Vote for Cupcakes! Read online

  Sophie looked out at the audience—they did seem to be enjoying themselves. Maybe Delaney’s new twist wasn’t such a bad idea. They both got what they wanted: a death scene minus the gore and guts.

  “Okay,” she whispered to Delaney. “What the heck. What do we do now?”

  Delaney pulled another cupcake out of her other pocket and handed it to her. “Go ahead. Do me in!”

  “Take that!” Sophie exclaimed as Brutus, smooshing the cupcake in Caesar’s face. “I hereby end your reign of tyranny!”

  “Yes! Finally!” Delaney cheered as she began her dramatic death dance around the stage. She teetered this way…then that way…then flopped facedown on the stage and twitched for several more minutes.

  Sophie couldn’t help but crack up. Only Delaney could make death a laughing matter!

  “Is he gone?” another student playing a senator asked, hovering over Delaney’s fallen form onstage.

  “Oh, I hope so,” Sophie said. “She—I mean he—was such a pain in the butt!”

  With that, Mr. G lowered the curtain and the audience cheered.

  “Well, that was definitely…creative,” he told the cast. “I wasn’t expecting comedy improv, but you guys did a great job. Especially you, Sophie. You made us feel Brutus’s frustration…in frosting.”

  “Hey, isn’t anyone gonna help me up?” Delaney called from her spot on the floor.

  Sophie offered her a hand. “You’re crazy, you know that?” she told her friend.

  “I prefer Zany. It rhymes with Laney.”

  “I guess I should know better than to mess with history…or your monologue,” Sophie said. “I guess I wasn’t being a very considerate friend.”

  “Ya think?” Delaney said. “I tried telling you, but you wouldn’t listen. This was the only way I could get through.”

  “I’m sorry,” Sophie replied, hugging her. “You’re right. I was being awful.”

  “Hey, it happens to the best of us,” Delaney said. “But I think we both make better friends than dictators.”

  • • •

  Olivia was the first person to greet Delaney when she came offstage. She was holding a huge bowl of Caesar salad with a bow on it.

  “Bravo!” she said. “This is for the star of the show.” She handed it to Delaney and waited for her reaction.

  Delaney burst out laughing. Olivia was finally getting her sense of humor!

  “Of course, I couldn’t find any forks in the cafeteria,” Olivia said, handing her a spoon. “You’ll have to use this.”

  Delaney rolled her eyes. “I think that has to be the next thing we fix,” she said. “The great silverware shortage at Weber Day.”

  “We?” Olivia pointed out. “You mean you like being a copresident?”

  Delaney considered for a second. “Caesar might have been a solo act, but I think it’s awesome sharing the job with you.”

  “And if there’s one thing we’ve learned today, it’s that every opinion counts,” Sophie reminded her. She wiped a smudge of frosting off her cheek. “Yum, cream cheese frosting, my fave. Thanks, Laney.”

  “My pleasure,” Delaney answered. “If I was gonna smoosh a cupcake in my bestie’s face, it would have to be her favorite flavor.”

  She glanced down at the bowl of salad in her hands and got that mischievous look in her eye again. “From now on, I think our motto needs to be ‘lettuce’ all work together.”

  Sophie groaned. “Ugh! I swear, I’m gonna ‘kale’ you both!”

  But all was well in ancient Rome…and Weber Day.

  Cupcakes

  Makes 12 cupcakes

  1 cup sugar

  3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

  3 eggs

  1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  3/4 cup all-purpose flour

  3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I like Hershey’s.)

  1/2 teaspoon baking powder

  1/2 teaspoon salt

  1/2 cup sour cream

  Directions

  1. Have a grown-up help you preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners. (For a candy cane theme, I like to use red-and-white-striped ones.)

  2. In the bowl of an electric mixer set on high speed, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

  3. Reduce speed to low, and beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla, and mix until combined.

  4. In a separate medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.

  5. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet mixture, alternating them with the sour cream. Beat for approximately two minutes on low to medium speed until the batter is smooth. Be careful not to overbeat.

  6. Using an ice-cream scoop, spoon the batter into the cupcake liners until they are two-thirds full. Bake for 18–20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.

  7. Have an adult remove the pan from the oven, and allow the cupcakes to cool completely, about 15 minutes, before frosting.

  Peppermint Buttercream Frosting

  1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

  3 cups confectioners’ sugar

  4 tablespoons whipping cream

  2 teaspoons peppermint extract

  3 candy canes

  Directions

  1. Cream the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer set on high speed.

  2. Reduce the speed to low, and carefully add the confectioners’ sugar and the cream and peppermint extract, alternating between them. Beat for about two minutes until the frosting is light and fluffy.

