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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#71: Sugar and Spice

One of my favorite parts of the holidays is baking cookies. Or, to be more honest, eating cookies — but you can’t have one without the other! From peppermint to gingerbread to iced sugar cookies, there are so many mouth-watering choices, and that’s just in my own culture. The flavors get even more varied and delectable as you head around the world.

But whether you’re a professional pastry chef in real life or someone whose cookies turn out looking more like lumps of coal, in stories our desserts can be whatever we want them to be. So get your imaginations preheating, because this week we’re going to be exploring all the different reasons and flavors that drive people to pick up the mixing bowl.

This week's prompts

Write about a group of people determined to win an award for making the biggest cookie ever.

High School – 62 stories

Write about someone investigating a break-in at a bakery. The only thing missing? A very secret ingredient.

Mystery – 106 stories

Write about two people who run rival bakeries, but fall in love during their town’s annual holiday festival.

Romance – 137 stories

Write about someone trying to recreate a grandparent’s signature baked good from memory.

Kids – 161 stories

Write about someone hosting a cookie exchange as a cover to hide the true reason for inviting one of their guests.

Dark – 141 stories

Stories

“Sweet Memories (Rachel's backstory part 2)” by 🕊 🎀 𝒱𝒶𝓇𝓈𝒽𝒶 𝒱𝒾𝓂𝒶𝓁 🎀 🕊

Submitted to Contest #71

Author’s note- This is about the relationship between Rachel and her grandma Isabella. Enjoy!!! “How do you bake chocolate chip cookies, grandma?” I wondered out loud, my gran smiled, her tanned brown hair was in a tangled braid, her eyes had an old, mature style yet a childish touch to it. Her dimples appeared as she patted my back gently. “I’ll show you Rachel dear, follow me,” She took my hand in her own, I instantly felt warm and cozy with her. Grandma Bella always made the best chocolate chip cookies ever! Her signature recipes ...

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“Crumbled Cookie” by D Kase

Submitted to Contest #71

DISCLAIMER: Contains crude language and sexual references. ‘Samantha was stewing over something while she baked those damn cookies. What the hell is wrong with her this time? She's been so moody lately and I have no idea why she is even hosting this ugly sweater cookie exchange with other couples. She hates cookies! She's always so focused on her weight and appearance that she avoids sweets. 'Sam, what's wrong with you? You're acting crazy over these stupid cookies. Why are you even hosting? You don't even eat that crap.''Noth...

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“The Break-In At Jullia's Bakery ” by Felicity Longacre

Submitted to Contest #71

My name is Detective Muller and I've been assigned to a case involving a break-in at a local bakery called Jullia’s. The owner of the bakery claims that yesterday night her bakery was broken into and her secret ingredient was stolen, Miss Jullia refuses to tell me what the secret ingredient is. Without knowing what I am looking for makes my job a whole lot harder, It's like she sent me on a wild goose chase. I am going to visit her bakery once again at noon today to investigate the scene. Maybe I will find out what re...

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“The secret Ingredient” by Wirda Bibi

Submitted to Contest #71

"What we'll do Kim! The main ingredient isn't here! What we'll do this week! You know that everyone is waiting for our new cookie… It was going to be awesome, then this happened… oh Lord, help us…a…""Can you just shut up for a moment, Jane. I'm trying to think of something."They were sitting in their shop. When early morning Jane entered the shop and entered the kitchen she found something mysterious, and when she opened the cabinet… it was all upside down. Most of the things were missing, and when she found out that the new monthly cookie's...

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“Serve Warm” by Rin Smit

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #71

The smell roused me from my sleep, pulled me from the many sunken levels of my dreams. Same dream every time. I saw up over the bed and rubbed my eyes. Sighed and looked over at the journal on the desk, the pen with a full amount of ink. Who was I kidding? I haven’t written anything since he died, not for myself, not anyone, so why would I write a letter to him, he who could not read my letter anymore, he who could not take my calls. I put in the effort to drive to the store and pick out the nicest notebook I could and the smoothest ...

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“Emma and Alexander” by Emmie Greensgate 🏗🔚🔚👫

Submitted to Contest #71

(Part one, part two coming soon!)Emma rose from her makeshift bed: an old mattress with a curtain pulled around it, leaned against a crumbled wall she had built herself. Like all Poor, she rose with the sun, in a cold, dark alley on the ground, not above the ground in a high building, like the Riches did. She combed her stringy red hair with her fingers, splashed water on her face from a bucket in a makeshift bathroom, pulled on her pale-blue extra-extra-large shirt that hung on her like a dress, and left her makeshift house. Every...

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“Whisper of the Heart” by Maya W.

Submitted to Contest #71

“No matter what discouraging times there are, I’ll never show my tears. Without heart, I’ll hurry and set myself free in order to get rid of memories. Country road, Even though this road continues to my hometown I just can’t go, I can’t go...farwell, country road.” Feng reached up towards the dusty wooden cabinet, the tips of her toes gently touching the matching wooden stool. The old stool had gone through many uses in her family over the years, though the cabinet above her was hardly touched. The two had come in a set years ago, back whe...

