by Sable Sylvan
“Well, the judges have nearly made their way down the pie section,” said Jevon, pointing to a section many rows away. “Guess it’s just a matter of time before they come and try the best dang muffins in town.”
Jennifer cut up more samples of the muffins and put them out for passersby to try, handing out cards for Bear Claw Bakery that came with a coupon code to encourage people to come by and come buy. There wasn’t a soul in town that hadn’t heard of Bear Claw Bakery, but that didn’t mean that the bakery could slack on advertising just how good their baked goods were.
“All the townsfolk seem to be enjoying the muffins,” said Rufus. “I think that’s a good sign.”
“It depends on what the judges are looking for,” admitted Jennifer. “But look — at least we tried our best, didn’t we?”
“We did,” agreed Jevon.
The trio watched as the judges finally entered the muffin lane. They spent a few minutes at each table, some sampling muffins, most abstaining and waiting to try the muffins at the judging table. Jennifer saw the judges laugh and smile at the Toad in the Hole Cafe table but remembered what Jevon and Rufus had taught her — that although this was a competition, she didn’t need to compare herself to others, especially those she didn’t know very well.
The judges finally came to her table. Jennifer stood up. Before she could say a word, a judge frowned, picked up a muffin, and started to squeeze it tight in his hand.
“What is this?” asked one of the judges. “This isn’t a marionberry muffin! This is an outrage!”
‘It’s not an outrage, it’s a muffin,” said another judge. “Can’t you tell the difference?”
“Well if you ask me, any pastry with the gall to not have marionberries in it is an outrage!” blithered the angry judge. “I’m not even a bear shifter, and I swore I could smell marionberries! What a bear-bait and switch!”
“Nobody asked you!” said the sassy judge.
“This outrageously delicious muffin has marionberries in it — but you’re right,” said Jennifer calmly and politely, using her customer service voice. “It’s not a marionberry muffin. It’s a stud muffin.”
“It’s a stud muffin bear,” said Jevon.
“Yeah — a bear,” said Jennifer. “But, I could’ve done any design. Try one. You won’t be disappointed.”
Another judge picked up a muffin and scrutinized it. “How is this supposed to look like a bear?”
A tall man in a jacket took the muffin from the judge, turned it around, and said, “It looks like a bear when looked at right-side up.”
“Of course, you’d give her help,” said the judge. “You’re her boss.”
“He’s not my boss,” said Jennifer with a laugh. “My boss is Patricia —” Jennifer stopped and looked over the man. He was tall, broad-shouldered, older than her, with dark marks on his hands that looked like the same dark marks on the hands of her lovers.
“Are you my boss?” asked Jennifer weekly.
“I mean, my name’s Jasper Dixon, and I technically own the bakery, but —” started Jasper.
“I’m so sorry, sir, I had no idea, I —” started Jennifer.
“Don’t worry about it,” said Jasper.
“How does she live in Port Jameson and not know about Jasper Dixon?” asked a judge. Jasper glared at them, and they shut up by putting a muffin in their mouth.
“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, miss…?” started Jasper, extending a hand.
“Jennifer, Jennifer Drury,” said Jennifer, shaking her ultra-boss’ hand.
“Well, Jennifer — I’m here as a member of the Chamber of Commerce, rather than as your boss, so that means no special treatment,” warned Jasper. “Now — what do you have here?”
“These are stud muffins, designed to look like bears. They’re inspired by Bear Claw Bakery,” said Jennifer.
“Because they’re decorated to look like bears?” asked a judge.
“Yes — but also, because these are bear claw inspired muffins, inspired by the bear claw pastry,” explained Jennifer. “These are almond muffins — which is why they might remind you of macarons. I added a cinnamon sugar swirl, as well as honey icing — made with local honey. The tops of the muffins are decorated with marzipan and almond slivers that form a bear’s face and add some sweetness and nuttiness to the muffin.”
