Choc Shock Read Online Free PDF Page B

door.

    â€˜Ah,’ sighed Madame Ombre. ‘Here is where we create the models that we use in our theme cakes. Perhaps it will be a little white chocolate fairy on a pink-iced cupcake with tiny yellow flowers? Or maybe some little bunnies on my Easter-egg cupcake? Here is where my chefs design the shapes and create the moulds. Come quietly and watch.’
    Madame Ombre opened the door to what looked more like a craft class than a kitchen. There was agroup of chefs, all dressed in the same black outfit as Madame Ombre but without her top chef hat. They were sitting at pottery wheels working with plaster. As EJ and the rest of the group moved closer, they could see that the chefs were moulding little rabbits and, on a little podium in front of them all, were six live rabbits. The rabbits had tight collars around their necks and leads tying them to the podium so that they wouldn’t escape.
    â€˜Today,’ continued Madame Ombre, ‘my trainee chefs are learning to create perfect Easter bunny chocolates. To do this, they must study real bunnies.’
    EJ looked at the bunnies tied to the podium and felt sorry for them. ‘Excuse me, Madame Ombre, but do the bunnies like being inside?’
    â€˜What?’ said Madame Ombre.
    â€˜The rabbits,’ said another girl, smiling at EJ. ‘Do the rabbits like being kept as models?’
    â€˜Oh, them. I do not know, I do not care,’ said Madame Ombre, giving a little shrug. ‘What is that to me? They are only rabbits. The chocolate bunnieson my Easter cakes must be perfect.’
    EJ stared at Madame Ombre in surprise, as did many of the other contestants. Is nothing more important to her than her chocolate cakes? EJ wondered. Is that why she is working with SHADOW? Are they giving her something she wants for her chocolate cakes? Something she can’t get herself?
    â€˜Enough of the bunnies. We have one more room to see before we commence our competition. Out now, enough chitty chatty.’
    Once again the group bustled out of the room and into the corridor. The next door they came to was not the same plain door as the others. This one was festooned with ribbons, tiny bells, flowers, streamers, balloons and even fairy lights. EJ was not surprised when she read the sign on the door.

    â€˜And this, this is where we make every cake a party!’ cried Madame Ombre. ‘The cake itself is merely a base, a delicious canvas on which to paint a story, and in here are the ingredients for those paintings.’
    With a flourish, Madame Ombre opened the door to a room lined with shelves stacked with glass jars. All of them were filled with the most beautiful and delicious little things you could imagine putting on a cake. There were sprinkles and jelly-beans, a jar for every colour and shade. There were silver balls, gold balls, chocolate balls, jelly snakes, jelly babies, tiny sugar flowers, liquorice, chocolate buttons, chocolate curls, chocolate stars and candy canes. There was candy fruit: bananas, cherries, pineapples, pears and even tiny, tiny watermelons. There were tubes of icing and marshmallows of different sizes and colours. Then there were the little figurines and objects, some in chocolate, some in marzipan, of fairies, guitars and pianos, footballers, brides and grooms and animals, including the chocolate bunnies.
    â€˜Some of you will have a chance to use these decorations in the grand final, but who?’ declared Madame Ombre as she closed the door. ‘And so, off to the Choc Chef kitchen!’
    Just before they reached the kitchen, which was at the end of the corridor, they passed one more door, a plain door with plain writing.

    â€˜Excuse me, Madame Ombre,’ EJ called out, ‘may we look in this room?’
    â€˜Non! Don’t go in there!’ shouted Madame Ombre. ‘No one, no one but moi ever enters.’
    And me, said EJ12 to herself. She knew she would have to get inside that room.
    But first