Chapter Text
Lu Guang gaped as Cheng Xiaoshi strode across the floor, finding his spot in the middle of the kitchen opposite his own. He grinned at Lu Guang, but it didn’t feel prideful or gloating.
More so that he was happy to go up against him.
Lu Guang shivered as the magnitude of the situation bore down on him. The ground lurched beneath his feet, and he couldn’t help but hear his own breathing in his ears deafening everything else.
The host was speaking, but it might as well have been gibberish for all Lu Guang could understand.
The bulky-looking lid over the table began to rise, and Lu Guang felt relief surging through his veins as he focused on that rather than his competitor.
What was revealed was a table full of plates, each one sporting some sort of boxy brown substance, as if it couldn’t quite relax from being in its own container.
“Your mystery ingredient is…” the host paused dramatically. “Duck liver mousse!”
Chills wracked Lu Guang’s form as he stared at the savory, salty ingredient. How on earth could he incorporate this into a cake?!
“Two hours on the clock.”
Adrenaline thrummed through his body like lightning, forcing him to focus.
This was it.
“Time starts now!”
Lu Guang was moving before he even realized it. He darted to the ingredient table and grabbed three of the plates - he’d need extras if he messed up - and brought them back to his station. Once there, he picked up a spoon and immediately stuck a bite of the mousse in his mouth.
The rich, fatty taste almost immediately coated his mouth with savoriness. But, beneath that was a slight undercurrent of sweetness.
Chocolate. This would go best with chocolate, Lu Guang decided as he scooped up a decent amount of the mousse and set it in a bowl with some eggs and sugar and milk chocolate, setting it over a pot of boiling water as a makeshift double boiler as he whisked it.
But it just wouldn’t mix together. The eggs refused to incorporate because the rest of the mixture was so fatty.
That darn mousse was already getting in his way. Lu Guang groaned as he pulled the bowl away from the stove, arm working overtime as he attempted to beat the mixture together.
He needed to make this perfect.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Cheng Xiaoshi had had no doubts that Lu Guang would be in the final round as well. He couldn’t help feeling a little guilty at how shocked he’d looked when he’d entered the competition arena, but that couldn’t be helped now.
As soon as the clock started, Cheng Xiaoshi raced forward, grabbing some of the mousse and bringing it back to his station. He hummed as he tried a bite of the mousse, finding it to have a subtle, balanced flavor.
Ideally, this would probably go best with some toasted crostinis, but Cheng Xiaoshi didn’t have that luxury right now.
Duck liver mousse was essentially a whipped version of pâté. And Cheng Xiaoshi knew that pâté usually incorporated port wine as a sort of sweetness. After tasting it, he knew instinctively that chocolate was going to pair perfectly with it.
In an instant, he knew exactly what he wanted to make.
Just in the nick of time, too. If he was going to make that, he’d need to start now!
After quickly running to the shared pantry and grabbing eggs, both powdered and granulated sugar, superfine almond flour, and dark cocoa powder, Cheng Xiaoshi began weighing out his ingredients.
This had to be perfect. If he could pull off his vision, he could win it all.
He weighed out his egg whites meticulously, then sifted the powdered sugar, flour, and cocoa powder together, taking care to not let any clumps into the batter.
As he set his egg whites and granulated sugar in a double boiler, Cheng Xiaoshi glanced up across the room and saw that Lu Guang was doing something similar.
Although, judging by his terse expression, it didn’t seem to be working out as well as Cheng Xiaoshi’s.
He could only hope that Lu Guang hadn’t had the same idea.
Looking back down to where his hand was whisking the mixture together, he was pleased to see the egg whites and sugar had been incorporated, becoming white and frothy. Cheng Xiaoshi removed the bowl from the heat and poured the contents into a stand mixer, turning the whisk on one of the highest settings.
Slowly, a spoonful at a time, Cheng Xiaoshi added in more granulated sugar, allowing each one to get incorporated before adding the next, until stiff, glossy peaks formed.
He couldn’t help but grin. Things looked promising!
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Lu Guang gasped for breath as he folded the cake batter together. It was a standard sponge cake recipe, one of many he’d memorized during his practice the day before, but he never expected he’d have to add duck liver mousse to the list of ingredients.
The mousse was fatty, much more so than what he expected, and it was difficult to incorporate it into the cake batter.
Pouring it into a sheet pan - knowing that would help it bake much faster - Lu Guang slid it into the oven, taking a moment to breathe before gathering the ingredients he’d need for a simple buttercream.
He could only hope that the cake would taste good once it came out of the oven.
The buttercream itself was simple to make, but Lu Guang couldn’t help but worry if he was playing it too safe.