Once Jennifer had started talking, she was able to continue without needing to look at her notes even once. “The marzipan is made by hand at Bear Claw Bakery from the same local honey used in the honey icing and as the binder in the cinnamon swirl. That helps bind the top and bottom of the muffins together with a cohesive thread of flavor running through the entire pastry. There are bits of marionberries in the batter, just a hint, to remind people of Port Jameson, where the bakery first started. The honey and berries represent the bear shifter community of this town…a community I’ve really gotten to love.” Jennifer felt her hands get squeezed. She looked to each side. Jevon and Rufus were holding her hands, grinning ear to ear. She pressed their hands back and smiled.
“Beary — I mean, very interesting,” said one of the other judges, who had been taking notes. “Well, best of luck — and may the best muffin win!”
“Of course,” said Jennifer.
“What smells so scrumptious?” asked a woman’s voice. A woman approached the table, led by the arm by a man who looked a lot like Jasper.
“Grandma!” said Jasper. “What did I tell you? I said I’d bring you your treats myself. You shouldn’t be walking in this heat.”
“Oh, nonsense,” said the woman. “This bake-off is just an excuse for me to come out and meet people. Hello, nice to meet you, I’m Grandma Dixon, and Jasper and Charles here are two of my many grandsons. Charles, grab me one of the muffins. I am hungry.”
“Grandma Dixon — it’s wonderful to see you again,” said Jennifer. “You probably don’t remember me, but, I moved here a month or two ago, and —”
“Jennifer? Jennifer Drury?” asked Grandma Dixon. “I never forget a muffin. Yours are no exception. I’ve had more muffins than you can shake a mule’s tail at. I’m so glad you have the confidence to enter the Port Jameson Bake-Off even though you’re new in town…and, you’re up against some stiff competition.”
“Well, today’s muffin is very special,” said Jennifer. “I think you’ll like it!”
The man — presumably Charles — asked, “Can I grab one too?”
“Here, this one’s extra special, and here’s one for you too — not as special, but pretty good,” said Jennifer with a wink. “Enjoy!”
Charles passed a muffin to Grandma Dixon.
“Oh, now, this feels good,” said Grandma Dixon.
“It looks good too,” said Charles. “There are almonds on the top, in the shape of a bear’s face.”
“Charles — don’t get Bear Claw Bakery disqualified,” groaned Jasper.
“Oh, you worry too much,” said Grandma Dixon. “What, you’re afraid Jennifer will get disqualified because a judge knows her? Well, honey — I know everyone in town, especially the gals that can bake up a thunderstorm! I guess either everyone’s disqualified, or the rules really don’t matter.”
Jasper shook Jennifer’s hand before moving on. “It was a pleasure to meet you three, Jennifer, and…well, I didn’t catch your names, but…we really must be moving on to the next table.”
“Of course,” said Jennifer with a nod. Jasper nodded back, and the judges moved on.
“Didn’t even frikkin’ learn our names,” muttered Rufus.
“Is this what being slighted is?” asked Jevon. “If so — I feel slighted.”
“Jennifer!” called a voice. Jennifer turned. Patricia had shown up to the bake-off! Jennifer waved as Patricia approached the table.
“Patricia — what are you doing here?” asked Jennifer. “I thought Bear Claw Bakery wasn’t running a stand at the bake-off — except, you know, this one.”
“Well…we’ve only entered the muf
fin category, and we don’t have more booths, but you know — that’s Jasper’s rule,” said Patricia. “I’ve been watching from afar. I wanted to wait until he was gone to come over. It looked like the judges liked your muffin!”
“They did — but I don’t know if I’m going to make it to the finals,” said Jennifer.
“Maybe we should’ve entered an easier category,” admitted Patricia. “You know — only one person submitted a croquembouche.”
“A crock of bushes? What?” asked Jevon.
“A croquembouche — a tower of tiny pastry balls and caramel,” explained Rufus.
“Of course, you’d know what it is,” said Jennifer with a laugh. “Well — what’s done is done. This is what we’ve got, and no matter what, we know we tried our hardest.”
“You know — I never actually got to try out your ‘stud muffins,’” said Patricia.
“Here,” said Jennifer, picking the cutest bear muffin and passing it to Patricia. She gave a muffin to each of the members of her lovers and took a muffin herself.
