Cupcake Club

by Sheryl Berk

As soon as Principal Fontina unveiled the plans for an eco center to be constructed on the roof of Blakely Elementary, the entire school began buzzing with excitement. Blakely would be the first school in Connecticut to have such a facility. There would be an outdoor classroom and a huge garden filled with fruits, vegetables, and herbs.

  “It’s going to be amazing,” Kylie told her mom. “With a weather station, a greenhouse, even a turtle pond. Principal Fontina says we’ll be able to grow real food and spices to use in the cafeteria lunches!”

  What Kylie was most excited about was the state-of-the-art laboratory that would be housed in the eco center. She imagined herself watching over a steaming beaker and pouring mixtures into test tubes, just like in Dr. Frankenstein’s lab. Maybe she’d create a bug that was part fly, part spider…or a plant that could sing, like the one in Little Shop of Horrors.

  “Can you just imagine what amazing carrot or zucchini cupcakes our club will be able to make with what we grow in the garden?” Kylie said.

  “It does sound amazing,” said her mother. “But something like that must also be very expensive.”

  That was just the problem: the school needed to raise money—a lot of money—to build the eco center. So Principal Fontina had organized an Eco Fair and asked each school club to come up with an activity or product to sell to benefit the eco center. Juliette suggested that Peace, Love, and Cupcakes create something in the spirit of the fair—an “eco-licious” cupcake.

  “Let’s use organic ingredients,” Sadie said.

  “Dark chocolate,” said Jenna. “It has to be dark chocolate. And I’m thinking a chocolate ganache icing. I saw it on the Food Channel. Yum! It’ll be super rich.”

  “What’s ganache?” Lexi asked.

  “It’s a mixture of chocolate and cream that you melt together,” Jenna explained. “It looks really shiny.”

  “I could do decorations that look like the Earth,” suggested Lexi. “I’ve seen the Cake Boss guy use different colors of fondant—it’s this gum paste that you can shape and mold like Play-Doh.”

  “Great! And let’s use recycled paper wrappers,” added Kylie. “This is really going to wow everyone.”

  “You all have great ideas,” said Juliette. “But I think we should do a test run. Ganache can be tricky.”

  “But they said on TV it’s really simple,” said Jenna. “There are only two ingredients.”

  “I think we learned our lesson from the chocolate-chip-muffin mess-up,” said Kylie. “Practice makes perfect.”

  The girls gathered in the club kitchen and read the directions carefully. “It says to chop the chocolate into small pieces,” said Jenna.

  “You want to be really careful with your fingers,” Juliette explained, opening an organic chocolate bar and taking a large knife from the kitchen drawer. “And always make sure you have adult supervision.”

  “Yeah,” giggled Kylie. “Blood and guts are for horror movies, not cupcakes.”

  The girls watched as Juliette demonstrated how to hold the knife by the handle and above the blade so the chocolate flaked off in delicate thin slices. “If the chocolate pieces are too big, they won’t melt evenly,” Juliette advised.

  While Juliette filled a bowl with chocolate shavings, Sadie turned the flame on under the saucepan to heat the cream. They were all busy sampling the chocolate crumbs when something made a loud hissing sound.

  “Oh no!” screamed Sadie, racing to turn off the stove. The cream was boiling over. “How did that happen?”

  “Oops,” said Kylie. “It says to remove it from the heat immediately once it boils.” The floor was now puddled with cream, and there was hardly anything left in the saucepan. “We’ll have to do it again.”

  Sadie started from scratch and this time watched the pot carefully. Once the cream had boiled, the recipe said to pour it over the chocolate. Kylie whisked the mixture.

  “Is it supposed to look like this?” she asked. “I thought ganache was smooth. This looks sticky and gross.” She held up the whisk, and the chocolate stuck to it in large clumps—like the time she’d blown a bubble and gotten gum stuck in her hair.

  “Keep stirring,” said Juliette. “It will get darker and smoother.”

  “We’ll take turns,” suggested Lexi.

  Each of the girls whisked the mixture until their hands ached. Finally it turned into a shiny liquid.

  Jenna peered into the saucepan. “No more lumps.” She smiled. “It’s ready!”

