The Royal Academy of Magical Baking

Chapter 49: The Song of Caramel (and Gravy)



Professor Honeycomb's blue eyes sparkled with enthusiasm as the first-years assembled around her work-station.

"First, apply your instincts to this bit of dough. What Flavors do you detect?" she asked.

The four students held out their hands over the bowl and closed their eyes.

"Plain?" Mac ventured.

Lyra and Caramelle nodded in agreement. Then, as one, the three of them turned to Boysen.

"Butter," he mused, half to himself. "Unsalted butter, room temperature. Fast-acting yeast. Mostly whole wheat flour, with a small blend of oats and barley. And just a pinch of salt."

He flushed as his classmates applauded, but he managed a good-natured bow.

"Top marks, Berry. Yes." Professor Honeycomb joined the applause, then lifted her hands for quiet. "As a reward, you can be the first to try the spell. Let's add a touch of sweetness, shall we?"

"Wait a second." Lyra raised her hand. "What are the words of the spell?"

Professor Honeycomb pointed dramatically to the board. The chalk rose into the air again and drew a large circle around each of the underlined words.

"Sweet, and Savory."

Lyra looked from her to the board and back again. "That's… that's it?"

"That's it," Professor Honeycomb confirmed. "If you want to make something sweet, the word is 'sweet.' If you want to deepen the savoriness, the word is 'savory.'"

"How many times?" Lyra asked. "Pace? Volume?"

Professor Honeycomb shrugged. "That's where the instincts kick in. Every recipe is a wee bit different. The baker has to judge in the moment."

"I was never brave enough to try it." Caramelle sighed. "Too many factors outside my control. Give me a complicated Texture equation any day."

Lyra found herself privately agreeing with Caramelle, not that she had the heart to tell Professor Honeycomb.

"Piffle!" the Flavor professor said cheerily. "Have a little faith in yourself, Meringue. Berry, show us how it's done."

Boysen shook out his hands before placing them over the dough. "What level of sweetness, Professor?"

"Let's aim for a quarter cup of sugar," Professor Honeycomb said.

Boysen nodded and closed his eyes.

Lyra was staring at his hands, waiting for the green light of Flavor magic to emerge from his fingertips. Then a flicker from the bowl caught her eye, and she gasped.

The dough itself had turned green.

The change lasted only a few seconds, but it was unmistakable. Bright Flavor magic had erupted from within the dough. For a moment, Lyra was gazing at a lump of pale green light that sparkled like a peridot gem. Then the color faded, leaving ordinary dough in its place.

Boysen staggered backwards. Catching himself on the counter, he opened his eyes and let out a rueful chuckle.

"Salts! That packs a pinch, doesn't it?" he said.

"It does, when done correctly." Professor Honeycomb beamed at him. "Let's test it, shall we?"

She held out her own hands over the bowl, and the first-years joined her.

"Well?" she prompted after a few seconds. "What do your instincts say?"

Mac's eyes were wide behind his glasses. "That's… sweet. VERY sweet."

"Almost too sweet." Lyra drew her hand back with a shudder. "Cloying, even."

"Salts," Boysen said again, his face twisted in disgust. "I thought I was being careful."

"You were," Professor Honeycomb assured him. "It's easy to overshoot, especially at the beginning. An admirable first attempt!"

Boysen shook his head. "If you say so."

"I do." Professor Honeycomb's voice grew stern. "Don't make me tell you the tales of when I first tried this spell. I don't think Professor Saffron ever recovered her taste for custard. Aspiring Baker Treble, care to give it a try?"

Lyra swallowed hard. "Sure, Professor."

She stretched out her hand, but Professor Honeycomb grabbed it with a radiant smile.

"I think this is a perfect opportunity to test out some baking music, don't you? A little singing might smooth our way over this initial hurdle."

"S-sure," Lyra stammered. "If you think it will help, I —"

"It will," Boysen said firmly. "Please, Treble."

Mac and Caramelle nodded vigorously, their eyes filled with silent pleading as they gazed at Lyra.

