Episode 11 begins with Ichigo asking the princes about how they met, and how they must have gotten along from the start. Not quite, it seems that Hanabusa and Kashino hated each other when they first met. Well, when Andou and Kashino first arrived at the school Kashino says everyone is his rival and he’s going to be the best, he even mocks the notion of sweets spirits and tells the statue he’s going to be the best.
Enter Hanabusa, who appears from behind the statue telling Kashino that it’s not going to be that easy. Then Hanabusa starts passing out flowers to the girls and Kashino says he doesn’t need friends, especially someone like him. When Kashino gets to his room he finds out that Hanabusa is his roommate, the sparks begin to fly, and it gets so bad that they have to mark a line down the middle of the room.
Well, when class first starts, the instructor places the three best students in group A who happens to be Andou, Kashino, and Hanabusa. The girls go gaga over the boys and the name “the princes of sweets” is born. But, Kashino and Hanabusa soon start fighting getting the whole group in trouble and they are banned from the practice kitchen for three days.
Later, Kashino and Hanabusa continue to argue and Kashino decides to go to the practice kitchen anyways. Inside the practice kitchen they continue to argue and soon Café appears before Hanabusa, Caramel before Andou, and Chocolate before Kashino. Everyone except Kashino accepts their sweet spirit; he says he doesn’t need a partner. Soon, the boys are caught in the kitchen and banned from dinner, confined to their rooms, and banned from class for three days.
Back in their rooms, Caramel gets frightened by a gift from Andou’s brother and flees into the forest surrounding the school. Andou gives chase to caramel, and Kashino is about to follow when Hanabusa says if he gets caught he’ll be expelled, if you go you’re a fool. Kashino says I guess I’m a fool and heads off after Andou and Caramel.
Andou saves Caramel from a spider in the nick of time, but he falls down a steep slope and injures his ankle. Kashino and Chocolate have an argument about him not accepting her as a partner but gives in when she won’t leave him. Darkness falls before Kashino and Chocolate find Andou and Caramel when Andou uses a childhood signal he and Kashino used to share.
Kashino ties a vine to a tree and has Andou hop on his back while he pulls Andou up the steep slope, and as they’re almost to the top the vine snaps. Before Kashino and Andou falls back down the drop Hanabusa grabs Kashino’s arm and pulls them to safety. Kashino asks Hanabusa why he came, and Hanabusa tells him that a fool who’s willing to get expelled to save a friend and a person who’s willing to rescue a sweet spirit are beautiful.
Well, as they make their way back to the dorm they get caught by the Chairman but he doesn’t really care, and he suggests that the practice kitchen is open. Inside the kitchen the boys start to get along better and make Madeleines together. As soon as the boys share each other’s Madeleines they opened their hearts up and became friends. After the story is finished, Ichigo shares her strawberry flavored Madeleines with the boys.
Episode 12 begins with Henri reading a letter from Ichigo telling him about her experience of making Christmas cakes for charity. Flashback to Christmas Eve and we see that the sweets spirits have departed to the sweets kingdom for their own Christmas party leaving group A to create wonderful treats on their own. Ichigo has created a Croquembouche and she tells the boys about the time her grandmother made one for her and explained what a Christmas cake is and what a Croquembouche is. Just as Ichigo is about to show it to the teacher she slips on a banana peel that the jealous girls put in her path, the giant cake is ruined.
Well, there’s no time for Ichigo to recreate her masterpiece so the princes help her made a basic Christmas cake. When the kids unveil their cakes to the public every student but Ichigo manages to sell their cakes, Ichigo didn’t have enough time to remake a nice one. Eventually, a man buys Ichigo’s cake and tells her to also donate the change to charity; Kashino says he thinks he’s seen that man before.
After the students donate their earnings to the charity they have some time to kill before the school’s Christmas party and while walking around they see the guy who bought Ichigo’s cake looking sad. When Ichigo asks him if something was wrong with the cake he tells them he didn’t have to courage to give the cake. Kashino goes into shock when he realizes that the guy is Yousuke from the Miles Jarrett Quintet from New York City.
Well, Ichigo asks him about his courage problem, and he tells them that there was a woman he lived with and seven years ago he tossed her to the side and left for New York. He got invited to play on stage with the Miles group and they were so impressed with his talent they invited him to join the band and come to New York with them. So, he ditched Mariko and left for New York with the band, but during the last seven years he never forgot Mariko, and now the group has returned to Japan after seven years.
Kashino tells him that no matter what’s happened he should go see her, and that he’s sure that he can handle this. Ichigo also tells him he should find her and apologize to her; Ichigo grabs his arm and says lets go. But, they have no idea where she’s at other than knowing the name of the restaurant where she used to work so Ichigo goes rushing off. Bad news, Ichigo discovers that the restaurant went out of business. They ask the Yousuke if he knows where Mariko lives, and he tells them he sent Mariko a concert ticket but she moved and it came back returned.
Kashino doesn’t want to give up yet, so the group splits up and goes looking for clues, and when they get back together they discover the restaurant only closed last year and someone matching Mariko’s description was working there. As the group is getting down about the bad news, Yousuke sees a little kid complaining to his mother about their failure to find a Christmas cake, so he gives the mother Ichigo’s cake. Later, the group says they’re sorry they couldn’t help him then Yousuke offers to play them a song of their efforts. As he’s blasting out a trumpet tune for the group a woman drops a watering can and runs up to him calling his name. Mariko asks Yousuke why he didn’t come for her, and he tells her that not a day went by that he didn’t think about her, and she feels that same way. When Yousuke explains to Mariko who the kids are Ichigo suggests that they make another Christmas cake for them.
After Mariko gives them her address the kids return to the school and make a smaller version of Ichigo cake for the lost lovers. After they drop off the cake at Mariko’s house she suggests they eat the cake together but Kashino says that they have a school Christmas party to attend, Ichigo is bummed, and the reunited lover are left to themselves.
Outside, the boys tell Ichigo they would have never thought of making that kind of cake as a Christmas cake. Well, the kids get rewarded for their hard efforts by getting a white Christmas, and then we see snow falling over the academy as fireworks go off in the background. Well, that’s all for these two episodes.
Overall, both of these episodes continued with themes of friendship and kindness that’s become a trademark of the series. In episode 11 we got the back story of Andou’s, Hanabusa’s, and Kashino’s meeting and eventual friendship along with how they each got their sweets spirits. Also, that episode showcased how Hanabusa’s and Kashino’s differing personalities really clashed when they first met, but both of them soon discovered that they each had qualities they admired.
Episode 12, the Christmas episode, continues to show how Ichigo’s free spirited personality opens the boy’s minds to think outside of the box when it comes to sweets. While the three princes have technical skills that Ichigo can’t match, she has creative skills that I feel makes the group more inventive. Andou, Hanabusa, and Kashino are the muscle of the group, but Ichigo is the heart and soul. The one thing that’s starting to bother me about the show is how the other girls are being real bitches towards Ichigo and how their pranks are getting ever more mean spirited, a good bitch slap is in order. Also, I would like Ichigo to start showing more common sense when it comes to the bitches, how many times is Ichigo going to keep falling for their stupid plots because I don’t find it cute seeing Ichigo get raped over and over again.
