[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Once the turkey was seasoned, Crax went about stuffing it with his homemade stuffing - adding spinach would keep the stuffing moist, and the whole bird would be juicy as a result. Crax then peeled, chopped and arranged the roasting vegetables around the bird in the roasting tin - these would likely roast to mush, and would go into the gravy he would make later. He had more vegetables which he would add when the bird only had about an hour left.

The bird finally went into the first oven, and Crax gave himself a five minute break to wash up and have a drink before beginning the next step. The desserts were next on his list, as he wanted them to chill thoroughly before being served.

[31]

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Crax turned on the hob and brought his cream to boil, stirring in the cinnamon, sugar, and a pinch of nutmeg. Once it was simmering, he creamed two eggs with caster sugar and vanilla extract in a large glass bowl, then slowly poured his cream mix in whilst stirring. He set the mixture aside to cool, and covered it with a thin cloth to allow heat to escape whilst keeping the custard free from dust and other things.

Next, he began to preheat his second oven, and laid out the things he would need to roll pastry. Everything was to be made by hand, and so he creamed butter and caster sugar together, before folding in two eggs and adding milk slowly whilst stirring.

[32]

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Once he had the dough consistency he wanted, Crax divided the dough - which filled a large mixing bowl - into three sections. The first was laid onto the floured table, ready to be rolled, and the remaining two were put into separate glass bowls and covered.

Crax rolled his dough out until it was thin to his liking, and covered it, ready for use. He went to the hob where he had set up a pan full of water (which was now boiling) and turned the heat down a little. In the pan, he floated a glass bowl which he crumbled a bar of chocolate into, ready to be melted.

[33]

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Crax removed the now-melted chocolate from the pan and turned the heat down to low, as he would need to melt more chocolate later. He uncovered the rolled-out dough and smeared the chocolate over half of it, then dusted the chocolate with cinnamon.

Crax then folded the dough so that the side that had been left plain fitted over the one which had been covered in chocolate. He pressed it down and rolled it until it was a bit thinner, and then he placed a teacup in the centre to mark it. Crax then grabbed the scissors, and began to cut the dough towards the centre.

34

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

He left the middle of the dough untouched where he had marked it, and cut the rest into strands which were joined at one end to the centre. As he cut each strand, he twisted it to make it rounded and left a pattern where the chocolate was exposed.

Once all of the strands were cut and twisted, Crax set down the scissors and grabbed another small glass bowl. Into this went milk and a tablespoon of honey, and the mixture was then heated over the pan of water like the chocolate had been. Once the honey had dissolved, Crax grabbed a brush and proceeded to glaze the dough all over, before putting the tray in the oven to bake.

[35]

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Crax cleaned everything and washed the utensils he had used, before placing a stack of muffin pans on the worktop. He retrieved a small sugar pumpkin from the pantry, and removed all of its skin and innards, before chopping up the flesh. This went into a blender, to be pureed with caster sugar, milk, eggs, cinnamon and nutmeg.

When the mixture was smooth and thick, crax poured it into a glass bowl and brought it over to the worktop. Covering the bowl he placed it beside the muffing tins, then retrieved one of the bowls of dough that was left and brought it over to where he had the rest set up.

[36]

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Crax lightly floured the worktop, before setting the dough in the middle of it. He rolled the dough out to be slightly thicker than he had for the previous chocolate bread concoction, and when he was satisfied he grabbed a bit of butter, and greased the first muffin pan.

Crax then picked up a round cookie cutter that was slightly bigger than his hand. As he cut the dough, he placed each of the circles into a slot in the muffin pan until it was full. Then, picking up the glass bowl which held the milk and honey mixture, he glazed each of the dough circles before spooning a heaped tablespoon of the pumpkin mix into each.

[37]

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Once half of the muffin tins had been filled this way (and all of the pumpkin mix had been used up), Crax moved back to his custard. The remaining dough circles were filled with custard in the same manner as the pumpkin mix, and all the tarts were dusted with brown sugar to finish them off.

