Baking Macarons, Part 3 by Xenia Melzer

 

Xenia Melzer shares with us part three of her Baking Macarons story, featuring the boys from A Dom and His Gentleman.

Part One at Long and Short Reviews

Part Two at Love Bytes

 

And now, Part Three!

“I’m sorry, Leeland, but Curtis is right.” Seth sounded almost apologetic. “As much as I want to hear the story of the sexy baker and his aristocratic submissive, we do have a mission for today. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to see Martin’s or Richard’s smug grins should this fail.”

The others shook their heads. While Andrew had been carefully neutral in his reaction to Curtis telling him they were trying to bake their own macarons and Jonathan had found encouraging words, though that may have been due to the steely look Leeland had given him, Richard and Martin had simply started laughing out loud and Martin had made Dean and Collin promise that they would have a fire extinguisher ready and in the kitchen before they started baking. Failure in this important endeavor was not an option.

With new determination the men went back to the recipe. Leeland activated the stirrer that would hopefully turn the currently slimy egg whites into whipped egg whites.

“Fine, Leeland, you keep an eye on the kitchen aid. Curtis, you hold the sieve over the empty bowl and Seth puts the almonds, sugar and cocoa through it. Collin, you and I go look for an icing tip.”

“I’m not sure we have one of those. It doesn’t sound like something I’ve ever used in the kitchen.”

“I brought one from Andrew. It’s in my bag in the living room.” Curtis looked up from where he and Seth were trying to sift the dry base for the dough. They were surrounded by a cloud of white and dark brown, which started settling on their faces and clothes.

“Thank you, Curtis. We’ll get it.” Dean and Collin left the kitchen, leaving the other men alone. When they returned, Leeland announced the egg whites looked good, all stiff and fluffy, which led to another round of giggles and pointed looks in Curtis’s direction, which he acknowledged with an indignant huff. Two rounds of sifting later, the mixture of almonds, powdered sugar and cocoa looked as fine as it could get.

“Now we have to use a whisk to mix the egg whites with the rest. Though we have to be careful not to stir too violently otherwise the dough can’t rise properly.” Dean held up the whisk Collin had fished out from one of the kitchen drawers and looked at his fellow bakers. “Who wants to do the honors?”

“And be responsible when anything goes wrong? No, thank you.” Seth made two steps backward.

“I’m not sure I can do careful, so…” Leeland stepped behind Curtis, giving him a non-too subtle shove.

“Why me?” Curtis looked at the whisker as if it were a poisonous snake.

“Because your Dom is a baker?” Collin sounded hopeful.

“And I’m an art gallery owner. I’ve never had to cook in my entire life!”

Dean watched them all with narrowed eyes. “If nobody wants to take the blame, we all do it.” He lowered the whisk into the bowl with the ingredients, carefully pressing down the white fluff into the powdery mixture. “There, doesn’t seem too hard. We each take turns, doing this as carefully as possible.”

After a few twists of his wrist, Dean handed the whisk to Collin, who looked at it with huge eyes. “This looks so interesting, the white and the brown caught behind the bars of the whisk, no way of getting out except entering a union to be baked in the oven. It’s beautiful.” He put the whisk down, very carefully mixing the egg whites and the almond-mixture. Next came Leeland, who squealed in delight when the first streak of smooth brown dough appeared in the wake of the whisk. Curtis and Seth came last, finishing the job beautifully.

“Now we need the griddle and the icing tip, plus a spoon to transfer the -” Dean looked into the bowl. “I’m not even sure if this is dough. It looks more like a molten slug.”

“Eww, stop with the analogies, Dean.” Seth shuddered. “This is supposed to become something delicious. We don’t need any references to crawling creatures or slime.”

“Sorry. Hazards of having a three-year-old. And slugs are actually not that bad. Emily likes to collect and keep them in shoe boxes.”

“That’s it, no children for me”, Seth stated.

 

Continue to My Fiction Nook tomorrow for Part Four!

 

 

Check out A Dom and His Gentleman today!

Blurb:

A Club Whisper Novel

Silver fox Curtis is everything baker Andrew could want in a sub, and their chemistry is off the charts. But as a wealthy and successful gallery owner, Curtis intimidates Andrew and challenges his dominant nature. Can Andrew get used to a sub with a much higher social status?

British noble Curtis Morris has all but given up on finding his perfect Dom when he walks into a bakery and meets Andrew Granger—smoldering hot, new to Miami, into the lifestyle, and with kinks that align perfectly with Curtis’s own.

Andrew grew up poor and doesn’t know if he can handle a sub with so much more money, even if he’s insanely attracted to Curtis. To make matters worse, Curtis’s preferred club, Whisper, is far beyond Andrew’s financial means. Still, Andrew doesn’t want to lose Curtis to his own hang-ups, not when Curtis is far from the elitist snob Andrew expected. But Andrew keeps messing up, and with Curtis’s rich ex visiting with the hopes of winning him back, he and Curtis will need all the help they can get to make their romance of opposites work out.

 

Author Bio:

Xenia Melzer was born and raised in a small village in the South of Bavaria. As one of nature’s true chocoholics, she’s always in search of the perfect chocolate experience. So far, she’s had about a dozen truly remarkable ones. Despite having been in close proximity to the mountains all her life, she has never understood why so many people think snow sports are fun. There are neither chocolate nor horses involved and it’s cold by definition, so where’s the sense? She does not like beer either and has never been to the Oktoberfest – no quality chocolate there.

Even though her mind is preoccupied with various stories most of the time, Xenia has managed to get through school and university with surprisingly good grades. Right after school she met her one true love who showed her that reality is capable of producing some truly amazing love stories itself.

While she was having her two children, she started writing down the most persistent stories in her head as a way of relieving mommy-related stress symptoms. As it turned out, the stress-relief has now become a source of the same, albeit a positive one.

When she’s not writing, she translates the stories of other authors into German, enjoys riding and running, spending time with her kids, and dancing with her husband. If you want to contact her, please visit either her website, www.xeniamelzer.com or write her an email: info@xeniamelzer.com .