Winner Bakes All

by Sheryl Berk

  “We could add marshmallow rocks on top, and I could do different dinos out of chocolate, like a stegosaurus and a T. rex!” Lexi chimed in.

  “What about cave paintings? It’s a caveman cupcake…let’s do some cave paintings on a chocolate cave. We can mold the cave shape by pouring milk chocolate into a funnel!” Jenna added.

  “Brilliant, ladies! Get to it!” Juliette called. “You have fifty minutes left!”

  They raced around the kitchen, tripping over each other and spilling batter and chocolate everywhere. When the cupcakes came out of the oven, the cake was rich and gooey, and Jenna piped an extra large mound of chocolate marshmallow frosting on top. In the end, they presented three different cupcakes to Juliette on a platter—each one delicious and elaborately decorated.

  “By George, I think you’ve got it!” Juliette cheered. “You could actually win this, girls!”

  “Good thing we didn’t make a Tyrannosaurus wreck,” Jenna joked.

  The girls groaned but felt revved and ready for battle!

  The night before the Battle of the Bakers, Sadie couldn’t sleep a wink. She sat on the edge of her bed, dribbling her basketball and trying to go over all the things Juliette told them to remember: stay focused, double-check each measurement before you put in an ingredient, taste everything before you serve it to the judges. It was a lot like cramming for her math test. She knew she had to keep her cool and not panic, even if the clock was ticking down and they had thirty seconds left to finish the round.

  When her alarm finally went off at 6 a.m., she grabbed her skateboard, raced downstairs, and waited anxiously at the door for Juliette’s car to pick her up and take her to the TV studio. The rest of the audience—including Sadie’s parents—would be in the studio for the taping at 10 a.m.

  “She’s not going to be here for an hour, hon,” her mom said, yawning. “You want some breakfast?”

  “I can’t eat—I’m way too nervous!” Sadie said. “This is huge, Mom. Really huge. This can make or break a cupcake business!”

  “I know, Sadie, but I want you to keep things in perspective. It’s just a baking contest. It’s not the end of the world if you guys don’t win. You know that from basketball. It’s not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game.”

  Sadie knew her mom was right, but this felt so much more important than any basketball game she had ever competed in. Maybe it was because PLC was something she had worked so hard to build from the ground up. This was the biggest and best thing that had ever happened to their cupcake club. They just had to win!

  Juliette pulled up to Sadie’s house fifteen minutes early. Kylie was already in the backseat and yanked Sadie in next to her. “Get in! Hurry! We have three more stops to make, and I want to be there super early!”

  Sadie was happy to see that her BFF was as much a basket case as she was. “I couldn’t sleep,” Sadie confided.

  “Me neither. I was up counting cupcake wrappers. I wanted to make sure we had enough for all the rounds—just in case we make it to the 500 cupcake finale!”

  “Didn’t I tell you guys to get some rest?” Juliette sighed. “You’re going to fall asleep over your batter.”

  “Not a chance,” Kylie assured her. “I’m not sleeping through PLC’s TV debut!”

  They picked up Lexi, Jenna, and Delaney and headed on the highway to the show’s Westport studios. As soon as they entered the on-ramp, they were in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

  “We’re never going to get there!” Kylie whined. “Maybe try the right lane…or get off at the next exit and go on local streets?”

  “No backseat drivers,” Juliette replied. “We’ll get there in plenty of time, I promise.”

  She kept her word: they arrived before any of the other contestants and had time to look around.

  “You must be Peace, Love, and Cupcakes.” A man wearing a headset rushed over to them. “I’m Jules Goldberg, associate producer.”

  “What gave us away?” Jenna joked, pointing to their PLC T-shirts.

  “Yes, the shirts.” Mr. Goldberg nodded. “But I also recognized you from your audition video. Very impressive!”

  “We try!” Kylie smiled. “Are we the first bakers here?”

  “Oh, yes. I don’t expect the others to arrive for a while. This is old hat to them. They pretty much just show up for the taping.”

  Lexi gulped. “Old hat? You mean all of our competitors have already been on the show?”