How the final product tasted was a large factor in judging, but creative use of the mystery ingredient was important as well.
If his cake seemed too simple or safe, he’d get criticized for it.
Lu Guang groaned, running his fingers through his hair as he tried to think, tried to make sense of his frazzled thoughts.
Maybe ice cream. Yes, that should work. The duck liver mousse was weighing down the sponge cake, so it needed something to lighten it up.
He grabbed oranges, cream, milk, sugar, and eggs, combining the zest and juice of the former into the rest as he heated them over the stove. Citrus always worked well with chocolate, so it’d work now too, right? And the acidic sweetness might go well with the cake itself.
The smell of sugar rose into the air from both stations, combined with the whir of at least two stand mixers from Cheng Xiaoshi’s side of the room.
Lu Guang didn’t look up, couldn’t afford to look up. His entire concentration funneled into the cake in his oven, the frosting in his mixing bowl, and the heating ice cream base before him.
“Your time is half over. Sixty minutes left on the clock!”
He hissed out a curse as he stumbled over himself on his way to the ice cream machine.
Everything was moving so quickly! Why hadn’t he had this much trouble in any of his rounds before?
Was this… his doing?
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Working quickly, Cheng Xiaoshi slid his cakes into the oven, closing the doors and noting the time left on the clock.
He’d started the batter rather late, but hoped that it’d have enough time to cool before he could frost it.
The duck liver mousse had been incorporated into his cake batter in place of some of the butter, in the same way that his Dare To Cream mayonnaise cake worked, so that the batter wasn’t too fat-forward. Using dark chocolate would also help mellow out any savory funkiness that it still had.
Now it was time to work on his filling.
Of course, Cheng Xiaoshi could just do a single-layer cake, but this was the final round. He wanted to give everything he had to try to win.
Even if…
He faltered, looking across the room once again.
Even if it meant beating Lu Guang.
Cheng Xiaoshi shook his head. Now was not the time to get sentimental. Lu Guang was a fierce competitor; he wouldn’t be here in the finals otherwise.
Over the stove, Cheng Xiaoshi heated raspberries, granulated sugar, a pinch of salt, and a splash of port wine, stirring it continuously as the sugar began to dissolve. He hoped that the port wine in the macerated raspberries would help marry the filling with the duck mousse in the cake, highlighting its richness.
It didn’t take long for the berries to break down into a thick, syrupy texture. Cheng Xiaoshi took them off of the heat, carefully folding in some whole raspberries for freshness, before setting it in the blast chiller.
A quick glance at the clock told him that his cake was just about done. After pulling it out and checking it with a toothpick, Cheng Xiaoshi couldn’t help but grin.
It was all coming together.
He carefully took the cake pans out of the oven, setting them on the counter to begin to cool as he started on his frosting.
All things considered, it was a relatively simple Swiss meringue buttercream recipe. He just mixed egg whites, sugar, and a pinch of salt together in a double boiler until everything was incorporated, looking white and frothy.
Something light like this would be the perfect addition to what could be a heavier cake.
At that thought, Cheng Xiaoshi took the eggs and sugar off of the double boiler and poured them into a stand mixer, turning it on and beginning to whisk it on a high speed. Stepping away, he popped his cakes out of their pans, frowning at how warm they still were.
Hopefully some time in the blast chiller would cool them enough that he could frost them without the frosting melting.
Returning to the buttercream, Cheng Xiaoshi exchanged the whisk attachment with a paddle and turned it back on low, slowly incorporating room temperature butter until the mixture inside became light and airy, almost cloud-like.
With just a slight dusting of cocoa powder inside, it darkened into a rich brown color.
Cheng Xiaoshi couldn’t help sticking a finger inside and tasting it, smiling at the sweetness that filled his mouth.
This was turning out perfectly.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
“Crap,” Lu Guang hissed to himself as he took a bite of his cake from where it had been resting on the counter.
It was still savory.
Maybe if he added extra sugar to the frosting? He could only hope that it would balance out the funkiness of the liver that he could still taste.
“Fifteen minutes to go, Chefs!”
His stand mixer was on the highest setting, whipping his buttercream as quickly as possible. Time was getting away from him and he didn’t have any to spare.
It was mostly cooled, but he couldn’t take the time to let it cool any longer. He used a ring mold to cut out two sizeable circles from his sheet cake, layering some of his buttercream inside.
He wasn’t as familiar with buttercream, and it seemed slightly more difficult to work with than he remembered, but Lu Guang just gave a mental shrug and continued spooning it on top of the first layer.
It wasn’t like there was time to make a second batch.
