Sticker Girl and the Cupcake Challenge

by Janet Tashjian

  The other two contestants are already in the studio when we get there. Sam is maybe a year older than we are and lives downtown in Little Tokyo. He’s standing in front of a table full of colorful squares that he’s making into tiny origami sculptures.

  “I put these on all my cupcakes,” he says.

  “You should see what he can do with cupcake liners,” the cameraperson says. “He just made the most beautiful swan I’ve ever seen!”

  In the thirty seconds it takes for us to introduce ourselves, Sam’s hands move quietly and swiftly to make a gorgeous hummingbird. If his baking is as good as his origami, Bev and I are in trouble.

  Next to him is a girl wearing thick black glasses and a lab coat. Her hair is tied back. “I’m Simone,” she says. “Sam and I go to the same school, but we don’t really know each other.”

  As we talk, she unpacks a large Styrofoam cooler with the kind of glass beakers and containers you see in a laboratory.

  “Are you sure you’re here for Cupcake Challenge?” Bev asks. “Looks more like Bill Nye the Science Guy.”

  Simone doesn’t crack a smile. She just sets out a Bunsen burner and some tongs.

  “My mom won’t even let me hold a match, never mind light one,” I whisper to Bev. “I hope Simone doesn’t blow us all up.” I suddenly wonder if Bev and I are prepared for the level of competition in this online show.

  Christy breezes into the room so relaxed, you’d never know she was about to go on camera. She introduces the four of us to the director and producer, as well as the rest of the crew. Sam and Simone are involved in their projects and barely look up.

  “Each episode will revolve around a different theme,” Christy begins. “But I won’t tell you what it is until the cameras are rolling.”

  I close my eyes and hope today’s theme doesn’t involve origami or science. On Cupcake Wars, a baking show on TV, contestants have to make 1,000 cupcakes in the final round. We’re not going to have to do anything like that, are we?

  Christy shows us around the set, which consists of two identical kitchens. Bev and I can’t contain our excitement. We’re actually standing in the kitchens we’ve watched on YouTube hundreds of times!

  “All the ingredients are here to make any kind of cupcake you could possibly imagine.” Christy points to a giant digital clock on the wall and tells us we’ll need to monitor our time as we go. “For the first round, you’ll have forty-five minutes.”

  “That’s not enough time to bake a quality cupcake,” Craig whispers from my bag. “You can’t rush these things!”

  I knew taking Craig along today was risky, but he insisted, saying he’d be able to give me an inside track. “You have a talking cupcake as a resource and you’re not going to use him?” he asked. Bev wholeheartedly agreed, so along he came.

  The Secret Ingredient

  “We’re going to take it easy on you kids since today’s the first day,” Christy says. “The most important thing is to have fun.”

  Between our super-smart competitors and all the cameras and lights, having fun seems less important than just surviving.

  “You’ve watched the show so you know the format,” Christy continues. “Each team will be judged on creativity and taste.” She talks to the director and asks if he’s ready. I secretly hope he’s not because I suddenly feel hot, nervous, and about to pass out.

  But the director IS ready, so Christy moves to the center of the kitchen.

  “Hello! And welcome to another episode of Cupcake Challenge,” Christy says into the camera. “We’ve got some new contestants for the next three episodes competing for a secret grand prize worth up to five thousand dollars!”

  I was so excited just to be on the show that I totally forgot about the prize! Kids on the show in the past have won scholarships and cupcake parties for their whole school. I try not to focus on the prize but on the task at hand.

  “Before we get baking,” Christy announces, “let’s meet our competitors.”

  I’ve watched this show enough to know that the contestants have to introduce themselves in the first episode—not to mention keep a running commentary on the cupcake creations. If I get through this part, I hope Bev can do the rest.

  Neither Simone nor Sam seems nervous as they casually tell our future viewers where they’re from, what school they go to, and what else they do besides cook. Simone is super focused, whereas Sam calmly rolls a sheet of black-and-white paper into a beautiful zebra.

  Then Christy smiles and turns toward me. My hands feel clammy and I know the director will have to yell “CUT” because I’ll still be standing there like a scarecrow with nothing to say.