  3. Use a piping bag with a tip to create your frosting. (I like to pipe mine to look like a swirl.)

  4. Place the candy canes in a plastic freezer storage bag, and seal the bag.

  5. Have a grown-up help you use a mallet or the back of a large serving spoon to crush the canes into tiny bits.

  6. Sprinkle the candy bits over the tops of the cupcakes, and serve your sweet, minty treat!

  Cupcakes

  Makes 12 cupcakes

  1/3 cup unsalted butter

  1/2 cup honey

  2 eggs

  1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt

  1 teaspoon vanilla

  1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

  1 teaspoon baking powder

  1/2 teaspoon baking soda

  1/2 teaspoon salt

  Directions

  1. Have a grown-up help you preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.

  2. With a grown-up’s help, heat the butter until melted in a small saucepan over medium heat.

  3. In the bowl of an electric mixer set on high speed, mix together the honey and melted butter.

  4. Reduce the mixer setting to low, and beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the Greek yogurt and vanilla.

  5. In a separate medium-size bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

  6. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the honey mixture, beating for approximately two minutes on low or medium speed until the batter is smooth.

  7. Using an ice-cream scooper, spoon the batter into the cupcake liners until they are two-thirds full. Bake for 18–20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.

  8. Have an adult remove the pan from the oven, and allow the cupcakes to cool completely, about 15 minutes, before frosting.

  Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

  1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

  3 cups confectioners’ sugar

  4 tablespoons whipping cream

  Directions

  1. Cream the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer set on high speed.

  2. Reduce the speed to low, and carefully
add the confectioners’ sugar, alternating with the cream. Beat for about two minutes until the frosting is light and fluffy.

  3. Using a piping bag or spatula, frost your cupcakes. (I like to drizzle mine with a little honey on top as well!)

  Makes 12 cupcakes

  3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

  2 tablespoons sugar

  3 tablespoons butter

  4 ounces cream cheese (1/2 package), softened

  1/2 cup ricotta cheese

  1/2 cup sugar

  2 eggs

  1/3 cup heavy cream

  Directions

  1. Have a grown-up help you preheat the oven to 325°F. Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners, and spray the liners with a nonstick cooking spray.

  2. To make graham cracker crumbs, put the crackers in a plastic freezer storage bag, and seal the bag. Have a grown-up help you use a mallet or the back of a large serving spoon to crush the crackers into crumbs.

  3. In a small bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs and sugar.

  4. With a grown-up’s help, heat the butter until melted in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir the melted butter into the crumb mixture.

  5. Press about a tablespoon of the crumb mixture into the bottom of each cupcake paper.

  6. In the bowl of an electric mixer set at low speed, combine the cream cheese, ricotta cheese, sugar, eggs, and heavy cream. Blend until creamy.

  7. Spoon the cheesecake mixture into the liners until they are two-thirds full.

  8. Bake for 10–15 minutes, or until just set. Don’t overbake.

  9. Have an adult remove the pan from the oven, and let the cupcakes cool for 15 minutes before chilling in the fridge for at least an hour.

  10. I like to top each cupcake with a dollop of whipped cream and some fruit—a strawberry, a raspberry, or a few blueberries—for that authentic cheesecake look and flavor.

  LA Sweetz owner Letty Alvarez not only makes amazingly yummy cupcakes in her Florida-based bakeries, she also competed to be the Cake Boss’s Next Great Baker. I asked her to dish on her biz and hanging with Buddy…

  Carrie: LA Sweetz is my fave cupcakery in Miami! How and when did you start it? Was it hard to grow the business?

  Letty: Thank you for that awesome compliment! My husband and I started LA Sweetz in 2008 with the last of our family’s savings ($5,000). The country was going through a recession at the time. It was a huge gamble to start our business, but it was one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life. Growing the business took time, but we are happy to admit that it was not hard to grow due to the number of fans we accumulated throughout the years that fell in love with our product and our amazing customer service.

  Carrie: What makes a great cupcake, and what are your fave flavors you’ve created? What are your most popular bestsellers?

  Letty: Quality ingredients are what physically make a great-tasting cupcake, but the magic of how it is made is why I think our cupcakes are the best! From the moment you enter LA Sweetz, you are greeted with a friendly smile, loud, fun music, and a bubbly color scheme throughout the store. I truly believe what makes our cupcakes great is the amount of love that we make them with and serve them with.

