself even more regretful towards the things she'd missed out on. She could have learned so very much from him. But that was neither here nor there. Regardless of how little she'd actually been able to ascertain about the process that went into running a shop in the food service industry, she'd at least always assumed it required quite a lot of work.

With this endeavor of her own she'd found that she had greatly underestimated just how much went into things. There were so many little details that she'd simply never accounted for when it came to setting things up. For some reason she'd seemingly completely neglected to think about just how much one might need to even practice making a pleasant looking cupcake and pleasant looking coffee.

It was honestly a bit embarrassing to think about the fact that she'd completely neglected to think about just how important things looking pleasant would be. Which seemed completely ridiculous to her now that she thought about it. Her father went to countless meetings that ran very late on every subject one could possibly imagine when it came to Big Bang. She knew for a fact some of those meetings had dealt with packaging and how to present the food to make it most appetizing. Making something look good was a key component to actually getting someone to buy it. After all who would buy a cupcake that had fallen in with an ugly icing pattern? Nobody. And who would be interested in buying a cup of coffee that looked like something they could make at their own apartment or home? Again, nobody.

And so that line of thinking lead her to being here with Yusuke doing their best to practice baking. Of course Yusuke was....well, Yusuke about it all. His suggestions were bold to say the least. Haru being Haru wasn't able to completely say no to all of them, besides she did want some unique things to stand out with. So, they ultimately ended up with one bold suggestion of his and one rather boring vanilla suggestion by her. It was at least a fairly decent compromise.

Now the real difficult part would begin. "Like paint?" She put a finger on her chin thoughtfully as she began to put a bit of expresso into in the machine. She measured it out very carefully but couldn't avoid getting a bit of flour dust into the espresso. Oh well, it was just for the two of them. It was a learning process after all, so now she knew she needed to be much more thorough in cleaning herself off before she moved on to a new project. "Do we add the sugar first or after? Oh that's a silly question, we'd have to add that first otherwise it would ruin the design."