  “Yes,” the producer said, checking his clipboard. “Or on other baking competitions. Or in national championships. We have quite a few champions in the house.”

  Sadie looked anxiously at Kylie. “Champions? They’re putting us up against champions?”

  “Relax, girls,” Juliette assured them. “You’re very well-prepared for Battle of the Bakers.”

  “I’m not so sure about that,” Lexi said, picking up a strange plastic tool off a countertop. “I don’t even know what this is.”

  “Um, I believe that is an icing comb,” Juliette offered. “You use it for making ridges and swirls on cakes.”

  “Or for fixing your hair,” Delaney said, pretending to touch up her blond ponytail. “Do I look ready for my close-up?”

  “Have you ever seen a kitchen like this?” Sadie gasped. She glided around the floor on her skateboard. “It’s huge! There are like six ovens and four fridges! I’m going to need my skateboard just to get from one end to the other!”

  “What do you suppose this does?” Kylie said, picking up a strange tubelike object with a trigger. She pressed a button and a blue flame shot out.

  “It’s a blowtorch,” Juliette said, grabbing it out of her hands. “You use it for desserts like crème brûlée. Do not touch! We don’t want to set the place on fire before we even start baking.”

  Sadie was zipping from corner to corner, checking out the equipment. “And, Sadie, no skateboard,” Juliette added. “I’m not sure the judges will appreciate cupcakes on wheels.”

  “Go on, ladies, get acquainted with your space. Set up your tools,” Mr. Goldberg called over his shoulder. “You have plenty of time. I, on the other hand, have camera angles to check.”

  Three hours flew by as the girls made notes of everything that was in the pantry and tried to figure out how to start the timer on the industrial oven.

  “Are you sure it will ring at twenty-two minutes? We don’t want our cupcakes to burn!” Kylie said, watching Sadie punch the numbers on the digital panel.

  “Kylie, we’ve practiced a dozen times. It works just fine,” Sadie insisted.

  “This is just so different from our kitchens at home,” Kylie added. “It’s all so big and modern. I’m used to my mom’s old KitchenAid—not this high-tech blender-mixer-thingamajig.”

  “They really do have everything a baker could want,” Juliette said. “It’s amazing. You girls should be very excited to have all of this at your fingertips.”

  “I have never seen so many piping tips.” Lexi’s eyes were wide. “I think I’ve died and gone to cupcake heaven.”

  “That’s the spirit,” Juliette said. “Think of the possibilities!”

  Just then, a noisy group entered the studio.

  “OMG!” cried Sadie. “That’s him! That’s Benny Volero, the Cake King! That guy’s won every Food Network competition he’s ever been on. He’s a pro! He built a replica of the Titanic out of cake and sank it in a swimming pool!”

  Lexi nodded. “He’s a legend. Seriously, how can we ever expect to win against him?”

  Sadie glanced across the kitchen set. Benny was signing autographs for the cameramen. He had two commercial mixers, a fondant roller machine, and his own personal piping tips—not to mention a team of six guys in white chef coats. Her stomach did a flip-flop.

  “Didn’t anyone tell him the kitchen is fully stocked?” Delaney wondered out
loud.

  “He’s Benny. He’s the best of the best—so he needs the best stuff,” Kylie explained.

  “He’s not so tough,” Jenna piped up. “What’s he got that we don’t?”

  “A hit TV show, a chain of bakeries, about a dozen cookbooks with his name on them…” Sadie sighed. “I think he even has a street named after him in Stamford.”

  “Oh,” Jenna winced. “Good point.”

  “But what we lack in experience, we make up for in style!” Kylie tried to cheer on her team.

  “That’s right,” Juliette insisted. “You girls have come a long way, and you’re going to give these bakers a good fight.”

  The girls watched as the rest of the bakers filed in. The next ones to arrive were the Connecticut Cupcake sisters, Cece and Chloe.

  “They are so organized,” Sadie whispered. “Look at all those ingredients in perfect little pink jars and boxes. They even have pink bows in their hair to match!”

  Then there was Dina Pinkerton, Sugar Fingers owner and a two-time Battle of the Bakers winner.

  “Oh, no…not her!” Kylie pretended to bang her head against the kitchen counter.