  Kylie brought out the tray of organic chocolate cupcakes that had baked and cooled. “Now what? How do we get the ganache on the cupcakes?”

  Lexi picked up a large pastry brush and dipped it in the warm chocolate. She began painting a cupcake, then stepped back to observe her work. “It doesn’t look smooth,” she said. “I can see the texture of the brushstrokes.”

  “I saw them make a chocolate torte on TV, and they poured the chocolate over the top of the cake,” suggested Jenna. She picked up the bowl and poured the chocolate on top of a cupcake.

  “Well, that works—but that’s way too much ganache,” Kylie said. “I don’t think you’re supposed to drown the cupcake.”

  Sadie had another suggestion. “When in doubt, dip!” she said. “My brothers dip everything in ketchup: chicken nuggets, fries, even waffles.” She tried to dip the top of a cupcake in the chocolate, but it slipped from her fingers and fell into the bowl.

  “Oh no!” Sadie yelped, trying to fish it out of the sea of chocolate. It kept sinking further and further under.

  “Let me help,” said Jenna. Soon she was up to her wrists in chocolate too.

  Kylie handled them a ladle. “Try this,” she suggested. The cupcake came out easily in the spoon, and Jenna and Sadie licked their fingers clean.

  “If you dip, you have to do it slowly and carefully,” Juliette explained. She demonstrated how to roll the cupcake from side to side in the ganache, coating it evenly.

  The girls practiced, dipping a dozen and placing each cupcake on a tray lined with wax paper. Then they let the cupcakes cool and set for 15 minutes. The chocolate formed a smooth, glossy glaze.

  Jenna was the first to sample their creation. “Not bad, if I do say so myself,” she said. “We might need to put on a little thicker coat of chocolate, though—for chocoholics like me. Maybe double dip?”

  “Sure,” said Kylie. But as she went to dip a naked cupcake in chocolate for practice, she noticed the ganache had completely stiffened and now had a thick gooey texture.

  “Hey, what happened?” she asked.

  “The ganache has to stay warm,” Juliette explained. “You might have to boil a pot of water and keep the chocolate in a bowl on top of it. Especially if you’re working with a lot of cupcakes. And for the Eco Fair, we’re going to need a lot of cupcakes.”

  • • •

  The day of the Eco Fair, each club set up a booth in the school gymnasium. The track team sold tie-dyed shoelaces and bandanas. The math team sold green rulers that read, “Eco Kids Rule!” And Meredith’s hip-hop club was selling a video.

  “It’s an original dance routine I choreographed,” Meredith announced. “It’s called, ‘It’s Easy Being Green.’” She was dressed head to toe in green, from her sequin-trimmed sweater to her ruffled miniskirt. Even her ballet shoes were the color of a dill pickle. And she held a green bedazzled microphone as she rapped the lyrics: “I can, I can, I can recycle cans.” Then she did a cartwheel and landed in a split.

  “Wow, just looking at her makes me want to puke,” whispered Sadie.

  Kylie giggled. “Just wait till she gets a taste of our cupcakes. She’ll be green with envy!”

  “I don’t think she could get much greener,” chuckled Jenna.

  Juliette and Lexi wheeled in a table with PLC’s amazing display: a huge papier-mâché
cupcake “tree” centerpiece with the Eco-licious Cupcakes perched in the branches and all around the trunk. The crowd made a beeline for the table.

  “I just have a few more finishing touches,” said Lexi, sprinkling edible luster dust on the fondant Earths to give them a magical shimmer. “There!”

  “It’s a masterpiece!” said Kylie, hugging Lexi.

  “I’ll say,” said a deep British accent behind them. A large man with a mustache and a bowler hat was the first in line. “May I buy one?”

  “Sure!” said Kylie. “That’ll be $5 for the eco center.”

  The man was dressed in a dark brown suit, almost the same color as the dark chocolate in their recipe. He took a huge bite, closed his eyes, and savored the taste for several minutes. Every now and then, he’d mumble, “Mmm, mmm, mmm.” Kylie giggled at how much he seemed to enjoy every morsel.

  But he wasn’t the only fan. The PLC booth was swarming with people who wanted to buy cupcakes, some even seconds and thirds.

