The wicked mother-in-law doesn't try to whitewash herself; she only abuses her awful children.

Chapter 20 Mung Bean Cake and Mung Bean Pancake

"Mom, why are you putting in so much sugar and oil?"

Chen Sufen smacked her lips in distress when she saw Tong Huaqiong pouring sugar and oil into the mung bean paste.

"If you want your desserts to taste good, you have to be generous with the ingredients," Tong Huaqiong said.

Sugar and oil were not rare commodities for ordinary people in those days, but not every family could afford to eat them freely.

In addition, unlike later generations when resources were abundant, people no longer toiled in the fields every day and were prone to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high blood sugar if they weren't careful. Here, talking about sugar and oil wouldn't make them pale; sugar and oil were considered good things by the locals.

Pastries must be generous with sugar and oil to attract customers.

Tong Huaqiong thought that in later generations, milk tea would be made with less sugar, and popular pastries must be unsweetened.

Here, if a pastry isn't sweet, you'll likely be called a profiteer and lose your way to make money.

Tong Huaqiong used all the money she earned from selling dried biscuits during the day to buy white sugar.

Without a mold, Tong Huaqiong's skillful hands quickly produced an exquisite mung bean cake.

Chen Sufeng and Gu Taohua watched from the sidelines.

"My mother's skills are even better than the master chefs in the town's pastry shops," Gu Taohua praised.

I never imagined my mother had such good cooking skills.

Why didn't you use it before?

"Grandma's mung bean cakes are so beautiful!" Man'er exclaimed along with her aunt.

"This is the only way." Tong Huaqiong was still a little dissatisfied; the look was too monotonous.

"If we had molds, we could create even more designs, which would be more appealing," Tong Huaqiong said with a hint of regret.

But there's no rush. First, she'll accumulate initial capital. Once she has enough money, she plans to visit the prefectural city. She believes that there are many skilled craftsmen in this era, and she'll definitely be able to find the mold she wants.

If you can't find her, draw a design and find a craftsman to customize it.

"My eldest sister's porcelain shop does have molds."

In her excitement, Chen Sufeng mentioned Gu Baishuang, and then looked anxiously at Tong Huaqiong.

She knew that her mother-in-law disliked her husband's older sister, and her husband's older sister disliked Tong Huaqiong. The two had even argued in front of her father-in-law's funeral hall, and now they had completely severed ties.

Tong Huaqiong didn't mind Chen Sufeng mentioning Gu Baishuang at all. Instead, she smiled and said, "If your eldest sister is willing to do business for us, I'm willing to buy her molds too."

While Tong Huaqiong was making mung bean cakes, Chen Sufen also made some dry pancakes.

Chen Sufeng was skillful and clever. Tong Huaqiong taught her twice on the first day and she learned it. In addition, she was honest and did her best to add lots of sesame seeds according to her mother-in-law's requirements and sprinkle the melted syrup on both sides of the dry cake.

Soon a basket of golden-yellow dried biscuits came out of the oven.

Gu Taohua couldn't resist the fragrance and reached for it.

"One for each person."

Tong Huaqiong didn't scold Gu Taohua this time. Gu Taohua had worked hard with her these past few days. Although she sometimes acted foolishly, ordering Chen Sufeng to do chores and fighting with Man'er for food, overall, this stubborn girl was showing signs of straightening up.

She couldn't immediately and completely correct Gu Taohua's laziness and gluttony.

Haste makes waste.

With Tong Huaqiong's permission, Gu Taohua picked up the dry biscuit and ate it without caring that it was too hot to handle. While eating, she didn't forget to hand one to Tong Huaqiong, who was busy working.

Tong Huaqiong took it and ate it!
Chen Sufeng and Man'er also started eating.

"Man'er, go to sleep after you finish eating," Tong Huaqiong said.

Children who are growing should not stay up late.

After finishing the dry biscuit, Tong Huaqiong lifted the lid of the ghee dough in the mixing basin.

She planned to use the leftover mung bean paste to bake mung bean cakes, and the ghee dough was the key ingredient for making the cake crust.

"Peach Blossom, you should go to sleep too. Your sister-in-law and I will stay here. You're coming to town with me early tomorrow morning."

Tong Huaqiong sent Gu Taohua to sleep.

It wasn't that she cared more about her daughter than her daughter-in-law; the main problem was that Gu Taohua's fire-starting skills weren't up to par, and she was afraid the mung bean cakes would be ruined by Gu Taohua.