  “The judges love her…we’re doomed,” said Jenna. “She’s a whiz with vegan cupcakes. You can’t top her tofu frosting, trust me.”

  Sadie had to admit the competition looked pretty fierce. How could a group of fifth-graders stand a chance? Then she remembered a basketball game she’d played two years earlier against Rye Country Day School.

  “You never know! Sometimes, at the last minute, someone steals the ball,” she told her cupcake club.

  “There are no basketballs here, Sadie,” Kylie reminded her. “Just cupcakes.”

  “And your skateboard.” Jenna giggled.

  “My point is I was once up against this giant girl from Rye Country Day School,” Sadie continued. “She was nine years old and about six feet tall! Everyone thought she was unbeatable. Well, I stole the ball right out from between her hands and I won the game. We creamed those Rye Reptiles!”

  “So you’re saying there is someone who is actually taller than you in elementary school?” Jenna asked. “I don’t believe it.”

  “I think what Sadie is trying to say is ‘nothing is impossible,’” Kylie stepped in. “Am I right?”

  Sadie smiled. “I knew you’d get it. And I swear, this girl was at least a head taller than me!”

  •••

  Jerry Wolcott, host of Battle of the Bakers, suddenly summoned everyone to attention. “That’s my cue to go to my seat in the audience,” Juliette said. “Break an egg, girls. Make me proud!”

  There was no more time for nerves or self-doubt. “Cupcake bakers, may I please have one representative from each team in the center of the kitchen?” Jerry called. “This person will be the team captain.”

  Benny strolled over, looking confident. And Cece stepped forward (after she and Chloe thumb-wrestled for it). Kylie looked at Sadie. “You go,” she said. “Sadie, you’re a real competitor—you know what it takes to win. You never give up.”

  Sadie gulped. “Me? But Kylie, you’re the club president. You should be the leader. Besides, what if they give us something to read? What about my dyslexia?”

  Jenna gave her a little push. “Come on, chica, you can do it. Put on your game face and get out there!”

  Lexi gave her hand a squeeze. “We believe in you, Sadie.”

  Sadie walked slowly to the middle of the room where three other bakers were gathered, awaiting instructions as the camera crew tested the spotlights. She stood next to Dina Pinkerton, who was adjusting her apron. She looked cool as a cucumber. Sadie nibbled her nails.

  “Hey.” Dina smiled. “I’ve heard some great things about your cupcakes.”

  Sadie smiled back timidly. “Thanks.”

  “You nervous?” Dina asked.

  Sadie thought about what her basketball coach had told her a million times: “Don’t let the other team see you sweat. Put on your best game face.”

  “Um, no, not at all,” she lied. “I’m cool.” She wasn’t sure who she was trying to convince, Dina or herself.

  “Good!” Dina replied. “Because I’m a wreck! I am before every competition. But adrenaline is a good thing, you know?”

  “It is?”

  “Sure! Just try to focus on taste, texture, and presentation, and keep an eye on the clock. And whatever you do, don’t put maraschino cherries on your cupcakes.”

  “Why?” Sadie asked, puzzled.

  “Because the head judge, Fiero Boulangerie, hates them. You’ll lose if you do—trust me!”

  Sadie smiled. “Thanks for the tip!”

  “I’ve got another tip for you,” whispered Benny. “Make sure your cupcakes have some zip and zing…if you know what I mean.”

  Sadie scratched her head. “Um, no, I don’t know what you mean.”

  “A little extra excitement—something that takes it over the top,” Benny explained.

  “Oh!” said Sadie. “Like the time you made a Fourth of July cupcake on The Cake King show and it exploded?”

  Cece rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to throw in all those splashy tricks,” she advised. “Just make sure your cupcakes are moist and you use the best quality ingredients. That’s how we’ve become a success.”

  Sadie tried to take it all in: zip and zing, no cherries, best ingredients. She thought her head was going to explode like Benny’s Fourth of July cupcake!

  “Places! Places, everyone!” Jerry summoned them. “No more talking. I’d like to introduce you to the judges and then we’ll start filming.”

