Cupcake Princess, Jennifer Alberts

Note: How could I not love a story about cupcakes? A very yummy tale.

In a forgotten little town on the outskirts of France lay a bakery whose cupcakes were so delicious that people traveled from everywhere to get a taste. Without the bakery, the town would have been ghostly, and if the town were ghostly, the wizards and witches would have stayed away. Everyone desired to try the famous Red Velvet Lush, or the Chocolate Fudge Surprise, and even using magic, nobody could bake cupcakes that compared.

The Blooms were modestly arrogant, and everyone loved them because of the delectable treats they provided. After years of trying, Mrs. Bloom finally became pregnant, and the town had never been so ecstatic. The bakery of the heavens even shut down for a few days, an extreme rarity. This greatly upset a witch by the name of Grizel, who had promised a coveted Lemon-Drop Sunrise cupcake to her disapproving mother-in-law. Grizel begged the Blooms to bake her just one cupcake, for if she failed in this endeavor, there was no way her mother-in-law would accept her into the family. However, the Blooms, in all their bliss, didn’t budge.

When Nadia Bloom was born, the whole town celebrated. Anyone who had ever tasted a cupcake came to show their gratitude, and the quiet town turned cheerful. Grizel, however, was anything but. “If they won’t give me a cupcake,” she thought, “then their precious little Nadia shall never know the wonders of a cupcake either!”

**

When Nadia turned thirteen, she really started to hate the fact that she was allergic to her parents’ cupcakes. “But mom,” she would plead. “It’s not fair! All my friends say your cupcakes are the best, and I can’t even eat a tiny piece of one!” Little did she know that it wasn’t allergies her parents were worried about. She wouldn’t swell up like a blowfish if she had a bite, but she’d fall into a deep, dark, sleep that would be almost impossible to awake from.

Her parents tried everything to prevent Nadia from eating a cupcake. They never left the bakery unattended (which made the cupcakes even more delicious than usual), they made sure Nadia was always occupied with ballet lessons or academic work, and they tried to hide the cupcake smell from their house by getting three dogs.

Grizel was never a happy witch. Bitter at her own miserable life and hostility from her new family, she needed others to share her pain. On the eve of Nadia’s twenty-first birthday, the forgotten town sprung to life once more. Everyone gathered for a grand celebration, and just like on Nadia’s day of birth, anyone who had ever tasted the delicious cupcakes came to marvel at the grown-up, beautiful, and cupcake-free Bloom girl.

At the height of the festivity, Grizel, disguised as a young woman and bearing a Lemon-Drop Sunrise, presented it to the unsuspecting Nadia. Overzealous with happiness and glee, she took a bite of the wonderful cupcake. As soon as her teeth sank into the moist, crumbly base, she fell to the floor, still wearing her yellow party gown and still looking like the beautiful twenty-one year-old she was.

When people started realizing what had happened, uproar rippled throughout the little town. Witches and wizards of all shapes and sizes tried and tried to wake the beautiful Nadia up, but nobody succeeded. The Blooms were so devastated that they permanently closed their bakery, and the town fell into a deep depression.

**

It wasn’t for another 50 years, when the Blooms were plump and gray-haired, the bakery out-of-sight for so long, that Mr. John White came knocking on their front door. “I’m sorry to bother you,” the young man said politely, “but I’m trying to become the best baker in the world and rumor has it that your cupcakes are to DIE for.” The Blooms painfully looked at one another and told John that cupcakes were no longer their passion.

But John was a persistent man. His good looks and constant compliments gave him an invitation inside the Bloom residence, where he discovered a large dining room covered with pictures of a beautiful girl. She couldn’t have been much younger than him, yet she seemed so innocent, so fresh.

On the way to the bathroom, John walked past a beautifully-scented room. The aroma of freshly-baked cupcakes filled his nostrils, so enticing and different from the smell of dogs in the rest of the house that he opened the door. Lying on top of a huge bed was Nadia, still dressed in her yellow birthday gown, and sleeping deeply. She looked so peaceful and so breathtakingly gorgeous that John couldn’t help but stare. He walked over to her and gently stroked her perfectly combed hair. She didn’t budge.

After twenty minutes, Mrs. Bloom came looking for John. When she saw him lying next to Nadia, she grew flustered and started flailing about. John knew it was time to leave, but before getting up, he leaned down and gently brushed his lips against hers.

All of a sudden, Nadia’s eyes popped open: the spell was lifted instantaneously. There she was, beautiful Nadia, staring into the eyes of the stranger that just saved her life. “Guess I wasn’t allergic after all” she said shyly, and she kissed John passionately on the lips.

**

The darkness surrounding the town suddenly lifted and everyone gathered once again, for the wedding of Nadia Bloom and John White. Though young, neither of them had ever felt anything as powerful as the love they shared, and they decided to begin their life together immediately. To the pleasure of tiny town, the Blooms reopened their bakery. Once again, the smell of freshly baked cupcakes wafted through the air, and everyone was happy. The store was named Eternal Sunrise, and even now, hundreds of years later, the bakery serves the inhabitants of the town that was once forgotten, but will now never escape the minds of anyone who knows anything about cupcakes, greed, or true love.