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“Spices: a poetry-verse mystery” by Emmie Greensgate 🏗🔚🔚👫

Submitted to Contest #71

John Kazzer.My foe, my enemy, my worst-friend ever in the history of why, Samantha-Jae, why why why why why why why why. Sick. I feel sick when I see himIt's got to be himIt's got to be.What happened:Ellen's Sweet Treatscame up with a new recipe.Then theplace was robbed.Two hours ago:I went to the scene of the crime (theback kitchen)and found thatafter a careful searchonly one thing was missing.It was a red-orange powder, accordingto Ellen.A spice that she didn'ttell me the name of; thesecret ingredientOnly one perso...

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“Pecan's Bakery” by 𝔼𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕟 ✳🏳️‍🌈

Submitted to Contest #71

My momma always told me that everyone deserves some sugar in their life. She'd lean over, that twinkle in her eye, sprinkling sweetness into her pies. “We don't turn anyone away,” she chided, pressing the crust in meticulously. “Could you be a dear and get the oven? I think the cookies are done” I wonder what she'd do at this moment. Would she know the words to say to an uptight girl like Blanche Revereux? Well, there are a few choice words for that little bitch. If only the hierarchy implanted into my mind didn't scream at me to stop. I pre...

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“That Special Something” by Howard Halsall

Submitted to Contest #71

When I was six years old, I thought my Grandma would live forever. She was wise and full of life, and glowed with an inner energy. I could never imagine her being absent from my life or not being there to talk to. My mother left our family home when I was two years old and I barely remember anything about her. Grandma filled a mighty vacuum in my world and she taught me everything I know about living. She had no regrets, never spoke ill of anyone and was very forgiving. Grandma had a mischievous nature and a vivacious quality that I found bo...

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“Feel Like Baking Love” by Joshua G. J. Insole

Submitted to Contest #71

The lights of Nocte Urbis flashed red, green and gold. A few of them were icicle-blue, a purplish sheen imbued with the frost. The crowd shuffled in the snow — hats on heads, scarves around necks, mittens on hands. The flakes fell with relaxed ease — they were in no rush, they had all the time in the world. Mayor Frank gripped the podium, the bolts in his neck replaced with striped candy canes. “Ladies and gentlemen! Thank you all so much for coming out in such force this fine December evening. It’s wonderful to see so many of you! Lots of...

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“'Mail Man Love'” by Katie May

Submitted to Contest #71

"Throwing a cookie exchange for the neighborhood was such a wonderful idea, honey." Mom told me as she putted warm, soft, delicious cookies in a tin can.I gave her a soft smile, fixing the pillows on the couch. She should have said, good job Anne for throwing a party just so I can admit my feelings for the mail man. That's right. The mail man.Mr. Anderson was such a sweet man. Everyday, he would walk to the door and hand the mail right to mom's hands. Every time the door bell ran, she would drop everything and would scurry to the door, with ...

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“The Cookies” by Kristin Neubauer

Submitted to Contest #71

It had been exactly 892 days since Mrs. Ann Gardiner Stewart baked The Cookies and the 15 residents of Suter’s Lane were beginning to worry. “Do you smell vanilla?” Patricia De Leon asked Bill Tupper, slightly breathless as she raced out her front door. Mascara wand still in hand, evening gown trailing behind her, she turned her nose up toward Ann Gardiner Stewart’s townhouse. Bill, a squat gentleman who had long ago served as ambassador to the UK, set down his watering can, turned toward the townhouse that sat across the cul-de-sa...

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“For the love of baking!” by FJC Montenegro

Submitted to Contest #71

“That’s it,” Derakt said, storming into his house, “we’re killing the king!” He almost slammed the door into TooToo, who was following with quick, short steps, holding a second-place trophy. Derakt kicked off his shoes and sent them flying to the corner of the living room. TooToo did the same and left the trophy on the center table while Derakt marched through the wooden floor into the white tiles of the spacious kitchen. He took off the apron and threw it over his shoulder, loud breaths through flared nostrils. The apron landed over TooToo...

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“Kingdom for a Cookie” by Emmie Greensgate 🏗🔚🔚👫

Submitted to Contest #71

A cookie.The thing that would decide wether my cruel cousin Abek, or me, Grimelda, Crown Princess of Flura, would inherit the throne after my father's untimely death.A freaking cookie.I stepped down the sweeping marble stairs outside the grand palace. The thing was almost entirely open-air, a bunch of round, marble rooms connected by thin opal bridges. I looked like the palace, in a way: long white-blond hair, marble-pale skin, a long, flowy white dress that radiated out to the colors of the rainbow in the train and skirts, and one blue...

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$50

Prize money

607

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Dec 11, 2020 EST

Won by A.Dot Ram 🏆

Title: The Craving

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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