The annual Bake-Off at Brick Oven Bakery!

Hello everyone!

This fortnight's challenge prompt in the Sylvanian Families Collectors Community was:

Challenge #17: The Great Sylvanian Bake-Off

The bakers are practicing their spectacular creations, marquees having been popping up in fields and villages, sweet and spicy aromas of cakes and pastry have filled the woods, and villagers are ready to sample all sorts of baked goods…the Great Sylvanian Bake-Off is here!

The Bake-Off is one of the most anticipated events of the year, as Sylvanians have a well-documented love of all forms of baked goods! Professional bakers and home cooks alike look forward to demonstrating their skills in the competition.

Make an item or items, photograph a scene, write a story, or do whatever inspires you to do something creative around the Bake-Off theme!



Here is my entry for this challenge! 
I was planning to take just three/four pictures for this challenge, as I was a bit pressed for time. But as usual, my boyfriend gave me some great ideas, so a story ended up forming in my mind. Hope you enjoy it!

--

Anthony and Carmela Spinelli are the owners of the Brick Oven Bakery, the one and only bakery in the small village of Arcfield. A few years back, Mr Spinelli, always the audacious entrepreneur, thought that it would be a good idea to organise a baking competition, or bake-off, to promote their business. The event was a huge success, and has been taking place every year ever since. Everyone in the village loves it, since the baked goods prepared by the contestants are afterwards free for all who visit the bakery to try and enjoy!

The evening before the event takes place, after her long workday, Carmela takes the time to prepare the ingredients for the participants of the competition, lining everything carefully in the shelves of her bakery.

This year Elizabeth McFarlane, the mayor's wife, is here to help her. The McFarlanes always help the Spinellis organise and fund this popular event, and this time they even lent them their microwave for the participants to use in the bake-off!
Carmela smiles at Elizabeth as they finish setting up the tools for the competitors to use.
"Thank you so much for lending us your microwave, Liz! It's so clean too, seems brand new!"
"It's no problem at all, Carmela! I hope it makes everyone's lives easier!".

Some hours later, it's finally time for the bake-off to begin! 
Both the McFarlane and the Spinelli couples are here, as organisers of the event. 

This year the participants will be Fliss Robinson (a regular contestant and frequent winner), Charles Hunter-Smyth (who used to help his mother bake when he was younger and thought it'd be fun to join a village event, having moved in quite recently), and Ariadna Andes (who everyone is quite surprised to see here, as she's usually quite shy and avoids conflict; seems like she's trying to get out of her comfort zone a bit!).

The food will be judged by Mrs Spinelli and Mrs McFarlane. As soon as the event starts, Nicholas and Anthony go out to promote the competition while the participants work.

 There's limited time, and none to waste! Everyone runs to grab the ingredients they will be needing for their baking.

As the three quickly get to work, Carmela and Elizabeth whisper quietly to one another, trying to guess what each contestant will be making.

 The bakery isn't closed during the competition, and many curious villagers enter the shop to see how things are going and maybe to buy some of the snacks Carmela prepared just in case. One of these visitors is Molly Waters, who comes accompanied of her twin sons, Fred and George.

After greeting everyone, Molly looks at Carmela, smiles, and promptly starts talking:

"Oh, Carmela, it's so wonderful that you're hosting this bake-off at your shop! Yet so inconvenient, as it's a bit difficult to get bread today. But oh well, I understand that this means great promotion for your business. How are your children, are they not here? They're such good children, your Livia and Silvio, unlike these ones here who will be the death of me one day. Oh my, FRED, GEORGE! STOP TOUCHING THE SANDWICHES THIS INSTANT!"

Molly, who apparently does not need to breathe when she talks, starts screaming at her children, who she never stopped watching through the corner of her eye. Carmela sighs and secretly hopes for her to leave soon. She knows Molly has a big heart and means well, but she's a huge gossip and sometimes difficult to deal with. She wouldn't have been surprised to hear that Molly can talk underwater, or in her sleep!

Molly continues talking non-stop even after Carmela moves away so that Fliss Robinson can get the cutely-shaped cookies she's making into the microwave. Molly breaths loudly at seeing this.

"What? Using a microwave to bake cookies? Well, I have never seen that before, no dearie, no. I'm not sure if you should allow that, my dear Carmela. You see, if it was up to me I would disqualify her, because you see, baking means baking, as in using the..."

 Molly Waters finally shuts up abruptly when Fliss, after angrily closing the microwave door, quickly goes and confronts her.

