Short Story, Word Challenge, Word Prompt, Wordle, Writing Challenge, Writing Prompts

The Icing On The Cake

Nancy's Notes 🖊️♬

Written for Sunday Whirl Wordle.
Here are Brenda’s prompt words:

waves – cake – strays – strand – churning
spot – buzz – colors – sudden – early – stirring

Image by Me & ChatGPT

Marcello had arrived early for his first shift as pastry chef aboard the Ocean Serenade, determined to make a good impression. By 6 a.m. he’d claimed the perfect spot at the counter for his masterpiece: a five-tier wedding cake in the bride and groom’s chosen colors …. blush pink and gold.

Then the waves started.

Nothing dramatic at first, just a gentle churning. Marcello told himself it was fine. He was a professional. Professionals didn’t get seasick over a little swell.

By the second tier, he wasn’t so sure. The kitchen started tilting left to right, the pots and pans swaying in perfect rhythm while his stomach couldn’t decide between a cha-cha or a bossa nova. He kept stirring the buttercream anyway, jaw clenched, breathing through his nose, telling himself the nausea was just nerves.

Then the room started humming harder; a stray curl of frosting slipped off his piping bag and he had to stop, both hands flat on the counter, praying for stillness. It suddenly felt like the ceiling flew away; somewhere above him he could hear the buzz of the reception starting …. laughter, a toast, the clink of glasses …. people who got to enjoy the ocean without their bodies rebelling.

He finished the final strand of trim with his eyes half-closed, working by memory more than sight. When the cake finally rolled out to the reception, whole and gleaming, no one had a clue what a struggle it had been for the baker

Back in the kitchen, Marcello sat down hard on a flour sack, pale but proud. A culinary crisis had been averted …. until he saw the unopened bags of sugar. With a sudden return of nausea, he realized he had accidentally used salt as one of the wedding cake’s ingredients.

Marcello was going to be sick.

NAR©2026
#Wordle

This is “Whiter Shade of Pale” by Procol Harum

Wordle 771

Everything on The Elephant’s Trunk was created by me, unless otherwise indicated, and may not be used without permission. Thanks for your consideration. NAR©2017-present.

23 thoughts on “The Icing On The Cake”

      1. Mum had some interesting cooking fails when she first married my Dad, like a plastic egg cup to keep the pastry high in a meat pie, and forgetting to take the innards bag out of the chicken before she cooked it.

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  8. I know it was the line you wrote about, “It suddenly felt like the ceiling flew away” was the reason you went with Whiter Shade of Pale and as soon as I read that I was expecting this song. Using salt instead of sugar in a cake by mistake would make it turn out to be completely inedible, and this cannot be fixed, so the cook would have to throw it out and start over. Nice story, Nancy.

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    1. All correct, Jim! The lyric “I was feeling kinda seasick” kept going through my head so I knew “Whiter Shade of Pale” would be my song. That’s when I decided to add a couple more lyrics to the story to tie it all together. Thanks for your comments; I’m really glad you enjoyed my story.

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