by Coco Simon
I almost spit a mouthful of sauerkraut across the room.
“What?” I asked, with my mouth full.
“Well, Katie, you’re old enough to babysit now, although this wouldn’t exactly be babysitting,” Mom said quickly. “And I’m sure you could use some help with your cupcakes.”
I was speechless at first. Help? Help? At our Cupcake Club meetings, my friends Alexis, Emma, and Mia plan our schedules and go over our budget and come up with new cupcake ideas. We don’t need help from anyone, let alone someone younger than we are. When we tried to add a new member, it didn’t work out.
“I would love to help,” Emily said a little shyly, and suddenly I felt badly for getting worked up. Yes, Mom thinking Emily was perfect was starting to get annoying, but Emily was pretty cool. And Emma’s younger brother, Jake, comes to a lot of our meetings when Emma has to watch him, and Emily is kinda sorta like my younger sister, right?
“Fine,” I said.
Mom smiled. “Perfect! Jeff and I can drop you off at Mia’s for the meeting and then head into the city. I’ll check with Mia’s mom to make sure she can drive both of you back to our house.”
“I just have to check with everybody first,” I said, reaching for my phone.
“No texting during meals,” Mom said, and I pulled my hand back and sighed. I had a club meeting tomorrow anyway, so I’d just mention it then.
Emily glanced at her dessert menu and then looked over at me. Her brown eyes sparkled under her perfect bangs. “What’s the best dessert to go with a turkey club?” she asked.
I hadn’t thought about dessert formulas before. This could get interesting.
“Hmm . . . Boston cream pie,” I said. “Definitely.”
“Dad, can I get Boston cream pie for dessert?” Emily asked.
Jeff laughed. “Sure, why not?”
So Emily got Boston cream pie for dessert, and I got rice pudding, to test and see if it would go well with a Reuben, which it did. Emily did not spill a drop of chocolate or whipped cream, but I managed to get a glob of pudding on my sneaker. And I didn’t care one bit.
Something New
Katie, I can’t wait to try out that new thing you got,” Emma said the next day. “Does it really make two-toned cupcakes?”
I nodded. “It’s going to be awesome.”
We were in my kitchen, having a Cupcake Club meeting. My friend Alexis was there too. The only member missing was my friend Mia. Her parents are divorced, and she spends every other weekend with her dad in Manhattan. Kind of like Emily, I guess. Anyway, it means that she can’t be at every meeting. But all of us miss meetings sometimes, so it’s not a big deal.
Alexis was scrolling down the screen of her new tablet. She had found this app that could track sales and expenses and stuff, and she was loving it.
“Katie, if you give me the receipt for that, the club could pay you back,” she said. “You’re always buying new equipment that we end up using.”
I shrugged. “That’s what allowance is for. I love buying this stuff.”
“But in order to get a real sense of our profits, we have to keep track of our costs,” Alexis argued. “Besides, it’s only fair to you.”
I wrinkled my nose, thinking. “I’m not sure if I have the receipt. I think I used it to throw out my gum.”
“Well, next time, then,” Alexis said, going back to her app.
I finished setting up the ingredients on my kitchen table: flour, sugar, eggs, cocoa powder, vanilla, baking soda, baking powder, milk, and butter.
“So, we need to make two batters,” I said. “I thought we could start with vanilla and chocolate.”
Then I picked up my latest baking tool: a two-toned cupcake insert. It’s a white plastic thing that fits inside the cups in your cupcake pan. For each cup there’s a plastic circle with another plastic circle in the middle. You pour a different flavor or color of batter into each circle, and then take out the insert before you bake them. The finished cupcake will have one color or flavor on the inside, and a different one on the outside.
“So why don’t the batters run together when you take out the insert?” Emma wondered.
“I think because cupcake batter is so thick,” I said. “Anyway, we’ll see. That’s what this test is about, right?”
We quickly made the two different batters—we’re pretty much pros at making batter by now. Then I put the insert in the pan. It fits only three cups at a time. Alexis carefully poured chocolate batter into the center circle, and then I poured the vanilla batter into the outer circle.
“Here goes nothing,” I said, lifting up the insert. Each cup now had a vanilla cupcake with a perfect circle of chocolate in the middle.
Emma clapped. “It works! Cool!”
I rinsed off the insert in the sink. “Let’s do the whole pan.”
When we finished filling the pan, I put the cupcakes in the oven. While they baked, we made a batch of chocolate frosting.
“Dibs!” I called out, taking the beaters off the hand mixer. Frosting was still stuck to it, and I licked it right off. “Mmm.”
Emma laughed. “You remind me of Jake.”
“Just Jake?” I asked. “Matt is always grabbing the beaters from me. Sam, too.”
Emma shook her head. “I guess it’s a good thing you don’t have three brothers, then.”
Emma mentioning Jake reminded me of Emily.
“I have something to ask you guys,” I said. “I know we’re baking next Saturday, but Mom wants me to watch Emily. Can I bring her to the meeting?”
“So your mom has another date with Mr. Green?” Alexis asked, wiggling her eyebrows.
I sighed. “It seems like she always has a date with Mr. Green lately.” I lowered my voice. Mom was somewhere in the house, and I didn’t necessarily want her to hear that. “They’re going to some Broadway matinee or something.”
“Sure, bring her,” Alexis said. “She’s practically our age, right? It’s not like she’s some annoying little kid or something. No offense, Emma.”
