Bakery AU

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Tropes and genres
Related tropes/genresAlternate Universe, Coffee Shop AU, Baking AU, Mundane AU, College AU
See alsoFood in Fanworks
Related articles on Fanlore.

The Bakery AU is a popular fanfiction trope. Typically, one half of the main romantic pairing owns or works at an artisanal bakery or other shop that specializes in baked goods. The preparation of hand-made baked goods plays an important part in the romantic plot. Sometimes, several of the main characters work at the bakery.

Trope Conventions

It sometimes overlaps with, but is not synonymous with, the Coffee Shop AU trope where baked goods are sometimes involved but which focus on the coffee element, and with Baking AUs where characters bake, but not in a commercial setting. Some stories include elements of all three tropes, like gyzym's I've Got Nothing To Do Today But Smile (The Only Living Boy in New York), where a stress!baker meets the owner of a coffee shop to create a bakery-slash-coffee shop by the end of the fic.

Criticism

Bakery AUs often receive the same types of negative response as Coffee Shop AUs, which are sometimes criticized by fans as being unrealistic, rampant with OOC characterizations, or overly mundane.[1]

From the article Fandom Is Broken by Devin Faraci, about fandom entitlement, bakery and coffee shop AUs are mentioned in relation to criticism of fans who want fan service:

[...] There are new wrinkles for younger fans, a group that seems uninterested in conflict or personal difficulty in their narratives (look at the popularity of fan fics set in coffee shops or bakeries, which posit the characters of a comic or TV show or movie they love as co-workers having sub-sitcom level interactions. I had an argument with a younger fan on Twitter recently and she told me that what she wants out of a Captain America story is to see Steve Rogers be happy and get whatever he wants - ie, the exact opposite of what you want from good drama) [...]

Example Fanworks

Fanfiction

The Avengers (Marvel)

  • The Second Rise, by musesfool, 2012, Steve/Bucky. The one where Tony buys Steve a bakery after Bucky goes MIA, and three years later, Bucky comes back.
  • if only you could see me (for the pie that i am), by bitelikefire, Steve/Bucky, 2014. In which Steve is the proud owner of Frost; a semi famous local bakery in D.C. And despite the overwhelming insistence that it’s about time he start dating, Steve swears up and down he isn’t ready for that. Or as of recently, just doesn’t have the time because of Mr. Barnes. The highly demanding wedding planner on the phone who keeps asking for nearly impossible deliveries and maybe Steve would like to personally strangle him. Maybe.

Bandom

Dresden Files:

Hockey RPF

Inception

Les Misérables

One Direction

The setting is common in non-famous AUs as Harry Styles used to work in a bakery before the band. However for that reason, not all stories set in bakeries are technically Bakery AUs, some pre-band fics are simply canon compliant. Example: Manchester Tarts Have a Cherry in the Center by cyclogenesis, Nick/Harry, 2013, in which Nick Grimshaw enters the bakery Harry works at by chance before Harry becomes famous.

Stargate Atlantis

Fanart by chkc related to Foster's Bakery
  • Foster's Bakery by Cesare and anatsuno, McKay/Sheppard, 2008. Summary of Part 1: Grounded by an injury, John Sheppard leaves the Air Force and, at loose ends, takes up running the bakery he inherited from his mother's family in Colorado Springs.

The Avengers Movieverse

The Social Network

Voltron: Legendary Defender

Fanart

Archives & Resources

References

  1. ^ Fail-fandom anon thread. Posted on August 26, 2017.