“To the stud muffins!” said Jennifer, holding up her muffin.
“To the stud muffins,” agreed Patricia, tapping her muffin against Jennifer’s muffin. Jevon and Rufus tapped muffins and then tapped muffins with Patricia and Jennifer.
“Oh — these are good,” said Patricia, chewing her first bite of muffin. “We might have to add these to our permanent menu!”
Microphone feedback filled the air. The two bakers and the two bears turned to the stage.
“Will the finalists for the muffin bake-off please come to the stage?” asked one of the judges. “Daisy Craston…Meredith Baxter…Brittany Patrick…Mary Lou Meyers…and…Jennifer Drury.”
Chapter Eleven
Patricia, Jevon, and Rufus sat in the crowd, watching as Jennifer set up her station. They didn’t want to distract her, so they waited in silence, waving when she looked up at them for moral support. Rufus went and grabbed the trio fresh cups of lemonade.
“Thank you, Rufus. You know…I knew about the marks,” said Patricia.
“Because you know about ménages?” asked Jevon.
“No — I mean I knew you had matching marks from nearly the frikkin’ start,” said Patricia with a grin.
“You mean…you knew the whole time that Jevon and I were supposed to work together?” asked Rufus. “Did you see what they were?”
“Of course — I know what a muffin looks like,” said Patricia.
“So why didn’t you just tell us?” asked Jevon, nearly pulling out his hair.
“Because you two ruined my frikkin’ bakery, and I wasn’t about to do you two any favors,” said Patricia with a grin. “Maybe that’ll serve as a warning to the rest of you lumber bears. I might not be a shifter, but I’m a mama bear, and my bakers, they’re my cubs. Mess with my den or my cubs, and you’ll get my bear claws — and I’m not talking about the ones that take home first every year.”
Patricia opened her purse and took out a blue ribbon with a gold stamp of the number one and put it away.
“I thought the bakery wasn’t supposed to enter more than one category,” said Rufus.
“Jasper may be my boss, but he ain’t my master, and you bears aren’t the only ones that break the rules,” said Patricia.
Jennifer put out her ingredients in pre-portioned batches. The rules of the bake-off were clear. She had to make a dozen muffins for the judges, in front of the audience. While the crowd wasn’t very full, she was still nervous. Out of the five finalists, she was the one stuck with the center station, in the center of the baking stage.
Jennifer looked at her notes and was glad her handwriting wasn’t any worse than it already was. She readjusted her ponytail, washed her hands, and got to work.
Jevon, Rufus, and Patricia watched as Jennifer baked. She wasn’t the fastest baker on the stage, but she was taking her time and wasn’t making any mistakes. She was smart — the recipe was new and complicated, and Jennifer was using the time allotted to her effectively, by taking the time to make sure she did everything correctly.
Jennifer put the muffins in the oven and used a folding chair to sit in front of her oven and watch the muffins cook. Other competitors had gone to chat with people in the audience, but Jennifer wanted to be near her precious muffins in case anything went wrong. For all she knew, the oven could be running hot or running too cold. She hoped she’d ended up with a Goldilocks oven — the kind that ran neither too hot nor too cold, but just right.
She looked at her timer. There were ten seconds left. She stood, mitts already on her hands, opened the oven, and when she heard the timer go off, she pulled the muffins out, placing them on the waiting trivet. The heat of the oven made the sweat on her forehead steam up.
Jennifer wiped her forehead clean. She looked around. Everyone else was mulling around — except for Brittany, who was sitting in front of her oven, eyes looking a little droopy.
Jennifer looked at her ingredients. Sugar and lemon juice and ice and water were provided for the bake-off — the ingredients for a simple lemonade. She added the remains of the marionberries at the bottom of the bag of marionberries she’d brought to the competition.
Mixing up a cup of marionberry lemonade in a measuring cup using a spoon, she walked over to Brittany, who kept her eyes on her oven.
“Hey, you looked like you could use this,” said Jennifer.
“What is that?” asked Brittany, flicking her eyes up, before looking back to the oven. Both Brittany and the on-looking judges were confused.