“Believe me, I know how annoying Jake can be,” she said.
The timer went off, and I took the cupcake pan out of the oven and put it on a cooling rack. We had to wait until the cupcakes cooled to frost them, or the frosting would just melt everywhere.
Alexis walked over to the pan. “You know, they look just like ordinary cupcakes,” she said. “I mean, it’s a cool idea, but how would people know they’re special? It might not be worth the extra effort to make them.”
I pulled a cupcake from the pan with my fingertips. “Let’s see if it worked, first,” I said. I took a knife and cut right through the cupcake. The chocolate cake center was perfect!
“That is really awesome,” Emma said. “I bet people would love these, Alexis.”
“Maybe we could cut one open and put it on the display,” I suggested. “As an example.”
Alexis nodded. “That could work. And our customers are always asking for something new. I’ll add these to the order form.”
“We should taste them first,” I said. (I knew they were going to be great, but I never turn down a chance to taste a cupcake.)
The cupcakes were just about cool enough to frost, so we frosted them all. I poured glasses of milk for each of us (cupcakes and milk, the perfect pairing), and then we sat down and ate.
In my first bite, I got vanilla cake, chocolate cake, and chocolate frosting all in one. It was amazing.
“This is soooo good,” I said, after washing down the bite with some milk. “Can you imagine all the other flavors we could do?”
“Red velvet and chocolate,” Emma suggested.
“Or color combinations,” Alexis said. “Pink and purple. Yellow and green. Kids would love that!”
We were quiet for a minute, enjoying our cupcakes and the sweet taste of success. Then Emma’s blue eyes lit up.
“Oh, I almost forgot!” she said. “Principal LaCosta stopped me in the hall yesterday. She asked if the Cupcake Club
would sell refreshments at the talent show.”
“Oh, wow, that would be great,” I said. “When is that, anyway?”
“Saturday the twentieth,” Alexis said quickly.
“You are like a walking calendar,” I said. “Is there anything you don’t know?”
“Well, I don’t know if this is such a good idea,” Alexis said.
“Why not?” I asked.
“Yeah, it’s perfect,” Emma said. “We always sell a lot of cupcakes at school events.”
Alexis started to twirl a strand of her wavy red hair. “I guess I meant that it’s not a good day for me. I’m pretty sure I have a conflict.”
“Well, that’s okay,” I said. “Emma and Mia and I could sell the cupcakes. As long as there’s three, it’s usually enough.”
All About Alexis!
You have just finished reading a story about awesome Alexis. How well do you think you know her? Take this quiz and find out!
1. Alexis’s last name is
A. Taylor
B. Becker
C. Brown
D. Valaz
2. Alexis’s best friend is
A. Mia
B. Olivia
C. Emma
D. Katie
3. True or False: Alexis has straight blond hair.
A. True
B. False
4. Alexis has a sister named
A. Dylan
B. Emily
C. Ava
D. Bella
5. Who is Alexis’s crush?
A. George
B. Matt
C. Chris
D. Jake
6. What is Alexis’s best subject at school?
A. Creative writing
B. Gym
C. Spanish
D. Math
7. What costume did Alexis wear to the pep rally parade?
A. Gypsy
B. Ballerina
C. Greek Goddess
D. Angel
8. What is Alexis’s family motto?
A. “All’s well that ends well.”
B. “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”
C. “Failing to plan is planning to fail.”
D. “Never give up.”
9. What is Alexis’s favorite part about making cupcakes?
A. She likes decorating them.
B. She likes baking them.
C. She likes choosing the flavors.
D. She likes promoting the business and keeping track of the money.
10. What is true about Alexis?
A. She has red hair
B. She is the tallest of the Cupcake Girls
C. She has a good singing voice
D. All of the above
Did you get the right answers?
1.B 2.C 3.B 4.A 5.B 6.D 7.C 8.C 9.D 10.D
How did you do?
8-10 correct: Wow, you are officially one of Alexis’s new BFFs!
6-7 correct: Not bad, but you need to pay a little more attention.
3-5 correct: Not so good. Alexis is a little disappointed.
0-2 correct: Oh, no! You need to try again and do better! Or else you’ll be forced to eat lunch with Olivia Allen instead of the Cupcake Club!
Want more
Cupcake Diaries
Visit CupcakeDiariesBooks.com for the series trailer, excerpts, activities, and everything you need for throwing your own cupcake party!
Coco Simon always dreamed of opening a cupcake bakery but was afraid she would eat all of the profits. When she’s not daydreaming about cupcakes, Coco edits children’s books and has written close to one hundred books for children, tweens, and young adults, which is a lot less than the number of cupcakes she’s eaten. Cupcake Diaries is the first time Coco has mixed her love of cupcakes with writing.
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authors.simonandschuster.com/Coco-Simon
Simon Spotlight
Simon & Schuster
New York
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
SIMON SPOTLIGHT
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
Copyright © 2014 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
SIMON SPOTLIGHT and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Text by Elizabeth Doyle Carey
Chapter header illustrations by Maryam Choudhury
Designed by Laura Roode
Jacket design by Laura Roode
Jacket illustrated by Abigail Halpin
Jacket illustrations copyright © 2014 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.
ISBN 978-1-4814-0468-6 (pbk)
ISBN 978-1-4814-0469-3 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-4814-0470-9 (eBook)
Library of Congress Control Number 2014935801