 "Well, excuse me, Molly, but as you might NOT know, this is called a microwave OVEN, so it's perfectly FINE to BAKE things in it!".

Alarmed by Fliss' reaction, which is quite unusual and out of character for her, both Carmela and Elizabeth try to calm the situation down.

"Now, now, Molly," says Carmela, feeling a bit guilty that she didn't stop Mrs Waters earlier "it's perfectly fine to use the microwave in the competition".

"Yes, indeed" adds Elizabeth, in a conciliating way. "I brought it myself to help the contestants. There's no need to fight".

"It's really easy to talk and criticise while just watching, while everyone else is covered in dough and flour!" exclaims Fliss angrily, sweating profusely. "I'd like to see you try and bake something for the competition, Molly!"

Molly Waters, quite shocked at first at this reaction, then looks at Fliss straight in the eye, her gaze steely. 

"Oh, yes? Well then, maybe I will. No, in fact, I WILL participate, and I WILL win, Fliss Robinson! Carmela, I'm joining the competition right now!"

"Oh, I'd like to see you try to win, Molly! Please do!" snorts Fliss, still visibly angry. 

"B-but, Molly," stammers Carmela, taken aback "this is quite unexpected, you hadn't signed up to be part of the competition and everyone has already begun a while ago...!"

There was no talking Molly out of it; she insisted on joining the competition, and when she and Fliss finished staring daggers at each other, she went to get the ingredients for what she was planning to make right away.

Elizabeth and Carmela looked at each other, feeling quite uncertain about the situation. I'm not sure if Fliss plans to roll her dough or to hit Molly with the rolling pin here!

A short (and quite tense) while later, it was finally time for the judging to begin! The work tables were cleared out, and Nicholas and Anthony came back into the shop to act as witnesses. They didn't quite understand why their wives seemed so tense, though...

Everyone presented their baked goods!
Charles had made a creamy and quite appetizing-looking cake full of fruit, inside and outside! Everyone complimented him on it, and he smiled as he explained that he used to help his mother bake a similar one when he was young, back at the farm. He had given this one his personal touch, though! 

Fliss had made quite an assortment of sweet goods! Two fruity tartlets, one of which included blackcurrants, her specialty! Two jam-filled traditional cookies, and two adorable and deliciously buttery cookies shaped like Sylvanians. Varied and delicious! But Carmela couldn't help but wonder why Fliss, who had been quite bewildered today and still seemed a bit distracted, hadn't made her usual, the ever-popular blackcurrant pie....

Molly, despite the rush and having started later than the others, had managed to whip up what looked like a delicious chocolate cake. She looked at Fliss a bit smugly, as if already sure of her victory...

But they were missing a contestant! Where was Ariadna, and her baked entry to the competition?

"I'm sorry, I'm here! Please excuse me for the delay! It took some time to finish preparing it for show..."

Carefully and almost apologetically, what Ariadna set on the table was a huge, beautiful, and definitely delicious-looking meringue cake filled with fresh strawberries. The decorations were precise and flawless. While everyone else had been concentrating on the bickering and tense rivalry between Fliss Robinson and Molly Waters, Ariadna had created a wonderful cake!

"Well" said Carmela, dumbfounded. "That is, for sure, the work of a dressmaker. Look at all those intricate details!"
"Oh, well, I do like baking in my spare time, sometimes..." Ariadna smiled shyly, quite overwhelmed at being in the spotlight.
"More than sometimes, I'd say!" laughed Mr Hunter-Smyth.
Fliss was in shock. She said nothing, just kept looking from the cake to Ariadna and back.
"I think," Molly Waters said, matter-of-factly, "that we've got a winner".
Smiling, Elizabeth McFarlane started clapping. And everyone but Ariadna, who blushed profusely and smiled quite happily, started doing the same.

--

The End!

Hope you enjoyed this little story! It ended up being a lot longer than I expected, but I got to introduce some of the members of my new beaver family, and my new bakery as well! :)
If you're wondering if something's up with Fliss Robinson, I hope to write a story about that soon!

I also wanted to post an extra picture. After the end of the story, everyone went out for some fresh air. There were already plenty of villagers outside, all waiting to go in the bakery and enjoy the baked goods made by the contestants, as it has been the tradition since the very first bake-off in Arcfield.

However, when they got inside, the found out that the Waters twins, Fred and George, were already helping themselves to Mr Hunter-Smyth's cake! Cheeky children! Could Freya have some worthy rivals in town...?

Have a great week!