THE SECRET INGREDIENT

In the little town of Middleville, every Christmas they had a baking contest. It was one of the biggest events of the year to showcase the town's talent and brought lots of visitors and tourists. It also challenged the baker's to create the most Innovative cake.

The mayor and a panel of judges chose the winner who was given a cash prize. The competition this year was especially stiff and the two families who were head to head were the Nicholsons and the Mikaelsons. Ironically they had been friends many generations ago but due to a misunderstanding no one could really cite, they were arch-rivals.

The Mikaelsons bragged how this year they would make their famous blueberry cake which was a masterpiece. They spoke of how it had one of a kind ingredients including a secret ingredient that made it unbeatable. They promised that to taste it was divine and everyone was excited to see it.

The week before the final bake-off, the Mikaelson’s Bakery got broken into. The place was ransacked and a number of ingredients trashed. The Mikaelson’s said that the ingredient for their final masterpiece, which had been passed down through generations and was extremely rare to get was missing. They cried foul and there was a panic in the town. Everyone suspected the Nicholson's of having taken the ingredients but there was no proof. The Nicholson’s claimed the Mikaelson’s staged it because they were afraid to lose.

Juliet was the only child of the Mikaelson's and was seventeen that year. She loved to bake and so helped her family in the bakery. At school, she had met Romeo the only son of the Nicholson's and the two had hit it off, but they didn't tell their family. They had started sneaking out for dates and staying out late together. They didn't feel the rivalry their family did towards each other.

When the bakery of the Mikaelson's got robbed, Juliet was helping her father to clean up the shop afterwards. She came across an old book. It turned out to be her great grandmother's journal. In the book, her great grandmother told of the story of how she had met a Nicholson and fallen in love with him. Unfortunately, her father had already betrothed her to marry another man. The story went on to tell of their illicit love affair and how her father had been very upset.

On the day of her wedding, she ran off with the Nicholson boy. Her father was infuriated by this. It turns out that had been the reason for the estrangement between the two families because the Mickelson's had lost faith when their daughter eloped with the Nicholson. To add salt to injury, the two had moved back to town and were living together shamelessly. They were both excommunicated from their families.

 When Juliet saw this, she knew more than ever that she and Romeo had to hide their romance because their families wouldn't be happy at all. To find out that history was repeating itself and especially during the bake-off would be catastrophic. The families actually hated each other more after the break-in and she had been expressly forbidden from seeing anyone in the Nicholson's family.

The Mikaelsons became even more jaded and quiet around that time wondering if they would be able to win the bake-off this time because they had been a crowd favourite. They became more secretive and hired security to guard their bakery until the D-day.

Eventually, the day of the Bake-Off came and both families were rushing up and down getting their last ingredients ready. The Mikaelsons seemed sad but they still went ahead and said they wouldn't let the Nicholson's take anything from them.

And so the bake-off commenced and went on for over 6 hours.

Eventually, the bakers finished. The cakes all looked good with the Mikaelsons Blueberry cake shaped like a mountain. The Nicholsons had a chocolate- coconut fountain and other bakers had streams and tigers and all sorts of artsy pieces.

Just before the winner could be announced, Juliet’s father caught her kissing Romeo. The two lovebirds had sneaked off to enjoy a kiss and their impatience had got them in trouble. Jack Mikaelson marched up to Ron, Romeo’s father and punched him. This action led to outrage and the Nicholson’s pounced on the Mikaelson’s trading blows.

Someone hit the table with the Mikaelson’s cake and the food fight began in earnest with people scooping cake and throwing it at each other. The pans and plates weren’t spared either in the frenzy as each person tried to outdo the other.

Soon, other participants as well joined the food fight and it was all-out food war. Juliet and Romeo were mortified at what they had done. She took the journal to the mayor and showed him what had started the rift between the two families. The mayor climbed on top of a table and grabbed a megaphone to catch everyone’s attention. He told everyone to cease and desist.

The mayor read the contents of the journal to everyone. He said it was a shame that history would repeat itself over something so silly as children following their heart. He asked the families what sort of legacy they would want to leave for their children. Everyone looked at each other in silence.

Jack Mikaelson then stepped forward and said in fact the cake baked that day was a legacy of their estranged great grandmother. He said she had taught them that the best things in life were intangible. For instance, the thieves thought they had stolen a secret ingredient. According to their great grandmother’s legacy, the most important ingredient for a baker was the heart, faith and self-confidence in themself. That could be passed down for generations and no one could ever steal it.

The Nicholson’s and Mikaelson’s made up that day and actively encouraged their children to intermingle. Soon they merged their bakeries and produced the best cakes the state had ever seen. Romeo and Juliet got their happy ending.