The second layer of cake was placed on top, and Lu Guang breathed a sigh of relief as it wasn’t so dense it made the frosting ooze out.
This could still work out.
Transferring the rest of the frosting to a piping bag, Lu Guang began squeezing it out onto the top and sides of his cake, smoothing it out with a plastic scraper.
None of the previous rounds had ever been this nerve-wracking. Lu Guang decidedly attributed it to being the final round, rather than the fault of his competitor.
He swapped out frosting tips, trying to ignore how his hands were shaking as adrenaline began to give way to panic. Now wielding a star tip, he made small mounds of frosting all along the edge of the top.
“We are down to the last two minutes!”
Time was moving much too quickly. Lu Guang couldn’t breathe as he made his last star dot before all but throwing the piping bag to the side and sprinting to the blast chiller.
His ice cream was still silky smooth, and he knew that it was perfect. Spooning it in the middle of the ring of stars, he smoothed it out, hoping to create a sense of lightness to offset the dense cake.
“Make sure your cakes are perfect!” With that, the host began to count down the last ten seconds, and Lu Guang had to very consciously keep his hands from shaking as he tried to put the finishing touches on his cake, zesting an orange on top.
“…five, four, three, two, one! Time’s up, step away from your cakes!”
Lu Guang greedily sucked in a deep breath of air, his first full inhale in two hours as he stumbled back.
It had been down to the wire and there had been stumbling blocks along the way, but he’d finished a cake.
He just hoped the judges liked it.
Almost against his will, his gaze caught Cheng Xiaoshi’s from across the room. He was met with an exhausted, but relieved grin.
Even though he had grown to care for the man opposite him, Lu Guang knew he needed to take him down.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
“Chef Lu, Chef Cheng,” the host began, addressing the pair as they stood before the judges. “Today, you were allotted two hours to create and decorate a cake highlighting duck liver mousse. Chef Lu, please tell us about your cake.”
Lu Guang swallowed the lump in his throat as he watched the judges wielding their forks. “Judges, today I’ve made for you a duck liver chocolate sponge cake with white buttercream and a citrus ice cream to lighten it up.”
For a long moment, the only sounds he could hear were the clinking of silverware and his heart thudding in his ears, until one of the judges spoke up: “Your cake is nicely executed. It’s subtly sweet, so I can still taste a little bit of that liver, but it’s not overwhelming.”
“It is slightly on the savory side, though,” the second judge chimed in. “And I think that you tried to offset it by making your frosting extra sweet.”
Lu Guang nodded. “Yes, Chef.”
“It creates a good blend when it’s all together, but when I get just a bite of cake without frosting, it doesn’t give me that ‘dessert’ taste,” the second judge explained. “And I think you overmixed your frosting. It’s slightly gritty.”
And Lu Guang’s stomach dropped.
The third judge spoke up, “Why add the ice cream?”
“I believed that the duck liver would weigh down the cake too much, so I wanted to make something to counter that,” Lu Guang explained.
“It’s not necessary,” the third judge was blunt. “It’s not cake, and it pulls away from the duck liver, which is supposed to be the highlight. It’s very tasty and very silky, but I don’t think it works.”
The first judge piped up again: “I don’t agree. Duck goes beautifully with orange in many savory dishes, and I think it pairs well with it here.”
The two judges seemed to exchange a look before the host spoke up. “Thank you, Chef Lu. Chef Cheng, please tell us about your cake.”
Cheng Xiaoshi’s voice was confident, sounding effortlessly so as he began, “Chefs, today I’ve made for you a duck liver dark chocolate layer cake with macerated raspberry filling and chocolate Swiss meringue frosting, topped with dark chocolate raspberry macarons with a little bit of the duck liver in the filling as well.”
Lu Guang reeled as he stared at those macarons. They looked exactly like the ones he sold, the ones that Cheng Xiaoshi had never tried because he was always sold out by the time he stopped by.
The same ones he’d told Cheng Xiaoshi that had been his favorite.
“The texture of your cake is immaculate,” the second judge said. “It’s perfectly fudgy without being too dense, which is something I was worried about when I saw how chocolate-forward your cake was.”
The third judge furrowed his brow as he took another bite. “What’s in this filling?”
Cheng Xiaoshi was smiling slightly as he answered, “I macerated raspberries with some sugar and port wine.”
“That’s what I’m tasting,” the first judge said. “I was wondering what that depth was, and I really appreciate that you put the wine in there, because it marries well with the wine in the mousse. I can taste it without it being savory. Brilliant.”
Lu Guang didn’t have to look to know that Cheng Xiaoshi was smiling. “Thank you,” he said.
