Concurrent with the Wisteria Festival, Beauneville celebrates the annual Concours du Cupcake, for which the patissieres and cupcake fashioners strive to outdo one another. In the Ballroom, there are long tables, where regiments of cupcakes stand at attention in neat ranks, waiting for inspection.
This year, Mr. Smiley is the Grand Marshal of the Concours; he strides purposefully past the cupcakes on display, taking great care to show neither approval nor disapproval of any proffered cupcake. Mr. Smiley read somewhere that an architect in Vienna committed suicide after the Emperor Franz Joseph commented that a building "seemed a bit low". Mr. Smiley wouldn't want that sort of thing on his conscience.
The waiting crowd parts as Emily Peacock arrives. Emily is the eldest daughter of the Mrs. Peacock who lives next door to Mary Bloom; she lives on the other side of town, on Larch Street. Mary is well known as a leading practitioner of the fine art of the cupcake; for five years running she has won the Gold Pastry Brush.
Emily carries a silver platter with a domed cover. She gently places the platter at her designated spot near the head of one of the tables and, with a flourish, removes the dome, revealing this year's cupcake creation: a tiny replica of Schloss Neuschwanstein with towers, ornamental turrets, gables and pinnacles sculpted in butter cream frosting.
Her assistant distributes an information sheet, which reads:
For the 2011 Concours du Cupcake, Miss Emily Peacock has created a unique work she calls Romantic Castle. Fashioned from a petit gateau du chocolat and handmade butter cream frosting (made with butter freshly prepared from milk provided by Miss Peacock's Guernsey cow), this creation is an exact scale replica of King Ludwig's romantic castle. To ensure an accurate reproduction, Miss Peacock has consulted with castle curators in Hohenschangau. She estimates her total effort on this project to be about one thousand hours.
The gathered crowd is rapt; a Gold Pastry Brush for Emily is assured.
At three o'clock in the afternoon, proceedings are brought to order. Mr. Smiley sits at the head table with Clothilde, while little Alexander sleeps nearby in his bubble-pram. Roderick and his parents sit with the Blooms and Natasha, who simultaneously nurses Felix and Fanny -- a task which requires delicate balancing of the little ones, but which is simplified by Natasha's overall lack of modesty.
With considerable pomp, Emily Peacock's winning cupcake is brought forth and placed before Mr. Smiley who, as Grand Marshal of the Concours, is invited to eat. The room is silent, and all are rapt as Mr. Smiley raises the winning cupcake to his lips, bites off a turret, and chews thoughtfully.
Clothilde leans toward Mr. Smiley and, whispering, inquires: "How is it?"
Mr. Smiley gazes into the distance and, continuing to chew, murmurs: "It's nice."
