Free The Cupcake Diaries Collection: Katie and the Cupcake Cure; Mia in the Mix; Emma on Thin Icing; Alexis and the Perfect Recipe by Coco Simon Page B

please?”
    I scooped half of the vanilla frosting we had made into the new bowl. Then I put a few drops of blue food coloring into one bowl, and a few drops of yellow into the other. Emma helped me stir them up.
    “Make that one bluer,” Mia said, pointing.
    After a couple of more drops, we had the perfect blue and yellow—the official colors of Park Street Middle School.
    “Mia, do your magic,” I told her.
    Mia expertly iced one cupcake with blue frosting and another cupcake with yellow frosting. Then she used an icing tube to write “PS” in yellow on the blue cupcake, and “PS” in blue on the yellow cupcake.
    “Just imagine there are plain vanilla cupcakes inside,” Mia said, holding them out to us.
    “They’re just right!” said Mrs. Becker.
    “I bet you’ll sell a hundred of those,” agreed Mr. Becker.
    “ Two hundred,” Alexis cheered.
    “We will,” I said confidently. “We are definitelygoing to win this contest. We just have to do one thing.”
    “What?” Alexis asked.
    “We have to bake two hundred cupcakes!”



CHAPTER 15
How to Bake Two Hundred Cupcakes
    E ven though I was disappointed that we were making plain vanilla cupcakes, I loved Mia’s cupcake design. And the next Cupcake Friday, Emma brought in cupcakes for us that she made herself.
    When I bit into one, I tasted chocolate chips and sprinkles!
    “I left out the marshmallows, so they wouldn’t be too sweet or too sticky,” she said. “What do you think?”
    “I think they’re amazing,” I said.
    Emma blushed a little. “Well, I really did like our mixed-up cupcakes.”
    That made me feel better. At least Emma liked them!
    As we ate our cupcakes, we went over our planfor the next week. Our parents had agreed to let us bake cupcakes once a day for four days before the contest. We would start baking on Tuesday and finish baking on Friday night. Then Saturday morning, we would ice and decorate every single one. We had to promise to get all of our homework done right after school.
    Mom said we could do all the baking at our house. Each one of us would take turns bringing the ingredients and cupcake liners.
    Alexis had the whole thing mapped out on a chart.
    “Tuesday night, Katie will provide the supplies,” she said, reading out loud. “I’ll bring them Wednesday, Emma can bring them Thursday, and Mia will do Friday. Then Saturday, we’ll all chip in for the icing. We’ll have to make four dozen cupcakes every night, and do an extra dozen on Friday. Then we’ll have four left over.”
    I leaned across the table to get a better look at the chart. Alexis had worked out a whole system with stickers. One cupcake-shaped sticker equaled a dozen cupcakes. It all looked very complicated.
    “It looks a lot harder to bake two hundred cupcakes than I thought,” I said.
    I heard a laugh. When I turned around, I sawSydney and Maggie standing by the table.
    “I saw the sign-up sheets for the fund-raiser,” Sydney said. “You’re doing a bake sale? Now that’s really original.”
    “Bake sales are so boring!” Maggie added.
    You know what’s boring and unoriginal? I thought. Following Sydney around and repeating everything she says like a parrot.
    I thought it, but I wasn’t brave enough to say it. As usual, though, Mia wasn’t afraid to speak up at all.
    “Everybody likes cupcakes,” Mia said. “So, what are you guys doing? On the fund-raising sheet it just says ‘Popular Girls Club.’”
    “It’s top secret,” Sydney said. “Nobody has ever done what we’re planning. We’re going to blow everyone away.”
    “Not everyone,” said Alexis under her breath.
    But Sydney and Maggie didn’t hear her and walked away.
    “I wonder what they’re planning?” Emma asked worriedly. “I bet it’s really good.”
    “I bet they haven’t even thought of it yet,” I said. “Otherwise, they wouldn’t be bragging about their idea to everyone.”
    Alexis laughed. “You’re probably right.”
    After Sydney’s