Candlehead Takes the Cake
Everyone in Sugar Rush knows that if there's one thing EVERYONE loves, its racing! A day cannot go by without a race, whether it's on the official track or it it's just for fun.
Everyone loved to race.
But Candlehead?
There was something she loved MORE than racing and that was CAKE!
Cake here, cake there. Candlehead loved cake ANYWHERE.
In her house, in the garden, on the track, in the castle.
If there was cake, Candlehead was sure to be there, but if there was one thing Candlehead LOVED more than eating cake, it was making cake!
Especially if it was for her friends.
One day, Candlehead woke up bright and early with an idea in her head; she wanted to make the BEST, most DELICIOUS and SCRUMPTIOUS cake for all her friends in Sugar Rush but she wanted to make it a surprise.
"Surprise cake is the best cake!" Candlehead giggled with glee and off she went!
When it came to SURPRISE CAKE, Candlehead thought it would be best to ask go around and find out her friend's favorite cake but she also had to make sure that she didn't clue them in on the surprise.
What kind of surprise would it be if everyone KNEW about the surprise? Not a good one, that's for sure!
"Hello Taffyta!" Candlehead beamed as she approached her friend "I was just wonderin', if ya were to find a big, big, BIGGIE-HUGE cake outta nowhere, what type would it be?"
Taffyta smiled, "Strawberry of course! With HUGE strawberries and large dollops of whipped cream! That's the best to me!"
Candlehead smiled; she had one cake type down!
"But…." Taffyta piped in "If you were to ask me what cake I didn't like, it would have to be…bleh, red velvet! Never cared for it really."
"Gotcha!" said the little candle racer "Strawberries GOOD! Red velvet, BAD!" and off she went to search for her other friends, skipping and humming a tune as she went along "Ooooh! This is gonna be so good! I can't wait to for the others to see the cake when its done!"
The next person she ran into was Vanellope, the racer tuning a few things in her car.
"Hellooooo, Nelly!" the ditzy racer sang "I've been meanin' ta ask ya! What's one of your FAVORITE cakes?"
Vanellope scratched her head as she thought but then a smile appeared on her face, "Oh! Ya know what? I've always wanted to try more RED VELVET CAKE!"
Candlehead stopped, her smile staring to fade "D-Did ya say…RED VELVET?"
Vanellope nodded "Yup! I've started to get a taste for it but if that won't work, anythin' will do! All except for, bleh, CARAMEL cake! It's TOO sweet, even for ME!"
Candlehead began to worry; she had just asked two of her best friends about their favorite cake but as it turned out, one racer's favorite was another's LEAST!
What was the girl to do?
Wait, this was CAKE she was dealing with! No matter what, Candlehead would find a way to make ALL her friends happy! The little racer gave a wave and a bye as she continued on her trek but as she was quick to find out…
It seemed that everyone's favorite cake was a type that someone else disliked!
Crumbellina LOVED caramel but hated strawberry and Snowanna loved rainbow but hated spice! Gloyd loved spice but hated marshmallow but Sticky loved marshmallow and hated peanut butter!
And it went on…
And on….
AND ON!
The more she gathered from her friends, the more stumped she became.
Just how in the world was she going to fix all her friends the best cake in the world when there were so many conflicting tastes?
"If I give 'em a cake they like, I'll make someone else upset…." Candlehead thought "But if I DON'T give 'em what they want, they'll be upset!"
What to do, what to do?
Had the impossible happened?
Was Candlehead finally bested by cake?
No! She couldn't let things end here, especially not when her friends were involved!
She had to move forward and bake for baking sake and if there were so many different taste…
She would just have to COMBINE THEM ALL!
"YES!" she cheered "I'll make…A SUPER CAKE! I'm SURE everyone will love that!"
Later that night, Candlehead crept into one of the large bakeries that dotted the land. With all the cake she had to bake, she was going to need a LOT of space and a LOT of ingredients!
"Alright!" she said in a powerful voice "Let's get BAKIN'!"
While everyone knew that Candlehead could bake anything under the sun, when dealt with this task, things were starting to prove to be overwhelming for the poor girl. There was just too much to bake and only one Candlehead!
When she tried baking the strawberry cake, the strawberries became mush, their flavor sour and not at all fit for a delectable treat!
No one wanted sour strawberries!
When she tried making rainbow cake, the colors swirled too much and transformed into a tasteless grey goo.
Who would want to eat that?
The red velvet wasn't close to being red, the peanut butter wouldn't melt! The spice was not spicy and the marshmallows charred to ash! Grape was not tasty, the chocolate turned to crumbles! The cream cheese for the carrot cake was much too runny!
It seemed that everything that could go wrong WAS and Candlehead was helpless!
But she had to keep going! She just wanted to make her friends happy!
Even with the deluge of cake batter that was spilling everywhere, Candlehead knew she had to bake her cake.
"If there is one thing I can do, its bake a cake an' there is no way I'm givin' up now!"
The small girl poured the large concoction into a huge pan, having quite the time trying to get it into the oven. She hoped and she wished that a few hours in the oven would make things better but as she got a glimpse of the sludge as it baked, it dawned to her just how much trouble she had gotten herself into.