It would be better to let her go to sleep and get some rest, since we're counting on Gu Taohua to carry the baskets tomorrow.

Gu Taohua nodded, grabbed a mung bean cake, and quickly darted out from behind the stove. Chen Sufeng took Gu Taohua's place and sat in front of the stove to tend the fire, while Tong Huaqiong began kneading the mung bean cakes.

Mung bean cakes are more complicated than mung bean puddings.

To make mung bean cake, you just need to cook the mung bean paste and shape it. Mung bean pancakes, on the other hand, require a flaky pastry crust and baking.

Every step must be taken seriously.

Especially when baking, if you can't control the heat, you won't be able to make delicious mung bean cakes.

Now that she doesn't have that much money, Tong Huaqiong can't accept failure and has to throw away the materials and start over.

Therefore, she put a lot of effort into making it, carefully observing the heat after each batch was cooked.

In those days, there were no thermometers, so we had to rely on experience.

Fortunately, Chen Su-fen had experience in controlling the heat of a wok, which helped her a lot.

"Su-Fen, you've worked so hard. I won't let you work for nothing. I'll give you a share of the profits when we start making money," Tong Huaqiong said as she put the mung bean cakes into the large iron pot.

Hearing this, Chen Sufeng quickly shook her head and said, "We're all family, what's the big deal about money?"

If her mother-in-law stops tormenting her, the second husband and his wife stop treating her like dirt, her brother-in-law stops having any ulterior motives, and her sister-in-law gets along well with her, then Man'er will no longer be mistreated in this family.

She was satisfied.

She dared not hope for more!
Tong Huaqiong chuckled and shook her head, saying that Chen Sufeng was simply an ancient version of a steamed bun.

No wonder the original owner of this body, Tong Dajiao, bullied her relentlessly!

“What you say doesn’t count, what I say counts.” Tong Huaqiong adopted the air of a mother-in-law.

Chen Su-fen's personality meant that Tong Hua-qiong had to be the one to make the decisions.

"I forgot to tell you something. A few days ago, I went to the Zheng family to break off the engagement. After selling steamed buns at the dock, I went to look for Dahan, but he wasn't there. His coworkers said he went to work for a wealthy family in the prefectural city. They said that when he comes home next time, they won't let him run around outside anymore; it's the same if they let him work at home."

Tong Huaqiong's decision to let Gu Dahan stay at home from now on was a great joy for Chen Sufeng.

From now on, the three of them can be together as a family, and she will no longer have to worry about the men outside every day.

Fearing that failure would ruin the ingredients, only one batch of mung bean cakes was baked.

Tong Huaqiong estimated that the time was about right and started to take the food out of the pot.

As soon as the pot was lifted, the aroma wafted out. Tong Huaqiong took a deep breath and carefully scooped out the mung bean cake.

After scooping all the mung bean cakes into the basket, Tong Huaqiong took one out, broke it in half, kept one half for herself, and handed the other half to Chen Sufeng.

It's fragrant but not overpowering, sweet but not cloying, and so crumbly it crumbles.

Tong Huaqiong couldn't help but give herself a thumbs up, never expecting that she could make such delicious mung bean cakes under such conditions in ancient times.

If she could travel back in time, she might become the next food influencer by making food videos.

He's definitely the Wang Gang of the baking world!
"How does it taste?" Tong Huaqiong asked, blowing on the steaming mung bean cake.

"good to eat."

Chen Sufen originally wanted to save some for Man'er, but the mung bean cakes were so damn delicious that she couldn't resist eating them.

This is the best mung bean cake she has ever eaten, even better than the pastries her mother-in-law brought from Pingchuan County last time.

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law smiled at each other. The mung bean cakes were a success. Tomorrow, they could expect to make a splash in town.

Unbeknownst to Tong Huaqiong, many people in Qinghe Bay were awakened by the aroma wafting from the Gu family's house. They sniffed and searched for the source of the fragrance, and some children even cried from the enticing aroma.

Tong Huaqiong and Chen Sufen tidied up the stove and brought the pastries they had made that evening into their room.

She was afraid that Gu Dashu and his wife would be shameless and that the food would be stolen.

Lying in bed, rubbing her aching arms, Tong Huaqiong was still thinking about how to use the materials of this era to research and create more delicious pastries.

"Adding butter and various dried fruits would make it even more appealing."

"If only we had these materials."

Tong Huaqiong murmured to herself as she drifted off to sleep.

(End of this chapter)