[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Crax then went over to the other oven and removed the gingerbread, which was now baked and ready. He placed it onto the oval to cool, and walked over to where he had set the tarts.

They looked delicious and smelled better, and he was proud of how they had turned out - especially the custard ones. They were also cool enough to handle, so Crax carefully removed them from their baking trays and arranged them around the bread on the platter. Those that didn't fit were set aside; he opened the cupboard beneath the oval and removed a delicate china cupcake stand that had been glazed with an autumn pattern, and it was onto this he placed the leftover tarts - he thought the final effect was rather pretty, and hoped Candy would too.

[46]

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Crax washed his hands - things were moving along swiftly, and he was almost done. He just had to do the last few things - make the cheesecake and decorate the gingerbread - before all of the sweet treats would be finished. He hoped Candy would be impressed - he was very pleased with how they were all turning out, and was looking forward to seeing the table with everything on it.

He whistled to himself as he cleaned up the workstation (and really, how many times had he washed up today!) and washed his hands. He was going to enjoy this next part, possibly more than all the rest of it put together - for this one was his signature dessert: strawberry and clotted cream cheesecake!

[47]

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Crax hummed as he gathered his ingredients. Fresh clotted cream and soft cream cheese, bought from the local farmer's market the day before and chilled overnight; fresh eggs, laid the day before, the caster sugar he had relied on all day, and a small bottle of vanilla essence. These, together with the sugar syrup made earlier, would make up the cheesecake portion of his cheesecake.

Next, he retrieved the extra gingerbread (for he had only used three-quarters of it for the butterflies, and had saved and baked this portion separately so that it would be crumbly rather than moist) and began to break it into chunks, placing them inside the granite mortar bowl beside him. When the bowl was full of gingerbread chunks, he began to crush them up further with his pestle until he was left with tiny chunks and gingerbread crumbs, which he emptied into a glass bowl.

[48]

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Crax wiped away the sweat from his brow with his forearm; the kitchen was very warm now, since the ovens had been on all day and he couldn't open a window. It made the house smell amazing - Candy had commented as such through the closed door earlier - but it meant that he would definitely need to shower before dinner, once everything was cooked. Fortunately the downstairs bathroom was equipped for such, and he had thought ahead and had placed his dinner outfit there the night before, so as to remove any necessity of leaving his designated area until dinnertime.

He shook himself out of thoughts of dinnertime; there were still things he had to do before then, and now was not the time to be thinking of them. He returned to crushing the gingerbread until all of it had been done, and carried the bowl over to the hob where he had been melting butter (as he had done with the chocolate earlier).

[49]

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

He mixed the butter into the gingerbread a little at a time until it held together properly, and then he emptied the gingerbread mix into the bottom of his cheesecake pan. He pushed it down with the back of a spoon, then used a glass to smooth it out evenly, before setting it aside.

In a mixing bowl, he whisked the soft cheese and sugar together until they were mixed thoroughly. He then cracked in two whole eggs and drizzled a little vanilla essence over the mixture, before whisking it thoroughly again. Once this was done, he folded in the clotted cream carefully followed by the leftover sugar syrup from earlier, and set the bowl aside to stand for a few minutes whilst he finished the base preparations.

[50]

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Crax returned to the workstation with the remains of the fruit from earlier - a selection of fresh strawberries which had already been washed, and had had their tops removed. He sliced them in half, before arranging them around the cheesecake tin with the cut sides against the tin edge and with enough space between them to allow for the cheesecake mixture to settle between them.

He then spooned half of the cheesecake mixture into the tin, making sure all the gaps between the strawberries were filled. He placed more strawberries in the middle, this time lying flat, and set the rest aside to use for decoration later. Finally, he poured the rest of the cheesecake mixture into the tin and smoothed it down, ready for baking.

[51]

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

After placing the cheesecake into the oven, Crax cleared up what needed to be washed and placed it in the sink. This time, he washed it all and put it away - he would take out what he needed later, as the cheesecake needed to bake for some time.

Since the desserts were done, Crax checked on the roast again. It appeared to be coming along well, and would soon be ready to take out to separate it from the juices and vegetable mush. It would then be ready to roast with the vegetables and potatoes it would be served with, which would help crisp up the outside.