"Okay." Lyra took a deep breath. "Okay. It's just those two words, right?"

"One," Professor Honeycomb corrected. "Whichever direction you're trying to nudge the Flavor."

"Okay," Lyra repeated. She looked at Boysen. "So you just… thought that one word? Sweet?"

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"That's right," he replied. "It's like the Soufflé Sisters. You have to feel for the Flavor you're going for, and then you have to mean it."

Lyra nodded. "And we're going for savory… what's the most savory Flavor you can think of? What comes to mind when you think 'savory'?"

"Chef Flax's mushroom gravy," Boysen said immediately. "The kind he always serves with beef wellington."

"Beef and gravy! That's perfect." Lyra thanked him with a smile. "And I already know that song. Beef wellington and mushroom gravy have quite a duet. Hear it once, you don't forget it."

Resisting the urge to close her eyes, Lyra stretched out her hand over the bowl. "Let's try that tune with our one special magic word."

"And mean it," Boysen reminded her.

She grinned. "Trust me. With this tune… I can't help but mean it."

Then she sang a deep, slow melody, stretching out the three-syllable word over several measures. Lyra had loved the song of beef from the first time she heard it, practicing Flavor Identification Training with her fellow Whizzes at dinner one night. It was a reassuring tune, steady and dependable without being stodgy or boring: as comforting as warm stew on a cold, stressful winter evening.

And when paired with the rich, earthy tones of mushroom gravy…

Lyra felt her soul relaxing. She sank down into the song, knowing it could hold her weight as she relished each poignant note.

Ha! I'm savoring it! she thought, with an internal giggle that somehow wrapped itself perfectly into the melody.

She was enjoying the music so much, she forgot to watch for the magic's effect on the dough. It took the collective gasp of her classmates to draw her attention back to the bowl. Sure enough, the lump of dough was now a vibrant green, as deep and opaque as the 'Sweet' spell had been pale and sparkling.

"Rock salts and spices!" Professor Honeycomb murmured, eyes fixed on the green dough. "That… is…"

"Savory!" Boysen exclaimed, clapping a hand on Lyra's shoulder triumphantly. "Test it, Professor. Did it work?"

The first-years joined Professor Honeycomb in stretching their hands over the bowl. Then they all jumped backwards, wrinkling their faces.

"It worked, all right." Professor Honeycomb's eyes were watering, but she looked happier than a kid encountering chocolate for the first time. "Too well. Even more too-well than your first attempt, Berry."

"I'm sorry," Lyra stammered. "I didn't think —"

The Flavor master held up a hand to cut off Lyra's apologies. "None of that, my dear. As I just said to Berry, it's perfectly normal to overdo it on this spell at first. For any baker with true Flavor instincts, that is. If you couldn't muster up the oomph this spell requires, that might be cause for concern, but this…" Professor Honeycomb gazed fondly at the dough, which was still deep green. The light was fading even more slowly than it had with Boysen's first attempt. "You have nothing to worry about."

"This just gives us a chance to practice the 'Sweet' song," Boysen pointed out. "Right? Try to swing it back the other direction?"

When Professor Honeycomb nodded her approval of this plan, Lyra took another deep breath.

"Right. Same principle. What is the sweetest Flavor you can think of?"

"Caramel," Mac said automatically. Then he flushed, took off his glasses, and started cleaning them on his apron, apparently unable to meet anyone's eye.

Thankfully, Professor Honeycomb was too focused on the musical experiment to catch any double meaning.

"Spot-on, Fondant!" she crowed. "Well done. I assume you have a melody for caramel, Treble?"

Lyra dutifully ignored the flustered Mac, the equally flustered Meringue, and the thoroughly amused Boysen gathered around her. She just smiled at the professor and launched into the song of caramel, spreading the single word 'Sweet' over a few measures of melody.