  I hear a voice say, “I’ve got this.” At first I think it’s Bev, but it’s Craig, who can throw his voice like an expert ventriloquist.

  “My name is Martina Rivera,” Craig says in a perfect imitation of me. “And my favorite thing in the world is cupcakes!” I have no idea what Craig’s going to say for me, so I lip-sync a few beats behind him.

  “CUT!” The director pulls his headphones off and calls to a man with the most pockets on a pair of shorts I’ve ever seen. “Hey, Andy, the sound is off.”

  While the crew works, I excuse myself and hurry to the restroom to pull Craig out of my bag.

  “I know you’re trying to help but stop talking for me!” I scold. “You’re making it worse.”

  Who would’ve thought a cupcake would ruin everything ON A SHOW ABOUT CUPCAKES? Craig tries to jump out of my bag but I don’t let him.

  “You’d better suit up for the game, Martina,” Craig says. “You’re NOT going to make me look bad on YouTube!”

  “You’re not even on the show!” I immediately lower my voice when the restroom door opens. Luckily it’s Bev, checking on me.

  “Come on, Martina, you can do this,” she says. “Let’s get these introductions over with.”

  “That means Little Miss Introvert has to bring her A game,” Craig says.

  “What’s with all the sports metaphors?” I ask.

  Craig looks at me sheepishly. “I’ve been watching a lot of basketball.”

  I roll my eyes and zip my bag.

  Bev looks concerned and asks if I’m okay. I tell her I’m as good as I’m going to get. Then I head back to the set.

  When the director calls action, this time I’m the one introducing myself, not Craig. I nervously rush through it and then the camera shifts to Bev. She’s in her element and makes the crew laugh during her intro so she has to tape again.

  Christy takes a Cupcake Challenge gift box off one of the kitchen shelves and sets it on the counter. “Is everybody ready for the first task?”

  All four of us nod. Christy pulls the ribbon off the gift box.

  “The theme for today is … cauliflower!”

  She yanks on the ribbon and the front of the box falls open to reveal a big, lumpy head of cauliflower. From inside my bag I hear Craig yell, “That’s just wrong!”

  I couldn’t agree more.

  “GO!”

  Christy hits the giant timer on the wall and our forty-five minutes begin. Nigel may have baked the cupcakes that got me onto the show, but I’m on my own now.

  Bev looks at me for a plan but the clock is ticking so I race to the cupboards and grab some ingredients instead. I’ve never had such a short deadline to bake. Not to mention the worst theme for cupcakes EVER. Why couldn’t we get cereal or gummy bears like the last show?

  “Cauliflower is disgusting,” Bev says. “What are we going to do?”

  I actually like cauliflower but now isn’t the time to argue because I’m too busy whisking eggs and oil.

  “We can steam the cauliflower and shred it into the batter,” I tell Bev.

  “What’s going on out there?” Craig yells from inside my bag. “What happened to good old-fashioned chocolate?”

  “Cauliflower doesn’t have a strong taste after it’s cooked,” I say. “Chocolate will cover it up but we’ll still be including it in the
recipe.”

  Bev doesn’t look convinced. “I don’t know … How about we throw in some extra chocolate chips, just to be sure?”

  We steam the cauliflower. Then I measure and mix ingredients in a large bowl while Bev preheats the oven and grabs our muffin tins, which are already filled with cupcake liners bearing the show’s logo. Bev spoons our cauliflower cake batter into the cups and I peek into my bag to check on Craig to see if he has any last-minute tips.

  “Never overbake a cupcake,” he says. “You’ll end up with a lump of charcoal.”

  I look over at Simone and Sam, who are working seamlessly with precision and speed. They’ve barely said a word to each other since the clock started.

  “It looks like they’re using mustard.” Bev squints to see their station better. “What have they got up their sleeves?”

  With our tins in the oven, I wipe the flour and eggshells off the countertop. Christy comes over and turns on the oven light to check our progress.

  “Sprinkles!” She clasps her hands together. “What a great idea to put chocolate sprinkles with cauliflower.”

