Although Uncle Yang's restaurant is doing well now and has a stable income, Yang Yajing thinks that stability is lukewarm and has no future.
Yang Yajing wants to "accumulate wealth for the future"! Otherwise, how can she avoid being suppressed when competing with Jiang Xuanxuan in the future?
There are several small restaurants like theirs in the market, with similar menus and prices, none of which have any special features that attract people to come and spend money.
In 1991, Jincheng had been drifting in the tide of reform and opening up for nearly two years, and its resources had begun to become abundant.
From the early 1980s when she was just starting out, when there were no food coupons and the average wage was only twenty or thirty yuan, to now when almost everyone has an income of two or three hundred yuan, it has been a huge leap.
Most people still live in public housing, without rent or property management fees, which has given many people some spare money to pursue a higher standard of living and enjoyment.
Ever since the abolition of food and oil ration coupons, Sylvia Chang started making and selling steamed cakes. These steamed cakes were just square sponge cakes, which were then cut into 16 small squares.
None of the small restaurants here have ovens, and neither does the Yang family. However, the large steamer they use for cooking rice allows the Yang family to create cakes that no one else can make.
But this cake isn't anything special. If you want to eat cake, there's a pastry shop just a block away. Although the price is a bit higher than this five-cent cake, it's still not unaffordable.
Therefore, the sales volume of this cake never exceeded thirteen or fourteen cakes per day.
With sales of only a few dollars, and no repeat customers, what's the point? Yang Yajing felt that selling cakes this way was simply a waste of time.
That morning, she watched Sylvia Chang make a cake, and while watching, she also noted down the amount of ingredients needed.
In her previous life, she was a dessert master. Not because she loved desserts, but because her kitchen-killer best friend, Yu Yue, loved them.
However, neither of them had much money, so Yu Yue would always bring online videos and recipes, buy the ingredients, and ask the skillful Yang Yajing to make a cheap version for her.
Over time, Yang Yajing became a skilled pastry chef. Yu Yue even joked that if they had the money to open a shop, Yang Yajing's skills would definitely make her a fortune!
Yang Yajing didn't know if the basin would be full of gold leaf. She only knew that if she opened a pastry shop, Yu Yue's salary would definitely be spent on her shop, and he would also be upgraded by 200 jin!
Smiling to herself as she reminisced, Yang Yajing began searching her mind for the pastry recipes she had used, trying to see which ones could be used to create unique pastries under limited conditions.
Using ingredients like those from Sylvia Chang to make only 16 sponge cakes is such a waste! And she can't even sell 16 in a day, so she's barely making any money.
Yang Yajing thought of Swiss rolls. This cake, once the crust is removed, can be sliced horizontally into five slices, and each slice can be rolled up to make twelve Swiss rolls.
Six Swiss rolls make a box, that's ten boxes. Each box costs two and a half dollars, that's twenty-five dollars.
The leftover egg whites can be used to make meringue to fill Swiss rolls. As for the ridiculously expensive strawberry jam, you can replace it with red bean paste and mix some red beans into the cake and steam it together. Wouldn't that be both novel and delicious?
With repeat customers, we can increase sales volume. Selling two plates would be fifty yuan, and selling three plates would be seventy-five yuan.
Moreover, repeat customers won't just buy a cake and leave to dine at another restaurant. Since they're already here, they might as well eat there! That would generate far more revenue than just seventy-five yuan, wouldn't it?
With this idea in mind, Yang Yajing planned to propose it to Zhang Aijia, but how could she persuade her mother to do it according to her idea?
Thinking of Jiang Xuanxuan, Yang Yajing suddenly had an idea.
That afternoon, when Yang Yajing saw Jiang Xuanxuan coming to find them, she no longer resisted, but was secretly delighted.
"Xuanxuan, have you ever had a Swiss roll? I heard from a customer that it's delicious!" Yang Yajing quickly started the conversation.
Sure enough, Jiang Xuanxuan was determined not to miss this opportunity to flaunt her wealth: "Of course! My dad has brought her back from Xinghualou several times!"
"Xinghualou? How expensive is that? I really can't afford it!" Yang Yajing pretended to be poor.
"It's not expensive at all! Only ten yuan a box!" Jiang Xuanxuan thought it was no big deal.
“Ten yuan can buy four bowls of noodles! Mom won’t agree to that.” Yang Yajing shook her head.
"Does Pengfei like to eat this too?" Jiang Xuanxuan turned to ask Zhou Pengfei. "If you like it, I'll ask Dad to bring a box over so the three of us can share it."
"I don't like cake, thank you!" Zhou Pengfei shook his head.
"Huh? There are four in a box! The two of us can't finish them!" Jiang Xuanxuan's meaning was clear: if Zhou Pengfei didn't want to eat them, then she wouldn't bring them. "But Yangyang seems to really want to eat them..."
"No need, no need!" Yang Yajing immediately shook her head. "It's such an expensive thing, don't waste your money. I was just curious. Maybe I can make a cheaper version myself?"
"Where can you get a cheap version of a Swiss roll? Yang Yang is joking." Jiang Xuanxuan covered her mouth.
"Hehe! Poor people have their own way of eating!" Yang Yajing replied to Jiang Xuanxuan with a silly laugh. "Most of us can't afford such an expensive Xinghualou Swiss roll, right?"
"Sigh! That's true! I suddenly feel that Xuanxuan is so lucky!" Jiang Xuanxuan smiled sweetly. It's human nature to like being praised.
But did Yang Yajing praise her?
That day, Yang Yajing waited until the restaurant closed before running out to pull Zhang Aijia aside to "talk about serious business."
“Mom, we leave several pieces of cake every day, it’s such a waste!” Yang Yajing started the conversation.
"Isn't it perfect for you to eat what's left?" Sylvia Chang smiled.
"But we're getting tired of eating it!" Yang Yajing shook Zhang Aijia's arm. "Mom, let's make a better cake, okay? Maybe we can earn more money?"
"How do you make it? Mom, this is the only cake I know how to make. I learned it from a pastry chef." Sylvia Chang shook her head.
"Mom, Jiang Xuanxuan mentioned Xinghualou's Swiss rolls today. They look delicious. How about we get some?" Yang Yajing really does speak one way to one person and another way to another.
At noon, I told Jiang Xuanxuan that it was mentioned by a customer, but now I'm telling my mother that it was mentioned by Jiang Xuanxuan.
"Xinghualou? What's the price? How could anyone who comes to our restaurant afford that?" Zhang Aijia thought Yang Yajing was being a bit delusional.
“We can’t afford Xinghualou, but we can make a poor man’s version of Swiss rolls!” Fearing that Sylvia Chang would disagree, she continued, “I’ve seen Swiss rolls before, and I even went to the library this afternoon to take a look. They’re not difficult to make at all!”
"I don't know if it's difficult or not, but I've never even seen it before, so how am I supposed to make it for you?" Sylvia Chang was troubled.
"I'll try making it after school tomorrow afternoon. If Mom is satisfied, can we change it to a Swiss roll next time?" Yang Yajing seemed determined to persist.
"You'll make it? You can bake a cake? You're just a kid, don't be so ambitious." Sylvia Chang said uncertainly.
"Just let me try! Okay?" Yang Yajing was determined to win no matter what Zhang Aijia didn't agree to.
"Okay, okay! Mom is waiting to try your Swiss roll?" Sylvia Chang finally relented.
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