Ghost of Cupcakes Past is the 7th episode of the first season of Strawberry Shortcake: Berry in the Big City. It premiered on October 16th, 2021.
Summary[]
Raspberry Tart and her friends try to scare Strawberry Shortcake out of town, but the plan doesn’t go quite as planned…
Plot[]
A strawberry-themed food timer rings as Strawberry Shortcake opens the oven, takes out a batch of freshly baked cupcakes, and places another batch of uncooked cupcakes into the oven. Strawberry sings a ditty as she carries her cupcakes until Blueberry Muffin jumps out and frightens her. Strawberry throws the cupcakes that she was baking into the air in surprise, quickly scrambling to catch them all in the tray. She tells Blueberry Muffin she "scared the strawberries out of (her)" and Blueberry tells her that's the point, as she reminds Strawberry that Fright Fall is coming soon.
Cutaway: Strawberry talks about how this is her first Fright Fall in Big Apple City, and how she plans on creating a Fright Fall-themed cupcake.
Blueberry encourages Strawberry by saying she'll come up with something "frightfully fitting" and walks away, before coming back and telling Strawberry that if she sees a ghost, to say hi to it for her, which confuses Strawberry. She jumps out of her food truck and runs to Blueberry, which catches the attention of Raspberry Tart, Bread Pudding, and Sour Grapes, and the three eavesdrop on the conversation.
Strawberry catches up to Blueberry and asks her to elaborate on what she meant by "the ghost". Blueberry tells her the tale of J. Quincy Cupcake, the former owner of the Berryworks back when it was still a cupcake factory. She goes on to talk about his perfectionism, and how he checked every cupcake he baked for even the tiniest blemish. Lightning flashes as Blueberry reveals that J. Quincy lost his sanity from it, and she continues by saying that rumors say that his spirit roams around the Berryworks at night. Strawberry asks Blueberry if she has actually seen J. Quincy's ghost, and Blueberry answers by saying that she wishes to, having waited years to meet him. She tells Strawberry she may be lucky to see him soon, which freaks Strawberry out. Blueberry leaves, wishing Strawberry good luck. Strawberry talks to herself saying that it's just a cupcake-obsessed ghost and nothing bad couldn't happen at all and walks away. The scene then focuses on the Mean Berries as Raspberry laughs to herself, taking note of Strawberry's fear of ghosts, and planning to scare Strawberry away back to Berryville.
At night, Strawberry is alone in the Berryworks, paranoid after the tale of J. Quincy that Blueberry told her earlier. Strawberry tells herself there's nothing to be afraid of when all of the lights in the Berryworks suddenly shut off. Strawberry tells herself it was just the lights turning off to try and calm herself, when she sees a silhouette of a claw and tosses the bowl she was holding into the air from fear, until she notices the silhouette to be just a plant in the distance. She's relieved it was just a plant when sudden creaking noises scare her once more. The creaking turns out to be from a nearby restaurant sign and Strawberry tries to get herself together. She repeats "Be like Blueberry" multiple times, trying to encourage herself to not be scared until her food timer rings, scaring her again. Strawberry reminds herself she can't find inspiration for her treat if she's too scared and takes some cupcakes out of the oven, calming down again. While going back to retrieve the bowl she threw a while ago, she hears another sound. Convinced it's just another random occurrence, Strawberry sarcastically asks out loud if it's just bad plumbing...until she sees the silhouette of a tall, lanky figure, screaming in fear.
The tall silhouette introduces "himself" as the ghost of J. Quincy Cupcake, and asks who dares to bake in his presence. Strawberry hides under her food truck counters and claims no one is baking, which "J. Quincy" immediately sees through and accuses Strawberry of being the baker. Strawberry can't help but point out the irony of being recognized the one time she doesn't want to be. The shadows lift from the J Quincy silhouette, revealing to the audience that it's just the Mean Berries pranking Strawberry by dressing up as him. "J. Quincy" tells Strawberry that nobody likes her "gross country treats" and orders her to go back to Berryville, Strawberry's previous home. Sour Grapes and Bread Pudding let out a quiet laugh but almost lose balance.
