Hearing that Sylvia Chang had finally relented, Yang Yajing stopped making a fuss. After helping Sylvia Chang tidy up the kitchen, she returned to her room to plan her next move.

Making Swiss rolls is only the first step; to make the business a success, you also need a good reputation.

When Yang Yajing went through the cassette tapes last time, she had already tasted the sweetness of word-of-mouth spreading rapidly. Moreover, she had basically figured out who the most powerful sources of gossip were.

She still had the list of people she had recorded last time. Looking at it, she jotted down a few names in her notebook: Bian Xiaoming, Li Bin, and Jin Yu.

The next day at lunch, Yang Yajing handed a list to Zhou Pengfei: "Zhou Pengfei, could you please invite these three to my house tomorrow at noon to try some snacks?"

"Why me?" Zhou Pengfei frowned.

"Because two of them are your friends, and the other is your fangirl!" Yang Yajing winked at him. "You're the one who should treat me!"

“Li Bin and Bian Xiaoming are fine, but what reason do I have for Jin Yu?” Zhou Pengfei felt that Yang Yajing would only cause him trouble.

"I told her my family is going to release new desserts, and I thanked her for advertising when I flipped through the records last time. This is my return gift!" Yang Yajing said, spouting nonsense.

"Then why don't you go yourself?"

"Didn't I tell you? She's your little fangirl, you'll be even more effective if you go! Come on, come on! How about I send you dinner for a week?" Yang Yajing coaxed and tricked her.

"A week's worth of dinners?" Zhou Pengfei thought for a moment. "Not enough!"

"Oh! You've learned how to do business too?" Yang Yajing feigned surprise. "How about this, I'll send you a few more boxes of pastries for Uncle Zhou, along with some mung bean paste, and of course, a set of shadow paper, how about that?"

"Do you know how much shadow paper costs? You're asking for the moon!" Zhou Pengfei said, but he was clearly tempted.

"A set of one hundred sheets is only ten yuan and sixty cents, it's nothing!" Yang Yajing was very generous to Zhou Pengfei.

"Remember to get the whole set!"

So you're saying you agree?

"I'll give it my all for the shadow paper!"

"yeah!"

After school, Yang Yajing waited until there were fewer guests before going to the kitchen to make her Swiss rolls, while Zhang Aijia watched from the side.

The initial steps were almost identical to those used by Sylvia Chang when making sponge cake. The same ingredients, the same mixing method, and even the same quantities.

She simply replaced the saccharin with granulated sugar and stirred some pressure-cooked red beans into the cake base. She also didn't throw away the extra four egg whites.

Yang Yajing added a few drops of white vinegar to the egg whites and quickly whipped them with an electric mixer. Then she slowly added the heated sugar syrup.

Soon, the egg whites turned into a creamy white substance. Jincheng calls it meringue, but its proper name is Italian crumble.

Italian crumble has a texture similar to cream, smooth and sweet. Compared to whipped cream, it has an even better advantage: it doesn't melt and can be kept fresh at room temperature.

The cake was steamed very quickly.

While waiting for the cake to cool, Yang Yajing mashed the remaining red beans in the pressure cooker into a paste. Being meticulous, she even used a fine sieve to strain the paste, removing the red bean skins and making it more delicate.

By the time you've done all that, the cake will have cooled down.

She took two chopsticks, measured the height, tied a cotton thread between them, and a simple cake saw was made.

By pulling the cotton thread back and forth, the sponge cake was horizontally cut into five neat slices.

"What's next? This doesn't look like a 'curl' at all!" Sylvia Chang looked at Yang Yajing's skillful operation, surprised and intrigued.

"Of course it's a Swiss roll!" Yang Yajing explained as she worked, "You need to make a cut before rolling up the innermost circle so that it rolls evenly and doesn't break."

Using gauze as a base, Yang Yajing spread a thin layer of red bean paste on two-thirds of the cake slice, and then spread a slightly thicker layer of Italian crumble on top of the red bean paste.

She carefully rolled up the cake slice from the long side, pulling up the gauze, and then kneaded it to shape it after rolling it to the end.

"It really rolled up! I say, where did you learn this from? You're on par with the masters!" Sylvia Chang exclaimed in admiration.

"I like going to the library to read leisure books! I can learn them just by looking at them!" Yang Yajing can brag without even thinking.

Yang Yajing brought over a display plate and placed it aside, then used cotton thread to cut the Swiss rolls.

These round pastries, each an inch tall, adorned with red beans and filled with red bean paste and Italian sugar crumble, were laid out on plates, a total of four plates containing sixty pastries!

"Mom, try it and see if it's good?" Yang Yajing stacked the three plates together, covered them, and placed them on the shelf. From the remaining plate, she took out a piece and handed it to Zhang Aijia.

Sylvia Chang took a bite. The cake was still the same cake, but after the saccharin was replaced with sugar, the slightly bitter aftertaste was gone.

Yang Yajing reduced the amount of baking soda and replaced it with foaming egg white, which reduced the metallic taste of the chemicals.

Besides adding texture to the cake, the red beans also give it a beautiful, speckled red appearance.

Add to that the silky red bean paste paired with the sweet Italian crumble, and you'll want to keep eating it; you simply can't stop.

Even Sylvia Chang, who usually only takes small bites of food, finished a piece of cake in just a few bites, and even seemed a little unsatisfied.

"Is it delicious?" Yang Yajing asked expectantly.

"It's so delicious! I have to let your dad try it too!" After saying that, she excitedly went to call Yang Guohua.

Sure enough, Yang Guohua, who hadn't held out much hope for Yang Yajing's request to make a Swiss roll cake, was quite surprised when he saw the beautiful pastry.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!