It was just as rich as the 'beef' tune, but in a directly opposite way. This song was as light and golden as the early spring sunshine pouring through the classroom windows. It moved quickly, tripping along through several intricate runs, switching often between major and minor intervals. Lyra thought this energy reflected the careful stirring and constant vigilance required when making caramel.

The complexity made the song as inspiring as the other was steadying. All in all, the two melodies were perfect foils for each other, like 'salt' and 'sugar.'

Or, more to the point, like 'savory' and 'sweet.'

Professor Honeycomb was already gushing by the time the pale green light pulsed out of the dough.

"Much better, Treble. Oh, what splendid progress!" The Flavor master's eyes sparkled even more brightly than the glow of the gem-like magic. "Still not quite right, of course. The original goal was to inject a hint of sweetness, yes? This round brought it back to baseline: where we were when we started."

Lyra glanced at Boysen, then back at the professor, who was bouncing again in uncontainable glee. "And that's… good?"

"It's fantastic!" Professor Honeycomb squealed. "To achieve such power so quickly, right from the start… now it's just a matter of fine-tuning. Adjusting. Applying the spell to trickier, more subtle recipes."

Snatching up the bowl, Professor Honeycomb hugged it to herself with a sigh of contentment.

"Oh, tomorrow's lab day is going to be FUN."

The professor was right: Flavor lab day was fun. When the first-years assembled in Whisk Tuesday evening, they spent the first twenty minutes of their review session sharing stories from the day and marveling at their own progress.

All four of them were now proficient in the 'Sweet' and 'Savory' melodies. Lyra had even brought her guitar to Whisk on Monday night to make sure they were ready for Flavor lab the following day. Her ongoing, internal chorus of delight reached a peak crescendo at the sound of their four voices singing together.

Each Whiz had also made their own contribution to the magic music's application. It was Caramelle who suggested a more even, precise tempo to help restrain the runaway power of 'Sweet.' Mac pointed out that volume made a difference in intensity.

As for the Flavor King… he grew so embarrassed by their praise during Tuesday night's 'Review' that he threatened to cut off the Whizzes' hot chocolate supply.

Lyra backed off with great difficulty. The application of music just seemed to enhance Boysen's already remarkable Flavor instincts. He knew just how to adapt the tunes for different recipes, and how to coach his fellow first-years.

By the end of class on Tuesday, they could all achieve the perfect shade of peridot or forest green in the basic bread dough on the first try. Boysen claimed this was solely because of Lyra's melodies, and Lyra insisted his insight was equally invaluable. Professor Honeycomb just said they were all incredible and sent them away laughing through tears of joy.

Lyra needed all of this success to bolster her confidence for the other two lab days.

Neither Professor Puff nor Professor Genoise had been as willing as Professor Honeycomb to leap into experimentation during Monday's short classes. The Presentation headmaster explained woefully that there simply wasn't time.

"I'm afraid I'll get too invested in it," he had told Lyra, shaking his head. "I tend to lose track of respectable hours when a new spell catches my fancy. I would just want to keep going, and then you'd all miss your dinner. Best to wait until Thursday, when we can begin in earnest."

Professor Puff, meanwhile, had made it clear that music was not to be employed until after the students learned a spell in the traditional method.

"That is the only way to measure the results," she announced at the start of Monday's Texture class. "There must be a before, and an after. If we are to engage in experimentation, we shall do so properly."

Her gray gaze was like an immovable wall, inviting neither argument nor question. All the first-years had simply nodded meekly. Lyra had resigned herself to at least another week of silent Texture class before she would be allowed to sing.

So when Texture lab began Wednesday morning, she was totally unprepared for Professor Puff to begin by addressing her directly.

"I hope you are feeling both focused and musical today, Aspiring Baker Treble," the Texture headmistress said. "For this first lab of third term, we are beginning the work of Madame Dacquoise. Famously difficult. I expect you to master our first spell before we break for lunch."

Professor Puff's lips turned up in a tiny smile as a spark of challenge — or mischief — flared in her usually calm eyes. "Because after lunch, I expect to hear some singing."


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