  Narrowing down my favorites is a difficult task since they are all so yummy, but I would say my all-time three faves are: Chocolate Raspberry, Captain Jack, and Ricky Martin! Chocolate Raspberry needs no explanation: it’s a delicious chocolate cake filled with raspberry puree, topped with dark chocolate buttercream, and drizzled with raspberry syrup. Captain Jack is a chocolate, English toffee, and crushed Oreo cookie cake that’s filled with caramel and topped with dark chocolate buttercream that’s drizzled with caramel and topped with crushed Oreo dust. Finally, the Ricky Martin was our hit on Cupcake Wars. It’s an adult cupcake because it is alcohol-infused. It’s a coconut and rum cake topped with a sweet dulce de leche buttercream and a candied coconut crunch! Our top sellers continue to be Guava, Red Velvet, and Triple Chocolate.

  Carrie: You competed on The Next Great Baker! What was that like? Was it hard? Scary? Is Buddy nice?

  Letty: Yes! I was one of thirteen candidates selected from over 75,000 applicants to participate in Season 3 of TLC’s The Next Great Baker with TLC’s Cake Boss superstar Buddy Valastro. The amazing experience is one I will forever treasure. It was incredibly difficult on many levels. I had to leave my family and business for six weeks, and live alone and isolated in a hotel room. I had to first compete against strangers that eventually became like family because we only had each other while we were there.

  It was mentally hard to compete with so many different types of personalities and people you knew had a better skill set than you. It was also scary because we all had different reasons to be there, causes and goals that propelled us to compete, and at the same time we started thirteen strong and week to week would lose a teammate and had to deal with the possibility that we may be the next to go. I can say Buddy was an intense person, but I truly admire his dedication to his family and his business ambition. But his piercing stares were always nerve-racking for me!

  Carrie: What advice do you have for kids who want to one day own their own baking biz?

  Letty: My advice to any kid or adult who wants to enter the baking business is to make sure they love what they are doing, because day in and day out of producing the same baked goods can wear you down if you don’t truly love it. But if you are a person like me and you do love baking and putting smiles on people’s faces, then owning your own bakery business will make you feel complete, content, and very sweet!

  Carrie: What are your future plans for LA Sweetz? Did you ever think of opening in LA?

  Letty: The future for LA Sweetz is very sweet, now that we have franchised. Expansion to the West Coast is very possible, but for now we are starting to plan out and grow the five stores we have sold in Orlando. Who knows? Maybe Mickey Mouse might fall in love with us as well!

  Carrie: I know you’re a mom! Do you teach your kids to bake? Do they help out at the bakery?

  Letty: I am a mom of five! My oldest son is twenty-three, and he is my head pastry chef; my daughters, who are nineteen and sixteen, work at the shops’ front counters selling cupcakes; and my twins, who are eleven now, are my best research and development specialists! They taste test everything we create and give us critical feedback with a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. Honestly, I would love for my kids to take over the business someday, but I realize LA Sweetz is my dream and I am open to them making their own way in life and choosing their own dreams to pursue. They’ve all had fun in the bakery baking, frosting, and creating yummy cupcakes. Only time will tell if what I am working so hard to build is something they want to inherit and run in the future. We shall see!

  Many thanks to all our family and friends who make Cupcake possible:

  The Kahns, Berks, and Saperstones, as always, for their love and support. Daddy and Maddie: love you to the moon and back!

  Our supersweet agents, Katherine Latshaw and Frank Weimann from Folio Lit; our great team at Sourcebooks Jabberwocky: Steve Geck, Kate Prosswimmer, Alex Yeadon, Elizabeth Boyer.

  Shout-out to Thommie Retter (you got a character named after you!) and all our TW2B friends and family. Love you guys!

  Sheryl Berk is the New York Times bestselling coauthor of Soul Surfer. An entertainment editor and journalist, she has written dozens of books with celebrities, including Britney Spears, Jenna Ushkowitz, and Zendaya. Her daughter, Carrie Berk, is a renowned cupcake connoisseur and blogger (facebook.com/PLCCupcakeCLub; carriescupcakecritique.shutterfly.com; Instagram @plccupcakeclub) with over 100,000 followers at the tender young age of twelve! Carrie cooked up the idea for The Cupcake Club series while in second grade. To date, she and Sheryl have written eleven books together (with many more in the works!). Peace, Love, and Cupcakes had its world premiere as a delicious new musical at New York City’s Vita
l Theatre in 2014. The Berk ladies are also hard at work on a new series, Fashion Academy, as well as its musical version—Fashion Academy: The Musical, which premiered in October 2015 in New York City.