Mia's Baker's Dozen Read Online Free PDF

little brother?” Ava asked. “’Cause I already have one of those.”
    Emma nodded. “Worse. At least little brothers do cute things sometimes.”
    â€œI tried to tell you, Ava,” I said.
    â€œAt least none of you have an older sister,”Alexis chimed in. “She spends hours and hours in the bathroom every day.”
    â€œDan showers longer than any of us,” I whispered. “And then he sprays on that cologne for guys that they advertise on TV. Gross!”
    I looked at Katie, expecting her to make a joke like she always does, but she was kind of quiet. In fact, she stayed quiet for the rest of the meeting. I decided I’d have to ask her later if everything was okay.
    Then Alexis took out her notebook and we got down to business.
    â€œSo, Ava, I can show you our most popular cupcake styles,” she said.
    Ava took her phone from her jeans pocket. “Actually, I have a list of ideas I’ve been working on,” she said. “Mia says you guys can do anything, right?”
    Alexis looked flustered—she’s used to being the one in charge, and Ava was kind of taking over.
    â€œWell, sure, but sometimes it helps if—”
    â€œLet’s hear your idea, Ava!” Emma said, smoothing things over.
    â€œI have a few,” Ava replied. “But winter is totally my favorite season, and it almost always snows onmy birthday, so I was hoping you could do a snowy cupcake.”
    Alexis started flipping through her notebook. “Snowy. Hmm, I’m not sure exactly how we’d do that.”
    All of us were quiet for a minute. A snowy cupcake? That was tough. Then Katie came through, as usual.
    â€œRemember Emma’s cupcake from yesterday?” she blurted out. “What if we do coconut flakes on top of vanilla icing? Mia said the coconut looked just like snow.”
    I nodded. “That could work.”
    I jumped out of my seat and ran to the kitchen cabinet where I keep all my cupcake supplies. Eddie had cleared out a shelf just for me.
    I came back with a big jar of glittery sugar sprinkles.
    â€œHow about white icing, coconut flakes, and then some edible glitter, like this?” I suggested. “We could do a silver wrapper.”
    â€œThat sounds nice,” Ava said. “But do I get to see it first?”
    â€œWe’ll take a photo and send it to you for approval,” Alexis said. “But first you need to tell us what flavor of cake you want.”
    â€œWould chocolate be okay?” Ava asked. “The brown cake won’t show through the vanilla frosting, will it?”
    â€œNo way,” I said. “Especially if Katie’s doing the frosting. She’s the best.”
    â€œYou guys are all just as good,” Katie said, smiling a little for the first time.
    â€œWe’ll do a test run at our next meeting, after we get the ingredients,” Alexis said. “Today we’ve got to do a test batch of Mia’s spicy cupcakes.”
    â€œI’ve got the red food coloring and the cinnamon and the Red Hots,” I said.
    Katie held up the canvas shopping bag she had brought with her. “I was talking to my mom about them, and she thought some other flavors might go nice with the cinnamon frosting instead of the red velvet. Like dark chocolate, maybe, or apple.”
    â€œWow, they both sound good,” Ava said.
    â€œI thought we could try a batch of each,” Katie suggested. “I brought the dark chocolate, and some applesauce and some extra spices, like ginger and cloves.” Everyone agreed to try the two different kinds, and we quickly got to work measuring out the flour and other ingredients for the batter.
    â€œDon’t you use a recipe?” Ava asked.
    â€œSometimes,” I said. “But mostly we know how to make a basic batter and then add extra flavors to it.”
    â€œOoh, extra spices! Muy caliente , right, Mia?” Emma said, and everybody laughed.