By this time, the bread had finished baking and was ready to be removed from the oven. Crax carefully removed it using oven mitts (which he himself had sewn several years prior), and placed it on the central oval to cool. He then placed two muffin tins side by side on each of the four shelves, and left them to cook.

[38]

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Crax then preheated the third oven, as it needed to be lower than the others for the gingerbread. He cleared his workstation - again, washing everything including the blender - and laid out what he needed for his next task.

He mixed a new batch of dough, this time adding ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg to a mix of flour, salt and baking soda. This was rolled out and cut into butterflies using a cookie cutter he had bought without Candy seeing - a feat in itself!

The butterflies were then laid out on flat baking sheets, glazed with the honey and milk mix, sprinkled with brown sugar, and placed in the oven to bake.

[39]

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Once more, Crax cleared his workstation and cleaned up. It was almost noon and the delicious smells he was smothered in were driving him crazy, but it was their tradition not to eat until dinner - and then they would gorge themselves silly.

The bread was now cool enough to handle, so Crax removed it from the tray and placed it on the dish it would be served on, before covering it with a cloth to cool further. By this time, the tarts were also done, and so he removed them and put them on the oval as he had done with the bread. He had a look at how the gingerbread was doing, but it needed a while longer so he left it there.

[40]

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Crax washed the baking tray he had removed from the bread, and prepared his workstation one last time. This would be his last lot of dough, and so he greased the trays with fervour.

He placed another large pan full of water on the hob, next to the pan that had been boiling and simmering all morning, and turned the heat up. He added caster sugar to the water, and stirred until it had dissolved away and made a sugar syrup solution.

He turned the heat down a little, before turning the other worktop where he had placed his basket of fruit.

[41]

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

He sliced his fruit carefully, before sliding it into the pan one fruit at a time. As the slices boiled, he kept an eye on them whilst slicing the next fruit, and lifted them onto a wire rack he had placed over a glass bowl when they were done.

Once all of the fruit had been candied in this manner, he poured the sugar syrup solution - which now contained fruit essence - into a glass bowl to cool, which he covered, and set on the side by his dough.

He washed up the utensils he had used, and brought what was left of the fruit he had selected for this dish - mostly blueberries and raspberries - over to the workstation. Once again, he dusted the surface of the worktop with flour.

[42]

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Before transferring his dough to the workstation, Crax folded a tablespoon of cinnamon into the dough and kneaded it until it was mixed in thoroughly. Then, he transferred it onto the worktop and after dusting the dough itself with flower, Crax rolled his pastry out thinly once again. This time, however, he rolled it even thinner than before, and glazed the whole of it with what was left of the milk and honey mix from earlier before dusting it all with brown sugar. He then proceeded to cut it into long triangles, which he laid out on the tray ready to be filled. He was really looking forward to this dish - it was a new recipe, so he hoped it would turn out well.

[43]

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Crax retrieved the sliced candied fruit (which was now cool) and proceeded to chop it up into small chunks. He separated a handful from the main amount, and used them to decorate the tarts which were cooling on the oval. He then returned to his workstation, and began to place a teaspoon of candied fruit onto the wide base of each triangle, accompanied by blueberries and raspberries as necessary.

Once all of the triangles had been 'filled' in this way, he rolled them up into crescents which left enough room for one more row of crescents on each baking tray. After using up almost all of the candied fruit, he picked up the bowl of fruity sugar syrup and glazed the top of each crescent with it.

[44]

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

As Crax placed the croissants (which looked like miniature cornucopias) into the oven, the timer he had set for the turkey went off. It was not yet cooked, but he had wanted to check on it halfway through so he could make sure it was cooking properly.

He opened the oven door and was greeted by the mouth-watering smell of roast turkey. It still needed longer, but it was cooking well and the vegetables were dissolving nicely as he had hoped. He basted the turkey with some of the juices from the bottom of the pan, then seasoned the top of it before putting it back in the oven. He turned the heat down a little, not wanting the top of it to burn, and washed his hands.

[45]