This Takes The Cake
A.N. The idea of John having a hobby of baking cakes came from how his character bio from the bonus material section on the The Best of Thunderbirds - The Favorite Episodes DVD, which I actually have a copy of in real life, says that he likes baking as a hobby. My friend BigMoose01 came up with the idea for the cake shop, so a big amount of kudos to him for that.
A.N. 2. The reason John's oven mitt is pink in the title card is how pink was his signature color in the original Thunderbirds series from the Sixties.
The day was like any other for the Tracy brothers. The sun was shining through the windows, Jeff had gone to work, Grandma Sally was visiting some friends at the local retirement home, Gordon was having a swim in the backyard pool after a hearty breakfast cooked by Virgil, who was now tickling the ivories*, Scott was outside doing yard work, and Alan had gone to see Dolittle at the movies with his girlfriend, Anabelle Shepherd. This left the kitchen available, and John went inside and, after turning the oven on to 350 degrees, started taking things out of the cabinets: A KitchenAid mixer, measuring cups and spoons, a rubber spatula, and two 20-inch round cake pans.
"There." he said with a smile. "I have all the tools I need. Now to fetch the ingredients."
He then extracted the following items from the fridge and pantry: Eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder and baking soda, salt, butter, buttermilk, vanilla extract, and coffee. Once he had everything measured out, he washed his hands, put on a white apron, and got to work. Before long, the entire house was smelling like a bakery. Outside, Scott was mowing the lawn when his nose detected the lovely aroma coming from the kitchen.
"Hey, Gordo!" he called.
Gordon heard Scott just as he was resurfacing.
"You holler?" he responded as he lifted his goggles from his eyes to his forehead.
"Do you smell something?" Scott asked.
Gordon sniffed the air, and he too could tell that smell whatever Scott smelled.
"Yeah, I do." Gordon replied. "What could it be?"
"It's coming from the kitchen." Scott said. "Let's go see what it is.
Gordon agreed, and after he had gotten out of the pool, dried off, and put his regular clothes back on, he and Scott went inside the house, and met up with Virgil, who had also noticed the heavenly smell.
"So, you guys smelled it too?" he asked.
"That we did." said Gordon. "Come on, let's go see what it is."
With that, the trio went into the kitchen and found John, who had taken his two cake layers out of the oven and was transferring them to a cooling rack after loading everything he had used to make it in the dishwasher.
"Hey, John." Scott said.
John was so startled he almost dropped one of the cakes, but he caught it just in time.
"Phew!" said John. "That was a close call."
"Sorry about that." said Scott. "What are you doing, anyway?"
"Making a cake." John said.
"It smells great, John." praised Gordon. "I can't wait to try some!"
"Don't worry, you'll get to after I've iced it." reassured John. "But it needs to cool first."
Just then, the phone in the kitchen rang, and when the call was answered, the caller was revealed to be Alan, who told his brothers that he was on his way home from the movie and that he planned on getting KFC for lunch. He then asked if any of them needed anything else.
"Actually, yes." said John. "Can you pick up a bag of Pillsbury Purely Simple Chocolate Frosting, an icing comb, and an icing syringe?"
"Sure." Alan replied.
"Thanks, Al." said John.
"No problem." said Alan.
Eventually, Alan arrived home with the food and John's requested supplies just as the cake had cooled enough to be iced. Once John had made the icing and filled the syringe, he used a rubber spatula to spread icing on top of one of the cake layers and gently pressed the other layer on top of it, then he spread icing on the rest of the cake. Once that was done, he decorated the cake by first using the cake comb to make ridges on the outside of the cake, then he used the icing syringe to make a dollop border on top and a shell border on the bottom. Afterwards, he took a bottle of chocolate syrup and drizzled it onto the top of the cake. Once that was completed, he used a cake knife and cut it into seven slices, including two for Jeff and Sally. The brothers decided to have their lunch before their cake, which they did. Needless to say, the minute they sank their teeth into their slices, they became very anamored by the taste and texture.
"Wow, John, you really went and outdid yourself." said Scott.
"Yeah, it tastes like a pro made it!" added Gordon. "I mean that as a compliment, by the way."
"I know." John chuckled. "I'm already starting to wonder how Dad and Grandma will like it."
His answer came later that evening, because when Jeff and Sally had their slices after a Chinese takeout dinner with the boys, they loved it.
"This is the best chocolate cake I've ever had." Jeff said to John. "Well done, John."
"Thanks, Dad." John said.
That night, as he slept, John had a dream. In the dream, he had opened a cake shop and was selling all kinds of cakes to millions of people, and everyone who bought a cake or tasted one of the free samples loved them. When he awoke the next morning, he was beaming from ear to ear.
"That dream gave me a great idea!" he announced.
After getting dressed and having a quick breakfast of a bowl of Froot Loops, he went outside to the backyard. He eventually came out with what looked like a market stand.
"There, that's all set up." he said. "Now onto Phase 2."
Before long, the stand had "Johnny's Fresh-Baked Cupcakes." painted on its top in orange paint and John was standing behind it. He had also stapled a price chart to one of the support poles.
"I'm bound to have at least customer come soon." he said.
Just then, a man walked up to the stand.
"Hi, I can't help but notice you're selling cupcakes, and thought I'd take one." the man said.
"Certainly." John said. "How many?"
"Just one, please." the man replied.
"Alright." said John. "Chocolate or vanilla?"
"Chocolate." came the man's answer.
John gave the man his cupcake.
"That'll be one dollar, please." said John.
The man took a one-dollar bill out of his wallet and gave it to John.
"Come again soon!" John said.
Soon, more and more people came to buy John's cupcakes, and soon, he was cleaned out, and when he counted how much money he had received, he was astonished.
"Wow." he said. "I've made more than I first anticipated!"
He relaid this news to his family.
"That was very good thinking, John." Jeff praised. "In fact, I know just how to help grow this little seed of business you planted. There's an old shop in the downtown area that hasn't been touched for years, and I know the fella who owns the property. I'll ask if it'll be alright for you to set up shop there."
Jeff got on the phone and made this request, and sure enough, the owner was more than happy to oblige, and once that was done, the family did more planning. It was decided that Scott, Virgil, Gordon, and Alan would each work for the shop, with Alan serving as the delivery driver while Scott, Virgil, and Gordon worked with John in the kitchen helping to bake and decorate the cakes, the name of the shop would be "This Takes The Cake", and Jeff made an agreement with the owner to have a renovation crew come and restore the old shop to its former glory while John took an online business management and administration course and Virgil got to work making a website for the shop on Wix, which took quite some time, but in the end, all the necessary tasks were completed, and soon, the day of the Grand Opening arrived. The entire family was present at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, and the minute the ribbon was cut, the entire shop was flooded with customers buying cakes and bombarded with calls placing delivery and pickup orders. In addition, people started filling in job applications both online and on paper. Before any of the Tracy brothers knew it, the place became popular with the locals, with orders and customers alike coming into the shop nearly every day. They had even appeared in the local paper. After a few weeks of the store's opening, John was seen at his desk in his new office reading the newspaper article again with pride.
"Who would've thought one's passion for making professional-level cakes could amount to this?" John asked.
Just then, the telephone on the desk rang and John answered it.
"This Takes The Cake." he said as he picked up the handpiece. "How may I help you?"
The caller told John why the call was being made, and John wrote some things down on a piece of paper.
"Alright, I'll get that in for you." said John. "Thanks for calling."
After hanging up, John rose from his seat, took his apron off a coat rack, and walked out of the office.
"Time to work some magic." he said.
The End