  Bev waits for Christy to move to the other team’s oven before asking me what Christy’s talking about. “We didn’t use sprinkles,” Bev says.

  I open the oven door and pull out the rack with our cupcakes. Sure enough, every cupcake is covered in sprinkles.

  Lots of sprinkles.

  Sprinkles that are MOVING.

  NO NO NO! I race to my bag, which is slung over the corner of the baking table. The ant farm I used for show-and-tell is sticking out, and several rows of ants are marching across the stainless-steel surface into the bowl of batter.

  Bev suddenly looks nauseous.b “I licked the spoon and bowl after I poured the batter,” she says. “Do you think I swallowed any ants?!”

  This is a disaster!

  When we take the trays out of the oven, the cupcakes look surprisingly good. The ants are now swirled through the batter in bursts of geometric shapes. They don’t even look like ants anymore, just sprinkles.

  “Are we going to tell Christy?” Bev asks. “Or let her eat a mouthful of insects?”

  I have no idea what we should do. Across the room, Simone and Sam are explaining their creations to Christy. Bev and I only have a minute to figure out a plan.

  “The origami on the top is obviously in the shape of a cauliflower,” Sam says. “I used a deep yellow paper because cauliflower is in the mustard family.”

  We’re going to get beat. Why did I think this was a good idea?

  “We used a laser tape measure to make sure the peaks in our frosting were evenly constructed,” Simone says. “Each cupcake is topped with vanilla buttercream in the shape of a cauliflower floret.”

  As Christy comes to our side of the kitchen, I can almost see the wheels spinning inside Bev’s head.

  “Interesting,” Christy says when she sees our final product. “What can you tell us about your ingredients?”

  “We used cauliflower and chocolate to make our cupcakes.” Bev lifts one of them off the platter and offers it to our host.

  “This looks delicious,” Christy says.

  “Very healthy too,” Bev continues. “Lots of antibodies to keep your immune system up.”

  I cringe at Bev’s joke. Are we going to let Christy actually eat the insect sprinkles?!

  “You have to stop her!” Craig screams from my bag. “You’re giving cupcakes a bad name!”

  Christy takes a giant bite and almost swoons. “The chocolate sprinkles add a nice crunch to the smooth cauliflower.” She puts the rest of the cupcake back on the platter. “Our first competition is certainly a difficult one to judge,” Christy says into the camera.

  “Not really,” Bev whispers.

  “But I’m going to give today’s round to Simone and Sam for their beautiful presentation and tasty creation. Tune in next week to see what we cook up on a new episode of Cupcake Challenge!” Christy turns to Bev and me. “But great job, girls. This round was a tough call.”

  “That’s a wrap,” the director says as a clean-up crew comes in to wipe down the kitchen.

  Bev looks as shocked as I am that Christy hasn’t gotten sick. “Do you think they really did turn into sprinkles when we baked them?” Bev asks.

  As nervous as I am to find out for sure, I know there’s only one way to tell. I pick up a cupcake from our plate and look at it closely. It takes everything I’ve got to work up the courage to bring it to my lips and take a small bite.

  “Well?” Bev asks.

  I take another bite. If there ARE ants in this, no one would ever be able to tell. They taste like roasted chocolate.

  Bev and I race down to the parking lot before anything else happens with my magical—and troublesome—stickers.

  “That was a close call,” Bev says. “We can’t afford any more mistakes.”

  “It’s a crime!” Craig shouts. “You should both be in dessert prison!”

  But all I’m thinking about is how I just served my show-and-tell ant farm on our cooking show.

  Dad’s New BFF

  When Dad picks us up, he’s eager to hear how the first episode of Cupcake Challenge went. I tell him I don’t want to talk about it; Bev is surprisingly quiet too. After today’s disaster, all I want to do is hide under the covers in my room, but Dad tells me that once we drop off Bev, we have to pick up Eric and Nigel at the diner.

  “It seems like you’ve had Nigel quite a while,” Dad says as we drive. “Don’t the other kids want to take him home too?”

