Don’t Judge a Cake by Its Cover

Hope

As Sydney arrived home right after sunset and unlocked the front door to her suburban Massachusetts home, she dumped her usual groceries on the counter. Sydney did not bother to organize the groceries; instead, she opened her cupboard and took a swig of her half-opened bottle of tequila. She thought about all the work she needed to accomplish.

Opening her used laptop, she reread the instructions for the 2016 83rd annual Boston Baking Competition, and her eyes, as always, immediately shot to the bold “Grand Prize: $250k”

message. Held on the winter solstice, the competition loomed closer as it would occur in less than a month. Her mother recently received a stage three breast cancer diagnosis, and the treatment price skyrocketed past the family’s

combined savings. The competition remained the only possibility to save her mother’s life. Though Sydney hated cooking, she brightened at an opportunity, however slim, to help her family. She reluctantly walked over a cockroach to the kitchen and preheated the old and rundown oven.

On the other side of the country, in metropolitan San Francisco,

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Jonas Boschnek, the Chief Executive Officer for Boschnek Wholesale Product Manufacturing Co. crunched numbers and indolently tried to meet his deadline. Boschnek negotiated an agreement ten months ago with an electronics company, and in exchange for money, he would publicize their product eight times in the span of one year. Unfortunately, the CEO procrastinated and spent all his father’s hard-earned inheritance on the newest gadgets for his daughter instead of advertisements and publicity as originally agreed upon.

A new forwarded message popped up in his inbox. The Boston Baking Competition Qualifiers will begin in 27 days. The CEO smirked introspectively, “What an easy way to finish this deal. All I have to do is call my personal chef.”

Desperation

The day of the qualifiers arrived, and Sydney presented a magnificent almond carrot cake. She placed first by a landslide, and a news reporter even interviewed her on how she created this cake. Although Sydney refused to reveal her secrets, she maintained a kind face and stoically hid her real depression behind a bright and cheerful mask, knowing that she still needed to place first in the final to receive the grand prize. Sydney told the reporter about her mother’s situation and her growing passion and desperation to save her mother.

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After the event, while Sydney walked back to her 2006 Honda Accord, a mysterious man wearing a three-piece suit

approached her and asked her about her cake. The man introduced himself as the Chief Executive Officer for Boschnek Wholesale Product Manufacturing Co. and attempted to coerce Sydney into disclosing her prized recipe.

When Sydney declined, the man started shaking aggressively and muttered under his breath.

Consideration

entering the competition finals. She needed to make a tough decision. Considering her current financial state, Sydney could do so much with $50,000, whether upgrading her kitchen, purchasing a new vehicle, or contributing to her retirement. On the other hand, Sydney knew she

Later that day, Sydney received an anonymous phone call that offered her $50,000 in cold, hard cash in exchange for not

needed to prioritize her mother’s care and $50,000 would barely make a dent in her mother’s medical bills, so she rejected the man’s offer.

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Fear

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Boschnek adamantly planned a new way to rid this little hindrance. If he couldn’t convince her to forfeit, Boschnek maintained no other choice but to sabotage Sydney. On the night before the finale, Boschnek hired four hitmen through the strands of the dark web who secretly broke the flimsy, off-brand fiberglass window of Sydney’s quaint home and silently ransacked her house of all the special ingredients Sydney had planned out. The barbarians threw flour all over the walls, cracked eggs in the sink, poured milk on the floor, and wrecked anything they could get their hands on. Sydney’s overworking, underpaying corporate job the day before had exhausted her to the point where she slept like a baby through the entire pilferage.

The next morning, Sydney stayed in bed scrolling through social media until she heard a faint dripping noise coming from the kitchen sink. Believing she forgot to turn it off the previous night, she reluctantly grabbed her glasses and walked down the hallway to the kitchen. When she first reached the kitchen, she thought she hallucinated. Sydney could not believe it. The dedication and work Sydney had poured into picking out the ingredients and planning a recipe disappeared in the blink of an eye. She sobbed. After what seemed like hours, Sydney doggedly envisioned a brand new plan. She started to mop the floors, scrub the walls, and wash the dishes. She realized her

goal to support her mother, the only person who comforted Sydney her whole life when she wished for it most.

Commemoration

The young woman combed through her mind for a recipe she understood—one from her late father, who possessed a unique passion for cooking. Eventually, she recalled the recipe she

sought: her father’s famous tartlet, featuring pears and goat cheese. Sydney exhausted the next two hours by testing and creating minor modifications to add her own quirk. Whether using the remaining things she found around her house like apples instead of pears or creating a cheesecake filling instead, she poured her heart into this gateau.

The final day had arrived. The day that would ultimately determine her mother’s life. Sydney looked down at her small, hazel, and fruit-filled cake. Looking over to the right, she glared at the towering, glamorous cake covered in fondant, as if the sheer extravagance taunted her. Boschnek presided over “his” cake with an arrogant smile and confidently believed he could easily defeat Sydney simply due to the fact that her cake appeared hideous. Although she had not executed her original plan, Sydney tried her best, and she knew wholly her cake

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would taste spectacular, as nostalgia prevails as the best ingredient. The judges walked around the competition, carefully examining and tasting each cake.

Relief

The adjudicators returned to their private room and discussed for twenty minutes. Sydney could not wait any longer, and she endured the longest twenty minutes of her life in a painful mental recap of everything she did. When the experts proceeded back to the stage, they announced the winner. With a score of 89.2, or 0.7 points more than the runner-up, Sydney achieved the victory. Overcome with joy, she fell to her knees. Jonas burst with anger, unable to contain his infuriation without

furiously speed-walking out of the room. Overall, the judges preferred the delicate and simple taste of Sydney’s cake rather than the clashing flavors and gummy texture of the fondant of Boschnek’s slab of sugar.

Over the next few days, Sydney reimbursed her mother’s medical bills, allowing the treatment to follow through and ultimately succeed. Then, while she started cleaning up her pillaged home, an epiphany popped into her mind. Her friend had forced her to get security cameras a few years ago, so she logged into the online camera feed and scrolled back not many

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days ago and found the hitmen. Through some reverse Google searching, she found that Boschnek hired them and smugly grinned inside at the thought of Boschnek needing this advantage but still losing. She sent this clip of the hitmen to her local news, and it quickly became viral all over the internet. Boschnek dismissed over half his employees purely out of spite,

and soon after, police arrested him for breaking and entering, aiding and abetting, and even uncovered some previous money laundering charges, among other allegations. He would go on to lose the trial and land himself in prison for over 30 years.

The End

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