The batter began to bubble, the batter began to boil! It sloshed in the oven, it spilled everywhere.
"Uh-oh…."
KA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
With a MIGHTY boom, the batter EXPLODED from the oven, coating EVERYTHING in the bakery with sticky, icky cake batter!
Every racer, from Vanellope to Citrusella were knocked off their feet as they heard the large sound and quickly came running to the bakery, seeing batter spilling from every corner and smoke billowing from the chimney!
"Who's in there?!" demanded Taffyta, looking around.
For a second, no one answered but then everyone noticed a small figure sitting in the middle of the great mess.
A little figure with a broken candle hat.
"CANDLEHEAD?!" asked a stunned Vanellope "What are you doin' here?!"
The candleheaded girl looked around, taking in just how much of a mess she had caused. She could only imagine how upset everyone was but what was worse was that she had failed.
For the first time ever, she had failed in baking the PERFECT cake.
Candlehead sniffed, Candlehead whimpered and without so much as a word, she jumped to her feet and bolted out the door, her battered-dipped footprints trailing some way.
"What was THAT all about?" asked Taffyta, still stunned at the condition the baker was in "And just what in the world was Candlehead doing so late?!"
Vanellope looked around as something caught her eye. Stuck in the batter was a little list and on this list were various cakes.
It didn't take Vanellope long to figure out what each cake meant.
Inside her little cottage, Candlehead scrubbed the last of the batter out of her hair but she could not rid herself of the sickly sweet smell of the cake. Just thinking about it brought tears to her eyes but what more could she do? With the way things were, she was certain that Vanellope would ban her from baking ever again!
"W-what kinda cake racer am I if I can't even bake cakes for my friends?"
Candlehead put on her pajamas and got into bed but to her dread, the monster cake haunted her dreams. She tossed and turned as the huge beast chased her around, lobbing gobs of sticky, icky batter at her!
Of all the cake-themed dreams Candlehead had, this was the worst!
Candy birds sang their morning song as the sun began to rise but Candlehead didn't feel like getting out of bed. She was still upset from what happened the other night that she wasn't sure if she could even show her face at the track.
"I-I guess I hafta go…." She mopped, driving her kart where everyone usually met.
But to her surprise, no one was there!
"Hello? Where is everyone?"
Candlehead searched and searched for everyone but there was not a Candy Racer to be found. This only made the little racer feel worse, thinking that perhaps they had left her.
Why wouldn't they? She had made such a terrible mess.
As she turned to leave, the racer spotted a note near the grandstand.
Candlehead! We need you right away! Hurry to the bakery as fast as you can before things get out of hand!
-The gang
Candlehead gasped as she read the note, worried that something had happened to her friends. She hopped into her kart and sped off and as soon as she opened the door of the bakery….
"SURPRISE!"
Confetti flew everywhere and the racers gave a cheer!
There was no trouble in Sugar Rush! Instead, there was a PARTY!
Candlehead was stunned, her hat popping off her head "G-guys?! What's THIS?!"
"It's a party, of course!" laughed Vanellope as she pulled her friend in "An' what type of party would it be without the cake expert of Sugar Rush?"
"I'm no expert…." Sighed Candlehead "Ya saw what happened yesterday….I'm sorry that I ruined everything…."
"You didn't ruin a thing!" Taffyta said tartly "In fact, without YOUR list, we might not have been able to make this!"
Candlehead could do nothing more than stare up in awe as a massive, towering, HUMONGOUS cake was wheeled into the bakery, its frosting bright and beautiful, its smell so warm and mouth-watering!
Wait, Candlehead recognized those smells….
It was the smell of EVERYONE'S favorite cake in Sugar Rush!
Red Velvet for Vanellope, strawberry for Taffyta! Spice for Gloyd, rainbow for Snowanna!
Rancis had peanut butter and Jubileena had cherry! Citrusella had blueberry and lemon, while choco-mint was for Minty!
Crumbellina had her caramel and Sticky had her marshmallow! Torvald had buttery cream and Adorabezzle had icy lemon! Swizzle had tutti-frutti and Nougetsia had berry blast!
Everyone's favorite cake was there but it wasn't the cake that surprised Candlehead the most.
It was the fact that all her friends had worked together to create the very thing she wanted to share with them.
"Why…why did ya do this?" Candlehead stuttered, at a loss for words.
"We figured that ya needed a break!" Vanellope smiled "After all, ya always make us cakes. It's high times that we did the same for you!"
A small smile formed on the candleheaded racer's face but it began to grow, and grow, and GROW!
"YIPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" she cheered, nearly leaping ten feet off the ground!
There had never been such a wonderful party in Sugar Rush before, every racer gathered round and sharing their favorite cakes with each other.
Things couldn't have been better!
"Hey, Candlehead!" asked Vanellope "I've been meanin' to ask you. What's YOUR favorite cake?"
Candlehead smiled as she took another huge slice "Oh, I don't have a FAVORITE cake! I love them ALL!"
With as much cake as she ate that day, it was obvious she did.
And Candlehead wouldn't have had it any other way.