Have you ever wondered who baked the very first chocolate cake?

Once, in a castle with round pink towers and a kitchen that always smelled of warm butter, there lived a princess named Melba. Melba was six years old, and she did not care much about crowns. She cared about mixing bowls.

Every morning, Melba sat at the big wooden table with her colouring book, drawing pictures of foods nobody had ever tasted. She drew a pineapple pie with a crown on top. She drew swirly buns shaped like snails. And one rainy Tuesday, she drew something new: a tall, dark, fluffy cake, brown as a bear's fur.

"What is that?" asked Barnaby, the royal baker. Barnaby had flour in his beard and kindness in his eyes.

"Chocolate," said Melba. "In a cake."

Barnaby's eyebrows jumped. "Chocolate goes in cups, Princess. Warm and drinkable. Nobody puts it in a cake."

"Nobody has yet," said Melba.

So they tried. And tried. And tried again.

The first cake came out flat as a plate. The second cake came out so hard it thunked on the table. But the third cake, oh, the third cake rose soft and tall. When Barnaby cut a slice, steam curled out like a tiny cloud. They tasted it together. Barnaby closed his eyes. Melba wiggled her toes.

"Princess," Barnaby whispered, "this is the best thing I have ever eaten."

Melba wrote every single step on a page in the back of her colouring book.