As the trio try to regain their balance, Blueberry jumps out from her hiding spot, excited at how she was right about Strawberry being the one who sees J. Quincy Cupcake, and is delighted to finally meet his ghost, shaking "his hand" (otherwise known as the long sleeves of the trenchcoat). While "J. Quincy" tries to come up with a response and wrestle the sleeve away from Blueberry, she asks "him" if he met Strawberry, noting that she has perfectionist tendencies like him. Blueberry notices Strawberry is scared, and tries to reassure her there's nothing to be scared of, and gets the idea to have "J. Quincy" try out one of Strawberry's cupcakes. Strawberry tries to warn her it's still too hot to touch, but Blueberry dismisses this, as she has "ice cream fingers" and "J. Quincy" is a ghost. She tosses the cupcake to "J Quincy", who accidentally drops it down "his" coat from how hot it is, which hits Bread and Sour on its way down, causing the disguise to falter as the Mean Berries fall to the ground. Blueberry immediately concludes that they're the reincarnated spirit of J Quincy Cupcake, and quickly claims she knew it all along.
Strawberry gets up and sees the Mean Berries, immediately piecing together that the trio was just trying to scare her and J. Quincy's ghost wasn't real. She angrily asks them why they were scaring her, until inspiration strikes her, frantically thanking them as she runs off to bake. Blueberry crouches down and pokes Sour's face, who monotonously replies with an "ow". Blueberry tells her she was just checking.
Cutaway: Strawberry introduces her new cupcake: the "Spooky Surprise Cake", where every bite has a new flavor waiting to shock you! She splits open the cupcake to show off the raspberry, grape and bread pudding filling. Blueberry comes in and tries the cupcake, saying that it's delicious, and asks Strawberry where she got the idea from. Strawberry, confused, points out that she was present for the entire thing, looking to the camera in bewilderment.
Cast[]
- Ana Sani as Strawberry Shortcake
- Diana Kaarina as Blueberry Muffin
- Tabitha St. Germain as Raspberry Tart
- Meg Roe as Sour Grapes
Non-Voiced Appearance:[]
- Bread Pudding
- J. Quincy Cupcake (statue, posthumous character)
Trivia[]
- This is the first Halloween episode of the series, the second being Fright Fall.
- The episode reveals a bit of the Berryworks' history, as well as its founder.
- It is established in this episode that Bread Pudding is friends with Raspberry Tart and Sour Grapes, and is part of the Mean Berries.
- Aside from the episodes where she does not speak, this episode is where Sour Grapes has the least amount of dialogue, with only a single word ("ow"), and some laughing.
- This is Blueberry's first somewhat prominent episode in Berry In The Big City. Some aspects of Blueberry's character are established in this episode:
- She is rather knowledgable about myths and legends in Big Apple City, and by extension the history of the city which would inspire them.
- She believes in the supernatural.
- As this episode earlier than intended to coincide with Halloween, this episode ended up being the first introduction of Raspberry Tart and Sour Grapes, with their proper debut occurring in Mean Berries.
- Before this episode premiered, many people thought Sour Grapes would be Plum Pudding due to her purple color scheme, which obviously ended up being deconfirmed after Strawberry said Sour Grapes' name. The actual Plum Puddin' would later make his debut in the Season 2 episode All About Lemon, and would go on to appear in future episodes as a supporting character.
- The episode was storyboarded by Queenstardust on Twitter. She says she storyboarded two episodes and one is Ghost Of Cupcakes Past. [1]
- In early storyboards[2], the scene with Sour and Blueberry would've shown Raspberry Tart and Bread Pudding as well. Raspberry was shown to be indignant at her plan failing, while Bread was taking a bite out of the cupcake tossed by Blueberry. (slides 215-218)
References[]
- The title is a pun on "Ghost of Christmas Past" from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Like in the story, a "ghost" from the past visits the protagonist.
Errors[]
- When Strawberry walks away from the screen to reveal Raspberry, Bread Pudding and Sour Grapes, most of her hair strands disappeared, most of her beanie seeds were gone and her torso was transparent.
- When Strawberry went back to get the bowl, she threw onto the pastry boxes, all the batter is gone.
Gallery[]
Click here to see the gallery of the episode.
Transcript[]
Click here to see the gallery of the episode.
Video[]
