Page 72 of The Second Chance Supper Club

‘Firstly, we have a selection of pastries – there are peaches-and-cream horns, passionfruit-and-lime choux parcels, and summer berry tartlets. I’ve made them all bite-sized, so you can test lots of different things throughout the evening.’ Lily sounded proud and nervous, all at once. ‘And I want your honest opinion on which ones you think work the best and are the tastiest. You’re the judges, and I’m going to use your favourite trio to replicate in my A Level practical.’

‘Oh, the pressure’s on, folks,’ said Dan.

The food looked delicious and the presentation was beautiful too; the platter of precisely placed patisserie was scattered delicately with tiny edible viola flowers, and lightly sprinkled over the profiteroles were tiny flakes of gold.

‘Wow, Lily, these look so professional.’ Cath beamed supportively with genuine delight.

‘Oh, MasterChef, here we come,’ added Dan.

‘No, it has to be Bake Off. You can be Prue, Dan. I’ll be Paul. Honestly, you’d blast them out of the park with these, Lily,’ responded Andreas.

‘No soggy bottoms around here, obviously,’ Dan came back with a grin.

‘They look amazing, Lily. Well done, you.’ Will at last was smiling.

Thank heavens for that, Cath mused, a chink in his newfound solid-steel armour had finally been discovered.

‘Well, enough of the looking, can we dive in yet, Lils?’ Nikki was eager to taste. ‘Plates and forks at the ready!’

Lily had made sure there was one of everything for all of them.

Cath placed the choux bun to her lips firstly, tasting the meltingly zingy fruit cream and delicious puff of light pastry. ‘Yum, this is soo good.’

Will had a fruit tartlet to hand. ‘Ooh, fresh strawberries, raspberries and blackcurrant, and then … mmm, that delicate creamy middle. What’s on the base, some kind of custard?’

‘Crème anglaise to be precise,’ answered Lily. ‘But yeah, it’s a French-style custard.’

‘Well, I think this has won me over already,’ said Will.

Cath wished she had a chance left to win him over too, but sadly she felt all her chances were now gone.

‘Don’t jump in too soon,’ warned Andreas. ‘This peach horn is a dream. And, we have a whole evening of goodies to get through.’

‘Oh yes, I’m going to start making notes on my phone,’ said Dan, ‘lest I forget.’

After the delectable pastries came mini cheesecakes … served with another glass of fizz. Then just as Lily headed back down the garden to plate up her last ‘smorgasbord’ of puddings, as Dan described them, darn it, the plinky sound of raindrops started, which soon turned into a drumming on the shed roof.

‘Oh, we might well be stranded up here,’ observed Dan wryly.

‘No worries, there are worse places to be, we have a full bottle of fizz in the ice bucket,’ responded Nikki. ‘And I don’t know about you, but my tummy needs a little break. I think I’m nearly pudding’d out.’

‘Ooh, they’ve been bloody lovely though, haven’t they?’ sighed a contented Andreas.

‘Absolutely,’ agreed a proud Nikki.

‘Your niece is super talented,’ added Will.

‘Yep, the hard bit will be choosing a favourite,’ Dan said. ‘Okay, so why don’t we each jot down our best three.

I could get a notepad,’ suggested Cath, then looking out at the inky-clouds and pelting rain added, ‘Or even better, let’s send them on the WhatsApp group. And then Lily can look at them in her own time, and see if any firm favourites stand out.’

‘Oh, I’d love to know the overall winner, though.’ Andreas was childlike in his eager tone.

‘Well, I’m sure we can suss that out ourselves by the end of the evening,’ Dan answered. ‘Just do the maths. There’s only five of us, after all.’

‘Okay … smarty pants.’

‘Fizz anyone? Looks like we might be stranded up here for a while …’ Cath intervened. They were used to the lads’ jokey sparring by now. No harm was ever meant by it.