One from the Story Whale Library: The Courage Town Baking Competition
A story from the dragons of Courage Town...
Howdy!
Today’s post comes from the Story Whale library and takes us back to the dragon world of Princess Hanna and her fellow dragons of Courage Town. It’s a fun little two-parter from 2022 (how time flies!).
Important note: You don’t need to have read any of the other chapters for today’s story!
If you haven’t read any of the series before, the Princess Hanna series can be found in full here:
Happy reading!
Every year the school in Courage Town would hold a baking competition.
Students would break up into pairs and there would be one chaotic weekend of frantic baking and frenzied selling. The smell of cupcakes and croissants would fill the air.
Hanna and Carrie had never entered the baking competition before, but this year they felt like they just might have a unique strategy to take home gold.
In the past, they had always been the quiet ones at school. They minded their own business and did their own thing. The hoopla of the baking competition was the exact type of thing they would have avoided.
A lot had changed since the last year’s baking competition though. Hanna was allowed to openly use her fire powers now. She was a lot stronger as well because of all of her recent training for the Fire Carnival. Carrie, on the other hand, had become a very strong flyer — the best in their grade.
They now felt confident that they could give the baking competition a good shot.
All of the entrants were gathered together on a Friday afternoon after school for the launch of the baking competition.
Hanna and Carrie looked around the twenty-or-so other contenders they would be up against. The two of them felt strangely confident, and not just for their chances in the competition but in general. Things had changed over the past months. They walked with their shoulders back. They answered questions in class that they normally would have just sat quietly for. They just felt… good. They were talking to other students more and getting invited to birthday parties that they previously would never have even heard about.
At the Friday meeting for the baking competition, Mr Brooks announced the rules.
“All entrants will have the weekend to bake and sell baked goods. Whoever makes the most money wins.”
And then the race was on.
Hanna and Carrie took off into the air and flew to the general store. They rushed inside and bolted for the baking section. When they got there, though, they found that the shelf was almost completely empty. All they could grab was a single bag of flour.
They went to the counter to pay and Hanna asked the owner, “Where is all of your baking stuff?”
“Young dragons have been stocking up all week for the baking competition,” said the owner. “You guys should have stopped by earlier.”
Hanna and Carrie left the general store with their meagre supplies.
“What now?” asked Carrie.
“The castle!” said Hanna. “We’ll check the castle kitchen. There has to be something there for us.”
Off they went, flying across town to Princess Hanna’s family’s castle. They landed in the courtyard where two of Hanna’s brothers were chasing after each other playing tag.
Hanna and Carrie charged inside into the kitchen. They went through to the pantry room and gathered up what they could: some more flour, sugar, a few cartons of eggs, and a bag of cocoa powder.
“What’s the plan?” asked Carrie.
Hanna was deep in thought. Then it clicked.
“I have an idea!” she said. “It hasn’t rained lately, has it?”
“No,” said Carrie. “Not in ages.”
“Then follow me,” said Hanna.
Hanna took off and Carrie went after her.
Just outside of Courage Town there was a paddock with an old stone well. Hanna and Carrie landed just near the well and brought all of their ingredients and cooking equipment along with them. They also brought a metal chain which was going to be a key part of Hanna’s plan.
Once they were at the well they started working on their unique baking contraption. This was where Hanna’s big idea came into play.
They connected the metal chain to a baking pan and checked that they were able to lower it down into the well.
Then it was time to get mixing. They were going to make brownies and they were going to make a lot of them.
Hanna and Carrie got to work mixing their ingredients. They were working off a recipe that Carrie had gotten from one of her mums.
Hanna and Carrie picked brownies because they were quick and easy to make.
Once they had their mix finished, they started setting out the uncooked brownies on the tray attached to the metal chain. They then lowered the tray down into the well.
“Ready?” asked Hanna.
Carrie nodded and then stepped back to get out of the way.
Hanna let out a giant blast of fire into the well. This went on until the smell of brownies rose up into the air, soon followed by smoke and a slightly less pleasant smell of charcoal.
Hanna pulled up the metal chain to get the brownies. The tray was smoking and the brownies were black.
They set the tray down on the ground and both looked at the smouldering brownies, consternation on each of their faces. They let the brownies cool for a bit and then they split one in half to each try. The tester bite was a very cautious one.
Regrettably, the brownies tasted exactly how they looked.
But they were locked in now. They were committed to their plan.
“Ok,” said Hanna. “You fly to town and sell these brownies door-to-door. No one can fly as fast as you. You’ll leave everyone else in the dust. I’ll get started on the next batch of brownies. With our well and my fire we’re going to be able to churn out brownies twice the speed of whatever anyone else is making.”
“But what if they don’t like the brownies?” asked Carrie.
“Some of them will,” said Hanna. “And we’ll get better at it as we go along. Plus, we have numbers on our side. We’ll sell them cheap, but we’ll sell a lot of them. By the end of the weekend, we’ll be able to have a go at selling these brownies to every single dragon in town.”
Carrie was unsure, but she trusted Hanna. And so they went for it.
The weekend went by in a blur of chaotic baking and selling. Hanna would rush through tray after tray of brownies and Carrie would fly them over to town where she would bounce from house to house. Mostly, dragons turned back the brownies the second they saw them. But some of them bought them. And, after a while, the number of buyers began to add up.
They baked and sold brownies all Friday afternoon, all day on Saturday, and up until the baking competition finished at noon on Sunday.
Once it was time, everyone in the baking competition gathered together at the school and handed in their results. Then it was time for the announcement of the winner.
Hanna and Carrie stood together in the crowd, itching with nervousness. As far as they could tell, their strategy had worked. They had sold a heap of brownies. They were practically just waiting for their names to be called.
Mr Brooks then stepped forward to announce the winners.
“And the winners are…”
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!
Have a terrific weekend!