Cake, the Captain and a Kingdom of Donuts

By 826 Valencia

Illustration by Kanya Abe.

If you could design your dream cake for 826 Valencia’s 20th birthday, what would it look and taste like? We posed that question to San Francisco youth, ages 8–12, in 826 Valencia’s after-school tutoring program at Buena Vista Horace Mann. With support from 826 Valencia’s volunteer writing tutors, these creative young authors put on their chef hats and picked up their pencils, and wrote vivid descriptions of some very creative cakes, many for our beloved pirate editor, Captain Blue. Our friends at Craftsman and Wolves, a local bakery and coffee shop in San Francisco's Mission District, baked a special cake inspired by our students' writing.

Captain Blue’s Twentieth Birthday!

Lucette Warner, age 9

Captain Blue was turning twenty, OMG! He wanted a special party with a cake! Becky, Captain Blue’s best friend, was planning an EPIC party! She planned an awesome cake: a chocolate cake, covered in blue and yellow vanilla frosting, and topped with M&M’s. It also contained marshmallow filling. The outside of the cake was decorated with fishes made of frosting, and there was a sinking, Titanic ship on the top of the cake. 

Becky shipped the completed cake to Captain Blue’s cabin. Then she invited his friends over to his cabin. When he entered the cabin, everyone yelled, “Surprise!” and Captain Blue was shocked. 

The Donut Kingdom

Max Guadron, age 11

There is a place where you can find the best cakes for your birthday party, and this place you should call is Captain Blue’s Birthday Party! YAY! Well, one problem is that they can't find THE BEST CAKE EVER, so they do something…

Under the sea there is something that's called The Donut Kingdom, where there are the best cakes and donuts in the world. It was there for so long that people forgot about it, but Captain Blue didn't. They first called it The Donut Factory, but now they call it The Donut Kingdom. They still forgot, and it’s still there under the sand and under the sea.

One day, on the sea, it was Captain Blue’s birthday, and he wanted to have the best party ever, on his big, big, BIG ship. He was going to get some gold for everything he needed, but he saw a broken piece of paper. The paper said so many things that Captain Blue couldn't read, so he told one of his crewmates to read it for him.The crewmate said, “This is a map that leads to a secret cake underwater.”

Captain says, “ARRR! We should go get this cake for my birthday!” 

The crewmate said back, “YES, Captain.”