  “These cupcakes are really spectacular,” said Principal Fontina. She was licking her fingers. “If this is just the first thing your club baked, I can’t wait to see what you come up with next.”

  Kylie noticed out of the corner of her eye that the man in the chocolate-brown suit was watching them.

  “What’s with him?” she whispered to Jenna.

  “I dunno. I heard him ask Mr. Reidy and Ms. Bayder if they liked the cupcakes.”

  “Do you think he’s like the Baking Police or something?” asked Sadie. “Did we do something wrong?”

  “The Baking Police? Really?” Jenna groaned. “There’s no such thing. And we did everything right—which is why these are selling like hotcakes, not cupcakes.”

  Just then, the man strolled over, pushing his way in front of a dozen people in line. Kylie gulped.

  “May I have a word with you girls?” he began. “I’ve been watching you.”

  “See! I told you—the Baking Police!” Sadie whispered.

  He reached into his pocket, and for a second Kylie was terrified he was about to pull out a badge…or handcuffs!

  “My card,” he said, handing it to Kylie. She looked down and read, “Louis Ludwig, Owner and Connoisseur, The Golden Spoon Gourmet Grocery.” “I would like to speak to the pastry chef.”

  “I don’t understand,” said Kylie. “We’re not in trouble?”

  “Trouble? Au contraire! I own a fabulous gourmet shop in Greenwich, and judging by how many people love your cupcakes, I must have them for my store. Now, girls, can you please direct me to the person responsible for these delectable cupcakes? I am a busy man. I don’t have all day to dillydally.”

  “Well, that would be us,” said Kylie, proudly. “We baked the cupcakes.”

  Mr. Ludwig chuckled. “Surely you don’t expect me to believe that four little girls made these?”

  “Hey, watch who you’re calling little girls,” Jenna said.

  “I just simply cannot believe it!” said Mr. Ludwig.

  “Now you’re calling us liars too?” cried Jenna. She turned to Kylie and whispered, “I don’t think I like this dude. He’s a snob!”

  “We’re really the bakers,” Kylie assured him. “Our club is called Peace, Love, and Cupcakes. We wouldn’t lie! We worked really hard on this recipe!”

  “Well, in that case, I would like to hire your club to make twenty dozen of these for me for Monday morning.”

  “Twenty dozen?” gasped Kylie. “That’s 240 cupcakes!”

  “Precisely!” replied the man. “I am willing to pay you $2.50 a cupcake. Monday by 8 a.m. I open at 8:30, and I will not take no for an answer. Simply scrumptious!” He polished off another cupcake and handed Kylie two $100 bills in advance to pay for the ingredients. Then he marched away, brushing chocolate crumbs out of his mustache.

  “I don’t believe it,” said Jenna. “So 240 cupcakes at $2.50 each…”

  “Is $600,” said Kylie. “From one customer! OMG!” She looked at the money in her hand. “I don’t think I have ever held a $100 bill before.”

  “Can we bake that many cupcakes?” Lexi spoke up. She was picturing having to roll out and stamp 240 sparkly fondant Earths. Each tiny circle was made up of several different colors to look like a globe—and it had taken her hours to make a thin sheet of each color with a rolling pin and then cut out the shapes of the continents with an X-acto blade. “I mean, we only made 100 cupcakes for the Eco Fair, and that took us two days!”

  “Well, we’ll have to bake faster. And work harder,” said Kylie. “And buy more ingredients. This is incredible.”

  • • •

  What was more incredible was how fast the cupcakes went at the Eco Fair—in two hours they had sold out entirely, and several customers were begging the girls to produce another tray.

  “Sorry, everybody, we’re totally sold out! Thank you so much!” said Kylie. A groan of disappointment swept through the crowd.

  “I guess Mr. Ludwig was on to something,” said Sadie. “These cupcakes are really popular, guys. Everyone wants more!”

  Everyone except Meredith, who had stacks of DVDs still piled high on her table. She gave Kylie a dirty look, then headed right for PLC’s booth.

  “Look out, here comes trouble,” snickered Jenna, as Meredith approached them.

  Meredith stared at the club’s sign over their booth. “PLC? What does that stand for? Pathetic Losers Club?”