“Just some marionberry lemonade,” said Jennifer. “You look like you need a beverage. It’s important to stay hydrated in this heat — and sitting in front of the oven doesn’t help things.”
“Don’t tell me how to bake,” said Brittany, raising her eyebrows.
“I’m not — I’m telling you to stay hydrated because I don’t want you to miss me getting that blue ribbon, just because you decided not to drink enough water and end up getting carried away by an EMT,” said Jennifer.
“Well, who knows? Maybe they’d be cute EMTs,” joked Brittany, taking the offered beverage. She sipped at it and smiled while watching her oven.
“What?” asked Jennifer.
“It’s good,” said Brittany. “Thanks.”
“Consider it payback for earlier,” said Jennifer.
“It’s the kind of ‘payback’ I can get behind,” admitted Brittany. Jennifer nodded and went back to her station.
The time came to take her muffins out of the tin cleanly. Jennifer had tested the recipe with and without muffin liners. She had opted to use plain brown kraft paper muffin liners, tulip-style, with petals that came up around the muffin’s tops.
Jennifer quickly took the items she had laid out for decorating the muffins. The muffins were hotter than ideal. She’d hoped the muffins would’ve cooled down to just slightly above room temperature, but because the bake-off was held outside, under the hot sun, her muffins were still pretty warm. That meant the decor on the top of the muffins might melt off and not set properly.
Jennifer used the honey glaze on the muffin tops, applying the honey glaze to all the muffins before adding a layer of sliced almonds, which adhered to the muffin tops due to the stickiness of the glaze. She put on almond slivers, whole and cut into smaller pieces, to form the facial features of the bears, which were a bit cartoonish. She used marzipan to adhere the thicker almond slivers to the tops of the muffins, with bigger dollops used to make the bear face’s eyes.
Jennifer made sure each muffin looked good and then plated them onto the provided six plates for the judges. One of the judge’s assistants came and took the muffins over to the judging table. Now, the judges would judge whether the muffins made at the bake-off were as good at the muffins made for the initial judgments.
A section of folding chairs was set up for the contestants to wait in while the judge’s assistants cleaned up the workstations for the next sets of bakers. Jennifer took a
seat next to Brittany, who nodded at her, and the pair watched the judges poke and prod the many muffins.
After twenty minutes, the judges were finally ready to make a decision.
“…In third place, Daisy Craston’s ‘daisy’ muffins, with lemon buttercream frosting,” said Jasper. Daisy went up, took her ribbon, waved to the crowd, and went into the audience, where Jennifer noticed Daisy had a ménage of her own!
“…In second place, representing Toad in the Hole Cafe, Brittany Patrick’s marionberry muffins!” said Jasper.
Brittany had gotten up as soon as she heard the word toad, adjusted her apron, put on a smile, and turned to Jennifer, and whispered, “You better take first.”
Brittany went up, took her ribbon, took the mic, and said, “Come by Toad in the Hole Cafe for twenty-five percent off all orders of a dozen or more marionberry pastries, this weekend only!” Then, she left the stage to join a gaggle of other curvy women, in identical uniforms, who were ecstatic that the cafe had taken home an award at all.
“Give me that!” said a voice. Jennifer turned back to the stage. Charles had walked his Grandma Dixon over to the mic, and apparently, Grandma Dixon wanted to take her turn MC-ing.
“Sure, here,” said Jasper, passing his grandmother the mic.
“Woo! Go Grandma Dixon!” called a voice from the crowd.
“Are you all having a fun time at the bake-off?” asked Grandma Dixon. “My vision ain’t what it used to be, but my ears, well, they’re alright…so let me hear what you have to say!” She held the mic toward the crowd, and people cheered. Jasper and Charles smiled. Their grandma was ever the show-woman.
“Now…it’s my honor to announce the first of the many winners of today’s bake-offs,” said Grandma Dixon. “Anyone who makes it up on this stage, to show us what they’ve got, is a winner in my book. Now…I think I know who won, but, uh…Charles?”
Grandma Dixon’s grandson leaned down and whispered something into her ear. The woman smiled. Her suspicions had been confirmed.
