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‘But put them together and you will amuse and delight your friends,’ Feliz said.
‘Usually takes more than that,’ I murmured.
‘The secret is a light brushing of oil,’ Feliz said wielding a pastry brush. ‘You will see in front of you bowls of truffle mix which my pastry chefs have prepared in the kitchens. We will be using that later, but now we are going to make the decorations.’
‘This truffle mix is delish. Have you tried it?’ Diana said, having investigated the bowl with her fingers.
‘I think we are supposed to save it for later,’ I said.
‘Try it,’ Diana said, ‘it’s just come out of the fridge, and it’s yummy.’
At the front of the room, Feliz and his assistants were fussing about with the plastic boxes which contained chocolate shards, cocoa powder, crystallised rose petals, and sugar balls.
I picked off another lump of truffle mix and dunked it in the melted chocolate. Just to see what it tasted like.
This time the chocolate dripped down the front of my apron and I looked up guiltily to see Diana giggling.
‘I’ll tell him what you’re doing,’ she said. I stuck my tongue out at her.
There was the flash of a camera from somewhere.
‘Oh, blooming heck,’ I said, dabbing at my apron, ‘it’s Raphaël yet again. We never learn, do we?’
I could see him, standing in the corner, a big grin on his face.
Diana tutted. ‘He never seems to catch us when we are at our most composed and elegant, does he?’
‘That’s probably because we are asleep,’ I said.
‘Trust me we are neither of us elegant nor composed when we are asleep. You are usually snuffling around thumping your pillows…’
‘And you are doing warthog impersonations.’
‘Then put your earplugs in.’
Feliz drew himself up to his full height and turned to face us.
‘Chocolate has been around for thousands of years, but not until the sixteenth century did it come to Europe. We thank Christopher Columbus for that. Now first, we smooth the chocolate thinly over the bubble wrap, like so. Not too thick, this is meant to look delicate and exciting.’
In a few deft strokes he covered the sheet of bubble wrap and slapped the edges on the table.
‘This will eliminate any air pockets. Now we place the wrap in the freezer for two minutes. My assistants will help you.’
A harassed-looking young woman swathed in a white overall came to take our offerings away on a metal tray. She stood patiently watching while we scuffed and rucked up our bubble wrap and spilled more chocolate down ourselves.
‘And now we move on,’ Feliz bellowed over the general mayhem.
‘Wasn’t there something about oiling it first?’
‘Ooops, we forgot about that,’ Diana said.
Thelma watched, pleased as her bubble wrap was borne away in triumph to the freezer at the side of the room and sent us, still wrestling with our task, a pitying look.
‘You should have enough truffle mixture to make at least ten,’ Feliz shouted.
Diana and I looked doubtfully into our bowls.
‘I think not,’ I said, trying hard not to laugh.