  Sadie stared out at the audience—it was a packed room. Everyone was watching! Her mom and dad were in the front row, waving at her. Please, Sadie thought, don’t let them fight!

  Three people walked onto the kitchen set: Fiero, Carly Nielson, owner of Jimmies, the world’s first cupcakery, and…

  Sadie gasped. No! It couldn’t be!

  “I’m sure you know Battle of the Bakers’ two famous judges, Fiero and Carly,” Jerry said. “And our guest judge today is Mrs. Lila Vanderwall, president of the New Fairfield Art Society.”

  Sadie glanced over her shoulder at her fellow PLC members, who looked as shocked and sick to their stomachs as she felt.

  “What’s wrong?” Delaney whispered.

  “Big problema!” Jenna gulped. “Mrs. Vanderwall hates Peace, Love, and Cupcakes! We messed up her order.”

  “‘Messed up’ is putting it mildly,” Kylie added. “We almost caused an epic art society fail.”

  “Well, maybe Mrs. Vanderwall has forgotten,” Delaney offered. “I’m sure it’s all bygones.”

  Just then, a shriek arose from the judging table: “You! I know you!” Mrs. Vanderwall was pointing an accusing finger at Sadie. “You almost destroyed my event!”

  Sadie tried to keep her guard up. “It was an accident,” she said softly. “Nice to see you again, Mrs. Vanderwall.”

  The other bakers looked stunned. They’d never seen a judge get this angry before she tasted a single cupcake.

  Jerry tried to calm her down by doing a magic trick: he pulled a quarter out of her ear. “Hey, Mrs. V—look at that! Ears to you!” Fiero and Carly chuckled.

  But Mrs. Vanderwall was not amused. “I do not like magic tricks,” she sniffed. “I do not like puns, and I do not like bakers who are unprofessional.” She settled into her seat and continued glaring at Sadie.

  “Okay…someone needs a little sugar to sweeten her attitude!” Jerry joked. “So let’s give it to her. Bakers, here is your first challenge. The first round requires you to make a cupcake that will wow our judges.” He pointed to the table piled high with ingredients. “But here’s the fun part: you must use two ingredients, one from Section A, one from Section B, that don’t go together. This challenge is
called The Perfect Pair.”

  Sadie stared at the table: in Section A, there were tons of snack foods, stuff like potato chips, popcorn, peanut butter, granola, and a mountain of jelly beans. In section B, there were fruits, veggies, hot peppers, and even a jar of pickles.

  “Holy cannoli!” Benny cried, mopping his brow. “What are we supposed to do with that?”

  “That’s for you to bake and us to partake!” Jerry danced around. He pointed to the giant digital clock on the back wall of the studio. “And your time starts now!”

  Sadie raced back to her team. “What do we want from the table? What can we bake?”

  “It’s all so yucky,” Jenna said. “None of those things go together!”

  “Think out of the box, you guys,” Kylie pleaded. “There has to be something!”

  “What if we do a chocolate potato chip cupcake?” asked Delaney.

  “Way too safe,” said Lexi. “This is Battle of the Bakers. They want creativity. They want to see something that’s never been done before. I’ve watched every episode. Trust me—we need to take a big risk.”

  “How about popcorn and papaya? Or pickles and Pop-Tarts?” Kylie suggested.

  “Eww, eww, and eww!” Jenna insisted. “This has to be yummy or we’re heading home in Round 1.”

  Sadie was the only one not tossing out suggestions. She was too busy looking at the ingredients table, her mind racing a million miles a minute.

  “Guys,” she said softly. “I think I know what to make.”

  The girls stopped bickering. “What?” Kylie asked. “Tell us! We only have fifty-five minutes left!”

  “My parents are the perfect pair—even though they argue all the time. They belong together.”

  “We know you’re worried about your folks getting divorced,” Jenna said. “But what does this have to do with cupcakes?”

  “Let’s do the two foods my parents like combined in a cupcake. That way we won’t just win Round 1, but maybe they’ll see what a perfect pair they are and won’t break up.”

  The girls were all quiet. “It’s a great idea, Sadie,” Kylie said, putting her arm around her friend. “But what are their two favorite foods?”