As soon as Rosie realized Dad had his Tesco bag and was walking out of the flat, she felt inclined to stop him. "You're not going to buy candy there, are you?"
He paused just above the stairs. "Yeah, I'm going to get some stuff for the kids who come by here. There aren't many since it's right here in the city, but ya know, enough that I want to have a few things."
She leaped to her feet. "Oh Dad, let me bake something!" The summer wedding and graduation rush was long over and work had been a bit slow for a while. "Please?"
He smiled and shook his head. "Rosie, Halloween is for candy, not cakes and pastries."
"For your information, you would be amazed at what I can do with candy." Rosie folded her arms. "I can make you treats so good kids will be swarming this flat all night."
"Well in that case, I'm definitely going to Tesco," Dad joked, but he set his bag down and shrugged. "All right. If you think you can do better and you have the time, I'd love for you to make something."
"Yes!" Rosie jumped just like Sherlock did when he had a case higher than an 8. "You'll see. Just promise you and Sherlock will be here to taste it and pass it out with me?"
"At the moment we don't have any plans, but you know Sherlock. It's damn near impossible to pin him down."
"As if I would ever miss Watson's culinary expertise!" Sherlock called from the bedroom. He emerged in his dressing gown and bedhead, having caught up on sleep after pulling two all-nighters for a case. Rosie loved his smile. "Of course I'll be there, though I find trick-or-treating significantly more boring now that you're not doing it."
When you grew up with Sherlock Holmes and John Watson as your parents, Halloween was a blast. Sherlock knew all kinds of famous criminals to dress up as and every year he would rope Dad and Mrs. Hudson into helping him make her a costume. Dad would decorate the flat, rent scary movies for them to watch, and always find her a place to trick-or-treat even if it meant having to take the tube a ways.
Now, she supposed, it was time to return the favor.
There really was a lot you could do with candy, both as a baking ingredient and a decoration. In fact, Rosie thought it was one of the more underused resources in the baking world, which was partly why she had jumped at the chance to experiment with it.
A quick Google search brought up recipes and ideas for candy cake, candy cupcakes, and candy biscuits—or cookies, since most were from American bakers. Rosie spent a good five minutes deliberating which one to make before she finally decided: fuck it, she'd make all of them.
The first thing to do was to make a trip not to Tesco, but to the M&M's World in Leicester Square. It was expensive, it was crowded, it was a tourist trap, and she loved it. Coming here was one of her greatest memories as a little girl, and probably one of her fathers' worst. Sherlock hated pretty much all touristy places and the people in them, and although Dad liked M&Ms, he was never willing to stand in lines and fight crowds for them when, as he put it, the ones at Tesco were perfectly good and a lot less money.
Rosie, however, happily filled her bag with M&Ms of every color, and filled another bag with orange and black ones. Then she popped into a regular candy store to buy a few pieces of chocolate and peanut butter cups. By the time she was finished, her load was getting heavy and she was grateful to get on the tube and then get to her bakery and shut the door with the Closed sign on it.
The biscuits and cupcakes were simple and straightforward; just put the candy in with the dough or stick them in the frosting after the treats were done. Rosie did some of both and was pleased with the results of each. The cake, however, was where she really wanted to get creative.
After baking a funfetti cake loaded with M&Ms and Reese's, she began breaking KitKats and other chocolate bars into pieces and standing them up until they circled the cake. This was more difficult than she'd anticipated because they kept falling over, but she managed it. Next she drowned the top of the chocolate frosting-covered cake under an onslaught of M&Ms and Reese's Pieces and and stuck a few swirled lollipops inside, positioned so that the sticks were crossing each other. Some of the chocolate bars fell over again, and it was clear something was needed to tie them together.
Rosie started to reach for her bow when she remembered: licorice.
She had bought it in several different colors and had picked out the kind that was thin and long because it was more flexible. It took a few tries, but at last she managed to secure them around the candy bars and tie them into bows.
Maybe she was biased, but Rosie was thoroughly pleased.
"Really went all out, didn't you," Dad said when he met her at the door, though to her relief he sounded more impressed than annoyed. If he wasn't used to her going the extra five miles when it came to baking by now, he never would be.
"You like it?" she asked, setting the sweets on the table he'd set out. Dad didn't like making multiple trips up and down the stairs, so in recent years he had taken to just sitting outside and keeping the candy next to him. Sherlock was more or less forced to join him since was the main attraction. Dad liked to complain good-naturedly that they'd never had trick-or-treaters before Sherlock became a famous detective and now they had kids knocking on their door all night.
"Yeah, it looks good." He started to reach for a cupcake and Rosie swat his hand away.
"Stop that! These are for the children."
"Oh come on, you're telling me your old man can't have one? Unlike those would-be beggars, I've actually done something to earn this stuff."
Rosie giggled and bat his hand away again. "I remember that just-one-piece shtick you pulled when I was trick-or-treating. Next thing I knew, half my candy would be gone."
"Actually some of that was Mrs. Hudson and Mycroft," Sherlock's voice came from behind them. He gave Rosie a quick kiss on the side of the head. "They swiped your candy a few times. Mycroft I tried to stop but he'd usually be halfway to digestion by the time I opened my mouth."
"Thieves, the whole lot of them," Rosie said, and sat down next to Dad. The sky was already getting dark and the last few customers were leaving Speedy's. Sherlock brought another chair from 221A (Mrs. Hudson was with her sister for the week) and sat beside them.
The first trick-or-treaters came by a few minutes later: a princess, a ghost, and a pumpkin. They held out their bags and before they could finish saying "Trick-or-Treat!" Rosie was holding out the plates to them.
"What would you like? A candy biscuit, a candy cupcake, or a piece of candy cake?"
"Wow!" one of them said.
"That's way better than candy!" said another, and he grabbed a biscuit. The others took a cupcake. After being prompted by their parents, they thanked her and went on their way. Rosie nudged her father.
"And you wanted to buy from Tesco. For shame!"
"All right all right, I swear I will never buy another sweet from there again. From now on, I'll only come to you."
"Be prepared to be swamped with orders," Sherlock joked. "Oh, hello," he said to a man who was lingering in front of them.
"How much?" he asked.
"Oh, these aren't for sale; they're for trick-or-treaters." As soon as she saw the downturn of his lip, Rosie felt bad.
"I see. So adults can't have any?"
"Sure they can," Sherlock said, and got up. "Adults get one of these." And Rosie smiled when he took one of Rosie's bakery business cards out of his pocket and handed it to the man. "Open Monday through Saturday, ten to five."
"Thanks," the man said slightly unenthusiastically before leaving them. They barely had time to laugh over the encounter before a crowd of costumed kids began to come up from another direction, with some whispering "There he is, there's Sherlock Holmes, the famous detective."
Sherlock sighed and just as he seemed to resign himself to facing his fame, Rosie held up the plate of cake. "Hey kids, look what I have for you!"
That was all it took for them to forget all about Sherlock Holmes the famous detective and flock to Rosie, who gladly cut them each a slice of cake with M&Ms and Reese's Pieces spilling over the sides. "This is the best thing I've gotten all night," one of them declared.
The cake was a mess by the time they were finished with it, and with a little more begging Rosie let Dad and Sherlock eat the rest. "You really will be our one-stop-shop for sweets," Dad said.
"And for getting rid of the public," Sherlock added. He reached for the cupcakes and held them in front of him as if for protection. Rosie sat back and let herself relax in the knowledge that giving out candy could actually be as nice a time as collecting it.
