She had made it to the final round, heck, they all had. Everyone here was a tried and true chef in her eyes – well, maybe she wasn’t a chef persay. She was a baker masquerading as a lawyer. Still, her she was, getting ready to create a dessert for the masses watching today.

”Its been a pleasure cooking with all of you, I consider you all chefs” she told her competitors before turning her attention back to the preparation of her dish. It was time. Now….what to make? As she was standing there thinking of what to make it dawned on her – she had magic steeped figs…not just any magic, but she had seen the language and persona magic ones in the corner. Running off she took them to her station and sniffed it – no, no the scent wasn’t right.

She wanted something stronger, something headier…something ancient and all together magical. Like the storms that raged at sea – and then it hit her. Pirates. She was going to make the cake she’d made for her sister’s bachelorette! With a little extra magic.

Running off to the pantry (again) she collected her ingredients before preheating her oven once again. This time, it was her ball game – it was dessert. It was what she was known for. Taking a muffin pan she greased and floured each of the divetts before setting the pan to the side once more.

In the stand mixer she added cake flour, sugar, unsalted (softened) butter, dry instant vanilla pudding mix, baking powder, salt, vegetable oil, eggs, milk, peeled and grated apples…and really, she added everything she needed for her cake except for what was likely the two most important parts – the rum and the Madagascarian vanilla bean paste. Mixing everything together for a few minutes she then added in the rum and the vanilla before taking the batter and pouring it into the molds.

Then she moved on to the important part – making the creamy delicious caramel rum sauce she was about to drizzle atop the baked treats…that is, after they were baked of course. Popping them into the oven she moved on to making the rum syrup and caramel glaze – it took a while but when the sugars melted and caramelized she introduced the rum and with a wave of her wand and a quick enchantment transformed what she had made into something more…it was more an edible delectable potion than a treat now.

When the oven dinged she pulled out the baking pan and letting the dish cool for a moment she drizzled the rum syrup over them letting it soak in as they cooled. Then with a flick of her wand she de-panned each and made them levitate and drop lightly and delicately onto their individual plates.

The final touch – taking a spoon she drizzled the caramel potion atop each of them and smiled toward the crowd. ”I hope you enjoy these Spiced-Apple Rum privateer cakes I made for you – now, they may taste like a combination of spiced mulled apple cider with a touch of your grandmothers favorite rum…but they’re different” she grinned, ”the kick is that they change your personality a wee bit into that of a privateer so, keep your wallets close and don’t mind the talk of Scurvy” because that had happened the last time she made it – her friends had all talked about how they thought they had scurvy…they didn’t, but it was what was on their minds when they thought they were pirates.