Recipe for Trouble

by Sheryl Berk

  “You just said sugar was a no-no,” Kylie reminded her.

  “‘But a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,’” Lexi quoted Romeo and Juliet.

  “Okay, you lost me,” Jenna complained. “Now you want to give him roses?”

  “I’m just saying a cupcake by any other name—” Lexi began.

  “Is still a cupcake!” Kylie finished her thought. “It doesn’t have to be a sugary cupcake. It can be something savory, like the bakers make with crazy ingredients all the time on that TV show Cupcake Wars.”

  Jenna made a face. “Yuck. They made a tuna cupcake with wasabi cream frosting last week!”

  “Spaghetti and meatballs!” Sadie suddenly shouted. “Jeremy gets it anytime it’s on the menu for hot lunch. Could we make him a spaghetti and meatball cupcake?”

  Lexi pulled her sketchbook and pencils out of her desk drawer. “I don’t see why not!” She sketched a cupcake filled with wiggly spaghetti strands, topped with tomato sauce, Parmesan cheese, and a mini meatball.

  “Wow!” exclaimed Kylie. “That’s amazing, Lex. That’s the most creative cupcake I’ve ever seen!”

  Lexi beamed. It was pretty good. She especially liked how the tiny meatball looked like a cherry on top! “And we’ll use whole wheat spaghetti, like the American Diabetes Association site recommends.” She felt pretty confident that Jeremy wouldn’t toss this cupcake in the trash.

  • • •

  It took the girls several hours to perfect a recipe. They decided to bake it right in the pan without cupcake liners, and the first version stuck and got burned on the bottom. Plus, the meatballs were a little raw in the center. Lexi’s mom offered to help. “You know I make a mean marinara,” she laughed, stirring the pot of sauce. The girls rolled the meatballs and let them simmer in the sauce. The aroma of garlic and basil filled the kitchen.

  Dr. Poole suggested they coat the muffin pan with non-stick spray, just in case the cheese melted around the edges. This way, the spaghetti slipped out beautifully and formed a neat little cup. The sauce and cheese made a bubbly crust and the meatball was cooked to perfection.

  “This is really pastalicious,” Sadie said. “Did I say that right?”

  Lexi laughed. “Yes. I think we can heat it up in the teachers’ lounge and give it to Jeremy at lunchtime.”

  “You sure? You don’t want to sneak it to him again?” asked Jenna. “I can always leave it on the bleachers next to him at PE.”

  Lexi popped a meatball in her mouth. “Nope. I learned my lesson the first time—no more secret admirers. I’m going to make this delivery in person.” She sounded sure and confident.

  “That’s great, Lexi. Good for you!” said Sadie.

  Lexi smiled. “Thanks. But maybe you guys can just back me up…in case I chicken out?”

  “You mean in case you meatball out?” Jenna teased.

  “We’ll all be right behind you,” Kylie said, hugging her. “Always.”

  Juliette took the tray out of the oven in the teachers’ lounge kitchen and placed a piping hot spaghetti and meatball cupcake on a plate.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” she asked Lexi, concerned. “Love is not as simple as following a recipe.” Lexi thought her teacher sounded like she was speaking from experience.

  “Did you ever have your heart broken, Juliette?” she asked.

  “Oh, dozens of times!” Juliette confessed. “My first time was in fifth grade, just like you.”

  “You had a crush on a boy?” Lexi asked. “What happened?”

  “His name was Jean-Paul,” Juliette sighed. “He was very tall, dark, and handsome.”

  “Did you tell him you liked him?”

  “Did I! I made him a huge pink cardboard Valentine’s Day card covered in hearts and lace doilies.”

  “What happened?” Lexi sensed there wasn’t a happy ending to this story.

  “He laughed at me. Right in my face.”

  Lexi gasped. “That’s horrible! That’s almost as bad as throwing my cupcake in the garbage!”

  “Well, it gets worse,” Juliette continued. “He hung it up on the bulletin board outside our classroom. Then everyone laughed and made fun of me.”

  “You must have been so hurt!” Lexi said.

  “I was pretty devastated. Then a stuffed pink teddy bear magically made its way into my desk the next day.”

  “Did Jean-Paul give it to you to apologize?”

  “No! It was from Louie.”