[52]

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

The timer on the third oven beeped, and Crax went over to check on the cornucopia croissants. They looked ready to come out, and although some had spilled over - where the fruit had burst out around the edge - they still looked delicious.

Crax carefully removed the trays from the oven, and placed them on the oval to cool. These would need no further decorating, though they would be served with a small bowl of clotted cream in which they would be dipped as they were eaten. He smiled to himself; this new recipe seemed to have gone better than he had hoped, and he couldn't wait to taste one!

[53]

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

He turned the oven off - he would have enough with just the two that were on - and snickered to himself at the thought that he hadn't even used the last oven. Perhaps they would come here the following year, he mused, and cook together - it was a lovely idea, and he hoped it would come to fruition.

He decided to take a short break, and popped into the conservatory. One wall faced onto the street, and it was from here he could see the chaos outside. The garlands had done their job, and no turkezilla had come within a foot of any door or window in the house, which meant he was free to observe them as they ran past in their madness through the street.

[54]

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Nobody seemed to have been caught up in it, which was a blessing - or so Crax hoped. This was the time of year when people - stupid people - got hurt because they tried to leave the house, or because they were sure they could outrun the horde. Inevitably, there would be talk around town over the next few days about some poor individual who got it into his head that it would be a good idea, and then things would return to the way they normally were.

He did hope nobody nearby got hurt; the townsfolk seemed like nice people and it would be a shame for something so sad to happen to them. Besides, Candy always got upset when they heard about these things - it was one of the reasons he had started taking them on vacation for this particular holiday, and he didn't want their vacation to be ruined.

[55]

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Satisfied with what he had seen (and the break it had afforded him), Crax returned to the kitchen and made his way to the pantry. He picked up the basket of vegetables, and took it over to the worktop by the sink, where he also placed two large colanders and a bag for the peels.

He peeled and washed all of the vegetables, from carrots and parsnips to swedes and potatoes. The vegetables for roasting with the turkey went into one colander, whilst the vegetables to be roasted on their own - swedes and potatoes - went into the other. He disposed of the peels in the bag, placed the colanders off to the side on the draining board, and covered them with cloths.

[56]

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Next, Crax went and retrieved two heads of garlic and a basket of large onions. He peeled the onions down to the first layer, then washed them, and peeled off the second layer. These went into a large bowl, to be chopped later - they would go into all the roasts and the gravy, as would the garlic. The heads of garlic were separated into individual cloves and peeled. A third of the garlic was chopped finely for use in the gravy, whilst a full head's worth would go in with the turkey itself, and the remainder would be put in with the swedes and potatoes to roast separately.

[57]

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Once he was done with the garlic and onions, Crax opened the oven and checked on the turkey itself. It was dripping with juice, but the juice was running clear - which meant it was time to separate it from what it had been cooked with, and put it in with a fresh load of vegetables to roast and crisp up.

Crax used the oven mitts to remove the turkey pan from the oven, and placed it on another work station. He then retrieved a shallower roasting pan from the cupboard under the oval, as well as the various seasonings he would be using, and placed them on the work station along with the turkey pan and the large roasting forks he would use to life the bird over.

Lastly, he retrieved the fresh bacon - or rather, what was left of it, as some of it had gone into the stuffing earlier.

[58]

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

First, he rubbed oil over the bottom of the pan and seasoned it. He then latticed the bacon and laid it in the bottom of the pan, seasoned it with ground mixed pepper, and used the forks to lift the turkey onto it.

When that was done, he grabbed a chopping board and proceeded to chop half the onions. He chopped them in half, down the middle, and arranged them in a pan around the turkey, together with the garlic cloves he had separated for this purpose. These were followed by the vegetables in the first colander, and he seasoned everything before returning it to the oven to roast for the last hour.

[59]

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Next, he grabbed another shallow roasting pan and placed it on the workstation. Into this he chopped the potatoes and swedes, followed by half the remaining onions and the remaining whole cloves of garlic. He drizzled oil over the lot, sprinkled a pinch of salt for seasoning, and placed it in the oven to roast. He knew that the oil would cause all of it to crisp up deliciously, and prided himself on his roast root vegetables. He could almost taste the dinner, and was already famished - his stomach had been growling loudly for a while!

[60]