  Kylie gritted her teeth. “It stands for Peace, Love, and Cupcakes.”

  “Cupcakes? That’s the best you could do?” Meredith sniffed. “Anyone can bake cupcakes.”

  “But not just anyone could make $1,100 selling their cupcakes,” countered Kylie.

  “Someone’s a sore loser,” said Sadie. “Face it, Meredith, we beat you.”

  “Really? That’s funny, because I sold every one of our DVDs. All 200 of them, and at $10 each, that’s $2,000—which is more than you losers made. Toodles…I have to go tweet this.”

  Meredith skipped off, grinning. Kylie muttered, “I really, really don’t like her.”

  “Her rich parents probably said they’d buy all the leftover DVDs,” said Jenna. “Don’t believe anything she says, Kylie.”

  “And don’t let her spoil our great mood,” added Sadie. “We did amazing today! Just think, if we really opened up a business, we could be rich!”

  “And people really loved the cupcakes,” added Juliette. “All we had left were a few crumbs—and Ms. Fine, the PTA president, was eating those too!”

  “You’re right,” said Kylie. She straightened her shoulders and took a deep breath. She wasn’t about to let Meredith distract her from the task at hand. “We have two days to bake 240 cupcakes and get them to Greenwich before school starts Monday morning!”

  Kylie calculated that making 240 cupcakes would take them about three hours.

  “How did you figure that out?” asked her mom, picturing her kitchen held hostage all Sunday afternoon by four junior cupcake chefs.

  “Well, we can fit four trays of twelve cupcakes in the oven at a time, and each batch takes about twenty-five minutes. So that’s forty-eight cupcakes every half hour. Plus time to let them cool and be decorated…”

  “Uh, huh,” replied her mom. “What time do the girls arrive?”

  “I told them to come over at three and we’d be finished by dinnertime.” She kissed her mom on the cheek. “I wouldn’t want to miss taco night.”

  Lexi arrived first, carrying several bags and a large globe.

  “What is all this?” asked Kylie.

  “Well, I thought we should be more exact with our fondant Earths—you know, get the blue and the green just right? I felt like we rushed them for the Eco-licious Cupcakes, and my South America didn’t really look like South America.”
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  “It’s great that you want it to be so perfect, Lex,” said Kylie. “But I don’t know if we’ll have the time.”

  Kylie couldn’t even argue, because Jenna was next at the house with her own packages.

  “I brought us six different organic chocolates to choose from,” she said. “I think we should make one batch with Swiss and one with Dutch and compare.”

  Sadie was right behind her, carrying two more bags of chocolate. “We also bought some Valrhona and Dakota.”

  Jenna corrected her. “Not Dakota, Dagoba chocolate. It’s really premium stuff. Whole Foods had a ton of different kinds.”

  Kylie looked at all the groceries. “How much money did you guys spend?”

  “Not that much,” said Jenna, shuffling her feet. “Just $87.”

  “Plus the $36 on the recycled paper wrappers,” added Sadie.

  “And my $72 on fondant, luster dust, and a new rolling pin.”

  Kylie did some quick math in her head. “You guys spent $195! All we have left from the $200 Mr. Ludwig gave us is $5?”

  “No, not $5,” said Jenna. “$3. We bought a recycled tote bag for $1.99 to carry stuff in—save the Earth!”

  Kylie rested her head in her hands. “Did we really need all this stuff?” she sighed. “I know it’s fun to try new ingredients and make perfect fondant Earths, but we really can’t spend money till we make money.”

  “Well, we are making money,” said Sadie. “$600.”

  “Minus the $200 you guys just spent, that’s only $400. And we’ll need half of that to put back into the club treasury for our next baking project.

  “We’re sorry, Kylie,” said Lexi. “I guess we got excited.”

  “And carried away,” said Jenna. “But you really have to taste some of this chocolate.”

  Kylie gave up. There was no winning. At least the girls were really psyched to bake.

  “Look on the bright side, Kylie,” insisted Sadie as she unpacked the chocolate onto the kitchen counter. “Whatever we don’t use now, we can use later.”

  Kylie pointed at Jenna, who was already opening up bars and sampling them. “Really?”