Part Two: The Courage Town Baking Competition
While Hanna and Carrie went for a sell-fast and sell-lots approach to the Baking Competition, another pair of contenders took a different route...
Today’s story is the second and final part in The Courage Town Baking Competition! Here is a link to part one:
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The day was upon them — launch day for the baking competition. Sally and Ali woke up at the break of dawn and got straight to work.
They had until the afternoon when the competition would begin. Except it wasn’t actually that simple because they still had to go to school. And for that reason, most of their work was already completed.
They had been planning and practising their menu for weeks. It was a game of trial and error, of working out what worked best and what flopped miserably.
Sally and Ali knew that a lot of the competitors would just bake the fastest and easiest thing possible. Sally and Ali wanted to do things a little differently. They wanted their baked goods to be the most delicious sweets their customers had ever eaten.
They both had a genuine passion for baking. They had been baking together since they were tiny little dragons with matching cupcake mittens their mum had sowed for them.
Like any siblings they argued with each other over a million little things every day — except for when they were baking. When they were baking, they were perfectly in sync.
Sally and Ali’s family didn’t have a lot of money so they would have to be smart if they wanted to bake the delicious sweets they had in mind.
They had been doing as many chores as they possibly could at home and they had also been helping the general store with delivering food to some of the elderly dragons in Courage Town. The owner of the general store, Vincent, would pay them in flour and sugar.
Sally and Ali also had a heap of preparing to do for their stall. They wanted their baking stall for the competition to be colourful and bright and inviting to customers.
They had the perfect spot for their stall, in the town square in the centre of Courage Town. They wouldn’t go door-to-door like everyone else. Instead, their customers would come to them. That way they could focus their attention on the actual baking itself.
So, on the morning of the competition, they got to work on their final preparations. Sally and Ali carried all of the bits and pieces of their stall and hurried to the town square to make sure they got a good spot. Of course, no one else was there when they got there and no one else showed up to set up a stall later on either. But it was better to be safe than sorry, and so they started setting up their stall in the empty town square. The air was icy cold, but Sally and Ali didn’t even notice it. They were in the zone — focused.
Once they had their beautiful stall set up, it was time to get their ingredients ready.
They had already stocked up on all of their dried goods, of course, like flour and sugar, but they still needed their fresh food. They could have bought stuff from the day before but they wanted their sweets to be as fresh as possible, and that meant buying their fruit as close as possible to the start of the competition.
Sally and Ali couldn’t fly on their own yet. They were too young. So they had to run.
They ran together to the very edge of town to the River family farm. The River family owned a massive farm where they grew a range of different fruits. Sally and Ali were going to buy a bunch of strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries for their sweets. They had been in touch with the River family earlier to make sure that their berries would be ready for them once they got there.
Sure enough, they were greeted at the farm by a very sleepy Mr River.
“Good morning, Sally and Ali,” he said between yawns. “I have all of your berries ready.”
“Thank you, Mr River,” said Sally. “We will be back for more tomorrow.”
“Yeah, yeah,” said Mr River. “I’ll have some more ready then. Just make sure to save me a couple of pastries.”
Sally and Ali went to school and, of course, were far too nervous and excited to possibly concentrate on what they were learning.
Once the bell rang, they went with all of the other competitors to gather for the launch of the baking competition.
Mr Brooks kicked things off and then Sally and Ali watched as Princess Hanna and Carrie immediately took off into the air. Sally and Ali were briefly thrown off. Princess Hanna and Carrie were faster, stronger, older.
“Don’t worry about them,” said Sally finally. “We’ve got this. Time to bake.”
They then ran home to get started. They needed something that was fast to make for the Friday night so they went with chocolate and vanilla cupcakes.
The second they got home they switched on the oven and started preparing everything. It was a rapid, well-rehearsed stint of cupcake-making. Their house smelled incredible.
Sally and Ali then filled a cart and went to the town square. Their mum went with them to look after them, although she certainly wasn’t allowed to help them with anything.
That first night was a fantastic success. They sold every cupcake they had baked, and they would tell each customer, “Come back tomorrow and we’ll have way more stuff.” They even gave them little coupons for a discount on their next purchase.
Once they packed up the stall, they went home and got started on the range of berry tarts they would be baking the next morning. They then woke up on the Saturday at dawn and got straight back to work.
The Saturday went even better than the Friday, and the Sunday went better still! By the end of the weekend, many of their customers had already been to the stall many times before. They ended up using every single last berry, bit of flour, and grain of sugar they had. They were completely and utterly SOLD OUT.
When they gathered with the other competitors they couldn’t help but feel good. Still, though, they were uncertain. All weekend they had seen Carrie flying all over the place above them. Who knows how many sales they had made?
And then the waiting was over. Mr Brooks stepped forward to announce the winners.
“And the winners are…”
Sally and Ali held their breath.
“Sally and Ali!”
It took a second for it all to sink in. Sally and Ali had the biggest smiles ever. They had done it! They had won the baking competition.
Sally and Ali were lost in joy as the other competitors congratulated them.
They made their way to the front and Mr Brooks gave them each a little cupcake trophy.
Sally and Ali were over the moon.
Princess Hanna and Carrie ended up coming in second place. They were disappointed but they knew the best team had won.
After the ceremony, Hanna and Carrie congratulated Sally and Ali.
“You deserved to win,” said Carrie. “Everyone in town is talking about how good your cupcakes and tarts were.”
Sally and Ali were thrilled. They went home and showed their parents their cupcake trophies.
Later that night, Sally and Ali’s mum was woken by the smell of something sweet and delicious. She went to check on it and found Sally and Ali baking a cake in the kitchen.
“What on earth are you doing?” she asked.
“We’re getting ready for next year’s baking competition,” said Ali.
Thanks for reading!
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