The second judge spoke up, “And these macarons you have on the top, I think they’re lovely. The brightness of the raspberries in the filling pairs well with the slight sweetness from the mousse, but I think you put just a bit too much. It is a touch funky.”
Cheng Xiaoshi grinned. “Funky desserts are what I do best, Chef.”
“Well, judges?” the host asked expectantly. “Do you know who will walk away from here a winner?”
All three exchanged glances before nodding.
Lu Guang could barely breathe as he and Cheng Xiaoshi turned around, their backs to the judges as plates were cleared and as one, the losing chef’s cake, was hidden beneath a cloche.
They turned back around, and his entire vision was overtaken by the cloche resting on the judges’ table.
He hoped, he desperately hoped that his cake wasn’t underneath there.
His heart pounding a drumbeat in his ears as the host said something, words drowned out. His hand rested on top of the cloche before pulling it up.
Lu Guang couldn’t help but stare at the slice of cake that had been revealed, mouth working around words that refused to be voiced.
“Chef Lu, I’m sorry, but your cake just couldn’t stand up to Chef Cheng’s.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The next day, Cheng Xiaoshi showed up at the Quiet Light Pâtisserie once more, as if nothing had happened.
As soon as the shock subsided, Lu Guang schooled his face into a neutral expression. What was he even doing here, anyway? Sauntering in like nothing had happened with that infuriatingly stubborn grin. “Lu Guang! You’re back! How’re you feeling?”
“Just fine,” Lu Guang answered with a perfect lack of expression.
He pretended he didn’t notice Cheng Xiaoshi’s slight wince. “I brought you something I thought you might like,” he said in a singsong voice as he held up a bag and, reaching inside, pulled something out.
It was a small plate with a miniature pie on top, decorated with a dollop of meringue. He looked at it critically. “What is it?”
Cheng Xiaoshi grinned. “I’m glad you asked. That right there is something I created the night I met you for the first time. It’s been on my menu ever since and people seem to like it.” He paused, eyes growing wistful. “I wanted to give you one before, but didn’t quite know how. …I figured that I might as well do it now.”
Lu Guang stared down at the pie even as Cheng Xiaoshi retrieved a fork from the bag and held it out. “Consider this the beginning of my ‘peace offering slash apology’,” he said with a sheepish smile.
With a sigh, Lu Guang took the fork and deftly cut down through the crust. The scent of lemon wafted up before he’d even opened the pie up, smelling so sweet and inviting and making Lu Guang’s mouth water despite himself.
When he made the second cut and pulled the miniature slice out, he couldn’t help the expression of disgust that crossed his face at the entirely-black interior. “Cheng Xiaoshi, is this poison?”
He was met with a light chuckle. “It’s perfectly fine.”
It smelled alright, so, despite his vision telling him not to put it anywhere near his mouth, Lu Guang squeezed his eyes shut and took a bite.
The bright lemon flavor exploded across his tongue, mellowed almost instantly by something sweet, both only seeming to get stronger in intensity the more he chewed.
Lu Guang shivered as he swallowed, his breath hitching. He stared down at the noxious-looking pie before looking up to meet Cheng Xiaoshi’s gaze.
“Well?” he asked expectantly. “What’d ya think? It’s pretty good, right?”
‘Pretty good’ didn’t even begin to describe it.
This was a masterpiece.
“Cheng Xiaoshi,” he began slowly. “Why are you here?” He took in Cheng Xiaoshi’s expression, the way his grin seemed to slide off of his face as he continued, “You’re obviously a superior baker to me. You won the competition, and this tastes better than anything I’ve made before. So why?” his voice cracked as his hands clenched into fists.
Something bittersweet flitted across Cheng Xiaoshi’s face before he gave a sad smile. His answer was simple: “I like seeing you.”
His words made Lu Guang freeze.
“I like eating your food.”
That was impossible. His pastries were nowhere near this level.
“I like you.”
And then, almost as if he was embarrassed at his own confession, Cheng Xiaoshi pulled a second fork out of his bag, cutting himself a slice of the pie and eating it as well. “I… I was afraid,” he admitted after he swallowed. “But I didn’t want to give you up.”
Lu Guang didn’t know what to say to that.
So, instead, he leaned across the counter, reaching up to grasp the back of Cheng Xiaoshi’s head and pull him in.
The taste of lemon was as bright as sunshine - as bright as Cheng Xiaoshi’s smile - as he felt Cheng Xiaoshi sigh into the kiss, lips moving against Lu Guang’s as his hands raised to cup Lu Guang’s cheeks.
It was the sweetest first kiss Lu Guang could ask for.