  I tell Dad my classmates would love to spend time with Nigel—which would probably be true if any of them knew he existed. “I’ll have to give him up soon,” I say—which is ALSO true if the rules of my other sticker sheets apply.

  When we get to the diner, I’m surprised to see a large, shiny cappuccino machine behind the counter. Eric works the knobs with a focus I’ve never seen him have before. He hands my father a small latte.

  “Check that out, Marti!” Dad tilts his cup toward me and I’m shocked to see a perfectly shaped rose in the foam on top of the coffee.

  “You’re a coffee artist!” I tell Eric. “I had no idea you were so good.”

  Dad agrees and sips the coffee. His eyes close as he savors the taste. “Wonderful, mijo,” he tells Eric. “Being able to offer different kinds of coffee to our customers might help bring in business.”

  I stare at the fancy contraption now taking up half the counter and ask Dad how he could afford such an expensive new machine. Before he can answer, Nigel comes out from the back room wearing a welding mask.

  “Nigel built it.” Dad smiles. “Is there anything this guy CAN’T do?”

  Nigel technically isn’t a “guy” but I have to agree: he’s by far the most talented sticker I’ve ever had. (Sorry, Craig.)

  “We mostly do flowers and birds in the foam at work,” Eric says. “But Nigel tells me there’s no limit to the designs I can do in the milk.”

  “A coffee master too!” Dad puts his arm around Nigel, his new best friend. “Where have you been all our lives, Nigel?”

  Lately my biggest worry has been Dad’s finances. But now I’m more concerned he’s going to be heartbroken when Nigel suddenly disappears.

  On the drive home, Dad starts singing, which he only does when he’s really happy. At the chorus, Nigel harmonizes along in perfect Spanish.

  As we whiz by the rows of palm trees outside the car, I try to figure out how I can take advantage of Nigel on Cupcake Challenge. Is it too late to sign up an additional member of our baking team? Should Bev and I be practicing our skills with him every night? Should I be calling him from the studio to find out what to do with crazy ingredients like cauliflower?

  When they stop singing, Nigel announces that as much as he loves helping out at the diner, he’s got to get to work on the robotics lab at our school.

  “This week?” Dad asks.

  “That’s correct, William,” Nigel answers. “My work
awaits.”

  I’m torn. I don’t want Dad relying on Nigel too much—especially since they’re apparently on a first-name basis—but I’m also afraid if we don’t keep Nigel busy, he’ll start bossing around the kids at school and make them build him a robotics lab. I tell Nigel it’s okay with me if he wants to work at the diner instead.

  He turns to face me in the backseat with his metallic eyes. “I’ve got MY work to do too,” Nigel says. “You want me to achieve MY goals, don’t you?”

  Dad answers for me. “Of course we do! Let us know how we can help, buddy. Right, Martina?”

  If Nigel had eyebrows, they’d be arched as he waits for my answer.

  “The robotics lab it is,” I say.

  Nigel turns back around in his seat and starts singing along with a new song on the radio that Dad joins in on.

  How am I going to explain a pushy robot to my teachers?

  An Old Family Recipe

  The next episode of Cupcake Challenge doesn’t take place on the usual set. Instead it’s filmed in the kitchen of Christy’s Bakery in Beverly Hills. Bev’s never been to the bakery before and is shocked by the long line of locals and tourists outside.

  As we walk through the bustling kitchen, I’m surprised to see Debbie, who used to waitress at the diner. She puts down the giant tray of cupcakes she’s holding and gives me a big hug. Debbie starts jumping up and down when she hears I’m one of the new contestants.

  “You’ve always had great baking skills,” she says. “I can’t wait until Christy posts your episodes.”

  It’s nice to see Debbie surrounded by so much activity. I introduce her to Bev, who’s setting up our side of the kitchen for today’s challenge.

  Sam and Simone are ahead of us in the competition and they’re determined to win this afternoon too. They both wheel in giant suitcases, which they proceed to empty onto the counter: pastry bags with hundreds of decorative tips, marzipan, frosting spatulas, and more jars of candy than the drugstore sells at Halloween. All Bev and I have are our schoolbags and Craig.