  Lexi looked puzzled. “Louie? Who’s that?”

  “The short boy who had a crush on me! I thought it was the sweetest gift ever—and forgot all about Jean-Paul.”

  Lexi considered the story. “Are you telling me to forget all about Jeremy?”

  “I’m just saying that hearts sometimes get broken, but they heal pretty quickly.”

  “What happened to Louie?” Lexi asked.

  “Well, it didn’t last. I fell for an older man, a sixth grader named Gerard. He had braces and I thought he was very cool.”

  Juliette handed the plate to Lexi, who dusted the spaghetti cupcake with a thin sprinkling of Parmesan cheese. “Are you ready?”

  Lexi nodded. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

  • • •

  Lexi marched into the cafeteria where Sadie, Kylie, and Jenna were waiting to back her up. She spotted Jeremy sitting at a table with Jack and some other fifth-grade boys. He looked up as she approached.

  Lexi froze in her tracks. “I can’t do it,” she whispered to her friends. “He’s looking at me.”

  Jenna gave her a gentle push. “Just put the cupcake down in front of him and smile. That’s it.”

  Lexi obeyed, pushing the plate in front of Jeremy.

  “What’s this?” he asked. But Lexi had already turned and started to run for the cafeteria door. Kylie caught her. “Wait! See what he says!”

  Jeremy stared at the plate and the little cup of pasta. “Is this spaghetti and meatballs?”

  Lexi was completely tongue-tied. All she could do was nod her head. So Kylie piped up, “Yes! Lexi made it for you. It’s a whole wheat spaghetti and meatball cupcake.”

  Jeremy looked a little uncomfortable.

  “Well, we know you usually don’t eat sugar…” Lexi said softly. “I wanted to make you a cupcake you could eat.”

  “Oh,” he replied.

  Jenna gave him a threatening look. “You better say you like it.”

  “Yes! I like her…I mean it!” Jeremy blurted out. Sadie, Jenna, and Kylie grinned.

  “Well, it was all Lexi’s idea,” Kylie said.

  Jeremy smiled shyly. “It looks really good.” He took the meatball off the top and ate it. “It’s way better than hot lunch.”

  Jack tried to grab a forkful. “Lucky!” he whined. “I want one! Lexi, how come you made it just for Jeremy?”

  Lexi shrugged. “I thought he would like me…I mean it!”

  “He does like you,” Kylie whispered in her ear. “Maybe we should rename our club Peace, Love, and Cupids?”

  • • •

  In drama class the next morning, it was time for Lexi and Jeremy to rehearse the final scene of the play. Lexi was both excited and terrified at the same time. She knew all her lines by heart, but she also knew how the scene ended—with a kiss.

  “Romeo walks in and sees Juliet’s not breathing,” Mr. Higgins directed. “He thinks she’s dead and can’t live without her.” He motioned to the floor. “Lexi, play dead.”

  Lexi closed her eyes tight and lay down on a floor mat. Jeremy ran his fingers through his hair. “Um, what do I have to do?”

  “Just look miserable,” Mr. Higgins answered. Lexi opened one eye and peeked: Jeremy was doing a pretty good job of that!

 
Jeremy took a deep breath and said his line “Oh, my love…” so quietly Lexi could barely hear him.

  “What? What was that?” Mr. Higgins asked.

  Jeremy gulped and repeated ever so softly, “Oh, my love…”

  “Louder!” Mr. Higgins bellowed, waving his arms in the air. He was getting frustrated, and Lexi was worried what he might do to Jeremy if he didn’t speak up.

  “This is a very tragic scene. Like this…” Mr. Higgins instructed. He suddenly grabbed Juliette to demonstrate. “Oh, my love!” he exclaimed, dipping her backward.

  Juliette pretended to swoon and Mr. Higgins continued, “Thus, with a kiss, I die!” Lexi sat up and stared. Were her teachers actually going to kiss?

  Mr. Higgins planted a peck on Juliette’s cheek. She blushed.

  “Just like that,” he told Jeremy. “Can you handle it?”

  Jeremy ran his fingers nervously through his bangs again. “Yeah, I think so.” He gave Lexi a kiss on the cheek and said, “Thanks for the spaghetti cupcake.”

