Cake (continued)

After all, it takes grinding a large stone to create rough patterns, and if the stone's texture is not right, carving patterns can be exhausting.

Although everyone has seen flour before, they are still quite curious about Flour Grass.

The next morning, the group came to find Jian Mo.

Jian Mo, fighting off sleepiness, crawled out of Wu Jiong's arms, got up, and opened the door to greet everyone.

Seeing how tired he was, Qing Kuo said, "You guys wash up and have breakfast first, then we'll go process the Flour Grass. Shouldn't we thresh them first?"

Jian Mo nodded repeatedly. "Yes, this Flour Grass is already quite dry. To thresh them, just crush them repeatedly with stones, or simply pound them in a large stone mortar."

Qing Kuo: "We understand."

Jian Mo said shyly, "You guys go ahead first, we'll wash up and come right away. Have you had breakfast yet? If not, I'll make it for you later."

Zhou Fu: "I'll eat it, but if you make another serving, I can still eat it too."

Jian Mo made the decision. "Then I'll fry up some more sausages."

They still have frozen sausages at home, which would be the simplest thing to use for breakfast right now.

Simply brush oil on the slab, place the sausages on it, and you can fry several at once.

The sausages are already cooked, so just pan-fry them until they develop a tiger-skin pattern and are thoroughly heated through before eating.

When Jian Mo arrived with the sausages, Wu Jiong and the others had already finished threshing the two bags of grass seeds and were threshing the rest.

Wu Jiong and Di Ya pounded the grass seeds, Min Dang Qing Kuo, Ye Luo, and Min Dang ground them into powder. Xi Lu and Zhou Fu then used a fine sieve to sift out the seed husks, leaving only the grayish-yellow flour.

Everyone worked together, and the work was done very quickly.

Jian Mo quickly said, "Let's have some grilled sausages and rest for a bit. How come you guys are so fast?"

Qing Kuo wiped his sweat. "We're strong, so once we find the right technique, we'll be fast. But don't be fooled by the huge pile of grass seeds we've processed; we'll only get a small handful of flour."

Zhou Fu nodded in agreement and showed the cloth bag to Jian Mo.

Jian Mo was in high spirits, and even the small handful of flour seemed pleasing to the eye. "It's alright, let's keep sifting. Aren't there still plenty of Flour Grass left?"

As he spoke, Jian Mo went to help with grinding the Flour Grass; it was more tiring there, and he didn't want to slack off.

Min Dang saw him coming over and gently nudged his shoulder. "This is tiring, let us do it, you go and sift the flour."

Jian Mo felt his care for her, looked up and smiled, "It's okay, taking turns isn't too tiring."

Everyone has been busy all day, and the sieve has been sifted at least three times.

By evening, they had a large bag of grayish-yellow flour that was mostly free of impurities, weighing about 60 or 70 pounds.

What remained were the husks and other debris from the Flour Grass, Jian Mo and the others couldn't bear to throw away. They would use them to feed the Flying-Winged Beast or the Pack-Pack Beast.

Jian Mo kept two bags of Flour Grass as seed, and today she ground a total of seven bags of Flour Grass.

It's incredibly rare to produce just one bag of flour from seven bags of Flour Grass. Considering the labor involved, this bag of flour is practically a luxury.

Qing Kuo stared at the ground flour. "Now I know why this flour isn't very famous. It's too much trouble. With this time and energy, we could dig out a lot more root tubers, and even if Hairy Root powder, we could wash twice as many."

Xi Lu nodded in agreement from the side. "It really isn't worth it."

Fearing they might lose interest in the flour, Jian Mo quickly said, "No, you'll find it worth it once it's made into delicious food. It's too late today, so come over to our house tomorrow, and I'll treat you all to cake."

Jian Mo hadn't had a proper dessert in a long time, and she was really craving it.

We have Pack-Pack Beast milk, cheese, and honey at home, and now we have flour too, so making a cake shouldn't be too difficult.

He'll borrow a few bird eggs first thing tomorrow morning to try them out.

No one knew what a cake was, but Jian Mo's creations were always delicious, so they eagerly agreed.

The next morning, when everyone arrived, Jian Mo was already busy at home.

Wu Jiong personally went to borrow bird eggs and returned. Now, holding a pair of chopsticks, he stood in front of the table silently preparing the egg whites.

Jian Mo stir the batter.

Seeing everyone come in, Jian Mo turned around and asked, "Why didn't you bring your kids with you?"

Cakes are a surefire way to win over little ones.

Qing Kuo laughed and said, "They didn't do any work, so we won't give them any food."

Jian Mo: "Haha, no need for that. Take a couple more back with you. I specially prepared a lot of batter."

Jian Mo looked at the batter, which had been mixed with the milk of the Pack-Pack Beast and honey powder, and it was almost ready. She then went to look at Wu Jiong's whipped egg whites.

Wu Jiong had whipped the egg whites to almost done; the whipped egg whites were exceptionally white and creamy.

Jian Mo quietly squeezed his strong, muscular arm. If it weren't for Wu Jiong, he probably wouldn't have had the courage to make this cake; whipping egg whites was just too tiring.

Everyone crowded around to look, even Di Ya became curious. "What's in there?"

Jian Mo counted on her fingers for them. "Egg yolks, honey powder, Pack-Pack Beast milk, butter extracted from Pack-Pack Beast milk..."

Everyone counted them together, Qing Kuo sighed and said, "There are so many good things. Even if you told me the recipe, I probably wouldn't be able to collect them all, and I wouldn't be able to remember them all."

Jian Mo laughed and said, "It's okay, just come and ask me next time you want to do it, and I'll tell you."

Jian Mo mixed the egg whites and batter together, stirred it again until smooth, and then poured it into a large, oiled stone pot.

Fearing failure, he didn't dare pour it all out at once, only pouring half of it.

After pouring the contents, he paused the stone pot, then placed it on the charcoal fire, covered it with the lid, and poured another layer of burning charcoal on top of the lid.

Jian Mo said to the onlookers, "It'll be ready when it's baked. It might take a while, so let's have some tea and wait."

In winter, when we have nothing else to do, it's a good time for everyone to drink tea and chat.