December 15 was National Cupcake Day. In the honor of that special day, I decided to give out a dozen free cupcakes from Sugar Baking to the first few people who sent me a story about cupcakes.

I received five submissions, one of which I can’t print here because of the subject matter. You can read the other four stories, unedited, below.

And if you’re in the mood for a cupcake or other amazing baked goods, do be sure to check out Sugar Baking.

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Worst.Sister.Ever

By Natalie.

I fear my memory is going….quickly. Two weekends ago, I forgot my lil sister’s birthday, and she was actually WITH me for the whole day! I am the WORST. SISTER. EVER!

So this past weekend, to make up for it, I decided to bake her a dozen cupcakes, icing and all. However, the temptation to just buy a beautiful, professionally decorated cake instead was VERY tempting while I was out getting the cupcake ingredients. But I resisted the temptation - nothing says ‘I’m SO sorry, please forgive me’ like baked goods you put your heart, tears and soul into, right?

All was looking great until I went to put on icing – this is when I realized I couldn’t make the cupcakes look pretty for the life of me – my cupcakes just had big blobs of icing piled on top, and no matter how much I tried to ‘smooth’ it out, nothing but peaks and valleys!

But I sprinkled them with lots of confectionary colour and drove out to Hamilton from Toronto to surprise my sister with my cupcake love and birthday candles, fingers crossed she would forgive me.

I have the BEST sister in the world, so there was no hesitation in forgiveness, and actually even wonderment that I had felt bad to begin with because, she said, spending the day together was all she would have asked for! The cupcakes and surprise visit were a big hit – even garnered a BEST. BIRTHDAY. EVER. (greatly exaggerated, I’m sure) - But she even said the cupcakes looked great – now that is love!

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Secret Item

By mererhetoric.

I love cupcakes, so of course I had to impart my own preferences on my sister’s bridal shower!

When you put a group of ladies together, you get both creativity and heightened competition. Perfect.
I baked a couple dozen vanilla cupcakes with Magnolia’s popular recipe, and a secret item slipped into one liner. Some sprinkles, frosting, coloured gel tubes, smiles and much laughter later, a contest of cupcake decoration was complete, with the bride-to-be choosing her favourites. (photo attached)

What was the secretly slipped in item? An “engagement ring” to help indicate who would be getting married next. The bad news was that it went to an already wedded lady, but it’s all just fun and games!

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The Big Three Oh

By Risti.

I turned thirty years old this year. The big 3-0. Upon hitting this landmark I decided that I was old enough to celebrate in the way that I wanted and to do something sweet for myself. So, I didn’t ask anyone for presents. I didn’t ask anyone to do anything special for me or to throw a party for me. Afterall, I’m thirty now, aren’t I old enough to do these things for myself? No more settling for an awkward dinner out with the family, trying to please the little sis, trying to find a cake that everyone approves of, trying to make everyone else happy on my own birthday. Instead, I picked up the phone and called my favourite cupcakery and ordered thirty custom cupcakes. One for every year. I had them delivered to my office and I paid for them myself. I shared the cupcakes with my co-workers then took the rest home to enjoy. I made homemade pizza that night because that’s what I wanted. When my family asked me what kind of cake I wanted, I proudly told them that I had bought myself cupcakes. My sister was so confused. “You mean you bought your own birthday cupcakes?” Yes. Believe it or not. I’m not a little girl anymore, I’m not a little princess. I have a job and a mortgage, I pay my bills. I can buy myself birthday cupcakes. Mom and dad, you can buy sis a trip to Mexico for her birthday. That’s fine. I just paid for my own Mexican holiday and it feels great.

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Friends are Like Cupcakes in the Bakery of Love

By Jenna.

For four years I lived in residence at U of T with a handful of exceptional young ladies. Yes, in an all-girls dorm. We all loved each other dearly and did practically everything together. We would even shower at the same time in these stall-like showers that offer semi-privacy so you could talk/sing to your neighbour with the help of some mighty echoes. I swear, we deliberately would schedule our showers simultaneously to do this sometimes. That specific activity with my dear pal Chloe. Well, needless to say, we would also goad each other on to finish school work as well, since that was supposedly our most pertinent and pressing purpose in life at that time. We’d force each other to do work, and then meet for “breaks” that would inevitably last longer than the proposed study period to watch old seasons of absurd reality programs.

At one point, towards the end of one of our years there, we decided to celebrate some larger milestones (like finishing entire courses) by taking a jouney up Yonge St on foot. Partially for one of our American pals who hadn’t really fully experienced Toronto in her year there studying Philosophy and Ancient Greek. She was also planning to leave us to become a Dominican Sister, so it ended up being the only eight months she was ever to spend in Toronto (thus far). Well, it made sense to us to walk from Bloor to way North of Eglinton and stop the journey at the Cupcake Shoppe. So really this trek was to be a major benchmark for quite a few of us. It was actually the last year in Toronto for one of our most beloved Dons as well, and our journey was to commemmorate all of that as well. We planned this excursion about a month in advance, and literally perused the menu online to decide which cupcakes to get on arrival. I’m almost certain I ended up getting a “Curious George.”

When I think of that time I can only reminisce on how much I accomplished while simultaneously having so much fun with some of the most awesome broads around. It is hard to even grasp the concept of how many essays I once wrote when now I cannot finish just one over a span of a year. Sometimes I think back to that time with those ladies, when we’d just park our laptops next to one another, one of us playing the Sims (because she had finished all her coursework for the term) while the other frantically churned out yet another final paper (few of us actually wrote exams due to our Humanities-related vocations) and I wonder if I could have ever even done it without them. Now, I think, the one thing I’m really trying to accomplish is how to be my own friend during the tough times, you know? I am getting there though, even without the cupcakes at the end of a Yonge St. climb.

Today wasn’t the greatest of days, because I just found out that my cousin Amanda (one of those fine gals) won’t be able to come back to Canada for the holidays (they are all literally dispersed around the world and I’m the only one remaining in Toronto) and yet now I’m not too concerned about getting the prize cupcakes, because looking at this photo again and thinking back on those fine times has made me smile.