  Lexi sat there positively stunned. She was completely unaware of anything going on around her. All she could hear was her heart beating wildly in her ears. All she could see were Jeremy’s dreamy blue eyes.

  “No, no, no,” Mr. Higgins wrung his hands. “Lexi, you’re supposed to be dead. Not grinning from ear to ear! And, Jeremy, that’s not the line! There are no cupcakes in Romeo and Juliet!”

  Juliette jumped in. “Rodney,” she began sweetly, touching Mr. Higgins’ arm. “It’s okay.” She winked at Lexi. “Besides, maybe there should be cupcakes in Verona.”

  Now it was Mr. Higgins’s turn to blush. “Yes, dear.”

  “Let’s take it again from the top!” Juliette announced. And this time Lexi was happy to oblige!

  “I’m worried about all these Valentine’s Day orders,” Kylie said. The girls had planned on working the entire weekend to make sure every cupcake was ready by Monday, Valentine’s Day. They arrived at eight o’clock sharp at Kylie’s house Saturday morning, eager to bake.

  “My dad and brothers said they’d help us deliver,” Sadie said, placing a purple candy heart that read Be mine on top of a frosted cupcake.

  “It’s not just that,” Kylie explained. “This is turning out to be our biggest holiday yet. We have over 100 orders here.”

  Jenna did some quick math. “Two hundred thirteen dozen is…2,556 cupcakes. Not to mention the thousand cupcakes we promised Ms. Fontina for the Blakely Valentine’s Day party and a thousand for the Golden Spoon.”

  Lexi was very quiet. She was focused on sketching a pink peony she planned to pipe on two dozen chocolate-cherry cupcakes.

  “I think we need help,” Kylie replied. “Even with us working all day today and tomorrow, we’ll never be able to bake and frost all these cupcakes. Maybe I could call my friend Delaney from Camp Chicopee—”

  Lexi suddenly snapped to attention. “What? You want to ask Delaney to help us? She doesn’t know how to bake cupcakes!”

  “Well, we’ll teach her,” Sadie said, carefully measuring a teaspoon of baking powder and adding it to the mixing bowl. “None of us knew how to bake when we started out last year.”

  Jenna nodded. “Lex, you can’t possibly decorate 5,000 cupcakes all by yourself. You need extra hands—we all do.”

  Lexi was not happy but gave in. “Fine. But if she messes up, I’m saying TYS—told ya so!”

  • • •

  A half hour later, Kylie’s doorbell rang. “That’s Delaney!” she said racing to get the door.

  “Great,” Lexi grumbled under her breath. She could hear lots of happy squeals as Kylie reunited with her camp friend.

  “They sure sound happy to see each other!” Sadie said.

  Kylie brought Delaney into the kitchen to meet PLC. “Jenna, Sadie, Lexi, this is Delaney Noonan.”

  Lexi glanced up to get a look at the girl Kylie had raved about. She didn’t seem anything special: she had long blond hair and braces and wore jeggings and a sweatshirt with a peace sign on it.

  “She looks a little like you, Lexi!” Sadie whispered.

  “I don’t see it!” Lexi sniffed, but she thought the same thing.

  Jenna handed Delaney an apron and set her up scooping the batter into the wrapper-lined pans.

  “Keep it really neat and no more than two-thirds full,” Jenna instructed.

  “Yes, sir!” Delaney joked.

  Jenna kept a close eye on her. “Not bad, not bad at all!” she said, pleased. “Delaney, you may have a future in cupcakes!”

  Kylie smiled. “TYS! Delaney’s great at everything she does—remember Color War?”

  “OMG, how could I forget! That swimming relay was insane. But we came in first with my butterfly stroke and your backstroke. Go Blue!”

  Lexi fumed. “Let’s try her out on piping.” She knew a beginner could never master a pastry bag and tip the first time. She handed Delaney a bag filled with passion-fruit buttercream.

  “Do it like this,” she commanded, demonstrating a perfect swirl with a peak in the center.

  “I think I got it,” Delaney replied. She held the bag in her hand and squeezed it expertly with the palm of her hand. It took her seconds to duplicate Lexi’s swirl.

  “Wow! Impressive!” Jenna whistled. “Delaney, you’re a natural.”

  “Here,” said Lexi, shoving a dozen more in front of her. “Make yourself useful.” Delaney topped two dozen white chocolate raspberry cupcakes with a vanilla cream cheese frosting, then piped dark chocolate buttercream on three dozen devil’s food cupcakes. Kylie showed her how to cut shapes out of fondant with tiny cookie cutters.

  “Like this?” Delaney asked, holding up a perfect red heart.

  “Exactly!” said Kylie. “You rock!”

  Lexi hated that Delaney could handle whatever they threw at her—and was so cheerful about it. She and Kylie sang Lady Gaga songs as they worked.

  “This is so much fun!” Delaney exclaimed, putting red lips on some mascarpone whipped frosting. “You’re so lucky to have this awesome cupcake club.”

  “Maybe you could join PLC?” Kylie suggested. Lexi saw that one coming!

  “Really?” asked Delaney. “That would be so cool! Then we could hang out all the time!”

  Lexi interrupted—she had to change the subject fast. “This next order is for Red Hot cupcakes. What does that mean? We don’t have any recipe yet for that.”

  “I was thinking Red Hot candy hearts on top and a spicy cupcake and frosting,” Kylie said.

  “We could do a Mexican Chili Chocolate Cupcake,” Jenna suggested, “and top it with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting. But we’ll need chili powder and ground cayenne pepper.”

  “We should have all those spices from our family taco nights,” said Kylie. “You get working on the batter with Delaney. Sadie and I will tackle the frosting.”

  Jenna put all the ingredients on the counter. “We want the cupcake to have a kick,” she explained. “A pinch of cayenne should do it.”

  Delaney looked at the small container of orange powder. She gave it a shake into the dry ingredient bowl. “A pinch of cayenne! Check!”

  About twenty-five minutes later, the cupcakes emerged from the oven a deep, dark chocolate color. “These look perfect,” Jenna observed. She opened one wrapper and took a taste.

  “Dios mío!” she cried, fanning her tongue. “Water! I need water!”

  Sadie raced to get her a glass, and Jenna gulped it down and asked for another…then another.

  “That cupcake is way too spicy—my mouth is on fire! Delaney, how much cayenne did you put in there?”

  “A pinch, just like you said,” Delaney answered.

  “A pinch is about one-eighth of a teaspoon,” Kylie explained.

  “O
h,” said Delaney. “I kind of sprinkled in a little more than that. Like maybe three or four tablespoons?”

  Jenna was still gulping down water. “Yeah, you sure did!”

  Lexi felt bad for Jenna…but she couldn’t help chuckling. “I guess Delaney still has a lot to learn about baking cupcakes.”

  Delaney looked sad and embarrassed. “I’m really sorry. I didn’t know.”

  “It’s okay,” Kylie said, putting an arm around her friend. “We’ve all made tons of mistakes. Right, Lexi?”

  Lexi shrugged. “I guess,” she replied, and went back to decorating.

  In seven hours, the girls had managed to bake, decorate, and box half the Valentine’s Day orders. They were all covered, head to toe, in flour and frosting.

  “This is hard work!” Delaney yawned. “We’ve been at it all morning and afternoon! I’m exhausted!”

  “So I guess you won’t be joining PLC,” Lexi said hopefully.

  “I’d have to think about it,” Delaney replied. “I’m on the swim team at my school and we have a lot of weekend swim meets.”

  “That’s okay, Delaney,” Kylie answered. “I understand. Maybe you could help us when you’re not swimming.”

  “That would be great!” Delaney untied her apron and handed it to Lexi. “I guess I won’t be needing this?”

  Lexi felt a little bad. Delaney had been very helpful…

  “You can keep it…for next time,” she said.

  “Thanks, Lexi!” Delaney said, suddenly hugging her.

  “Yeah, thanks, Lexi.” Kylie smiled and walked Delaney out to the door where her mom was waiting to drive her home.

  “I guess Delaney wasn’t so bad,” Lexi said helping Jenna and Sadie sweep up the mess of flour, sugar, and candy all over the floor.

  “She was super nice,” said Sadie.

  Jenna agreed. “Kylie does have excellent taste in friends…”

  Lexi was too tired to be jealous or angry anymore. Her fingers ached from piping frosting and rolling fondant. And tomorrow they had a ton more work waiting for them; they hadn’t even discussed what they’d be making for the Blakely Valentine’s Day party.