The Icing on The Cupcake

By Ellie Lovegrove

Ding-Dong!

Chapter 1

Crash! Clunk! Clang! I jumped back in fright as the enormous, wobbling tower of cupcake cases collapsed. “Ouch!” I yelped as one fell on my toe. Ding-dong! The doorbell rang.

“Mum the flour is here” I yelled upstairs where she was moving

boxes. “Can you get it for me Bella?” She yelled back down. “Fine” I

grumbled.

! It seemed like all I was doing this summer was helping mum with her

new cupcake shop ‘The Icing on the Cupcake’. True, my best friend was at camp and I had nothing better to do,

but couldn’t we go on a holiday or something? That was my dream, to see the world. You might think this

crazy but I’ve never been out of the town I live in. It is tiny, it has three

streets, one supermarket and only one post box for the whole town. I was

born here, and I only have one relation,my grandma but she lives

three blocks away from us. !!

Ding dong! “Theres the door again, could you get

it honey?” Mum called down. I reluctantly dragged my feet towards the door, there was no point arguing.

She’d just start going on, and on about how hard it is to open a new

business and couldn’t I help her out after all she did for me? ect, ect.

!!

“Hello Bella Daaaaaarling!” came the voice as I opened the door.

”Grandma!” I said. “Guess what news I’ve got for you, it’s going to turn that frown upside

down!” She exclaimed. “What is it?” I asked interested. “Get me a cup of tea, and a biscuit and I’ll

tell you!” I went about making the tea. It’s was probably great news, my

Grandma was the sort of person where all sentences end with a

exclamation mark. !!!

Once we had sat down to some of my mums shortbread cookies and

tea (hot chocolate for me) I begged her to tell me.

“Come on Grandma, I can’t bear it!” I begged. She slowly took a

magazine from her handbag. Then she opened it to a dog eared page. I read the title in bold

letters…

Chapter 2

Kids Bake Off!

Kids Bake Off, For ages 8-12! The magazine screamed at me.

!

see, ever since I was little mum and I had loved baking together. For my 5th birthday, instead of a cake we ( mostly mum ) made

cupcakes with bright pink icing. For my 9th we had a cupcake

baking party. !

And every year at the Family Fun Fair we had a Guess the Cupcake Flavour stall. So as you can guess

I was pretty excited. !!

Then I read the prize. Top four get free flights to Paris and I

nearly fell off my chair. !!

“Grandma can I do it? PLEASE!” “Sure darling, as long as your

mum agrees.” “YES!” And then I read what we

had to do… !!

“WHAT? How am I going to make up my OWN recipe in THREE

weeks??!”

“I don’t know darling, but think about the flight to Paris.”

Sometimes my Grandma can be infuriatingly calm.

“If you want to make the deadline, you’ll have to get cracking”.

Chapter 3

The Perfect Recipe

“Ugh, that ones disgusting!” “I’m sorry to say darling, but you got

that right!” After I had found out about the competition, my Grandma

and I had spent the rest of the morning cooking. Actually it was me

doing the cooking, and Grandma doing the tasting.

Because I had to do it all on my own. No recipe, No adults, No help at all. Most of the things turned out

pretty crazy and weird, without a recipe to follow, but a few actually turned out okay! I still needed to

find the perfect one though. !!

We decided to take a break and headed to our favourite restaurant of

all time, Breakfast in Bed. !!

I was sitting there, at a restaurant table, looking at all the people

eating their deliciously hot maple-syrupy pancakes, when I had the

Idea. !!!

VERY fussy. !!

I put the recipe in an envelope, sealed it, put a stamp on it, copied the

address down and put it on the table for mum to take to the post box.

!

Chapter 4

Jam Tarts “Mum” I yelled “could you come

down here, I’ve got some cupcakes you should try!”

“Why don’t you bring them up here honey?” She yelled back.

“I literally can’t move” Huh? I thought, that was curios, even for

my mum. I ran upstairs. !

“What do you mean?” And then I saw the room. “Wow, Mum, you made a

mess!” Cook books were everywhere. Chairs and furniture were tipped over, and finished cups of tea were on every surface. It was obvious she’d been up all night. “Come here Bella, I found a recipe that used to be my favourite

when I was a kid, my mother used to make them in England. “Mmmmmm,

Jam tarts. Yum!” “Are they good?” I asked. My mum

was a fussy eater like my grandma, so if she said something was good, it was

probably better than good. “Good? They're Great!” she answered.

“ Could you make some for me?” I asked.

“Sure, in fact I’ll go out and get the ingredients right now, I could use a

excuse to get off this chair.” She heaved herself up.

Mum was back in a couple of minutes, one of the good things

about living in a small town. There is one main road with some

apartments and a dairy just down the street. Since we owned a store

we had an apartment above it. !!

I went and read in my room until she called “ They're ready!” I went down

to try them. I closed my eyes as I took the first bite, just like me and my mum always did. They were

DELICIOUS! The only improvement I would make was to put chocolate in it. I am a huge chocolate lover.

But, I guess you can’t have everything your way.

Chapter 5

Chocolate Jam Tarts

That night I had the urge to try the recipe with chocolate, just to try. I’m sure mum wouldn’t mind, as I muck

around in the kitchen all the time and she trusted me. But still I didn't think she would be pleased to find me banging around at like 1 a.m.

So I sneaked down quietly. Luckily mum left the recipe out and even

luckier there was still enough ingredients left.

I set about making them, automatically writing the recipe down as I went.

When they finally finished cooking I impatiently waited for them to cool down.

When they finally did, I took a big bite. They were even more Delicious!

Satisfied, I threw the rest in the bin, I didn’t want mum suspecting anything, and went

up to bed.

I didn’t notice that I left the recipe on the bench.

Chapter 6

The ContestAbout three weeks later I got the

call. !!

It was a warm and sunny day and I was just coming back from the

pool, when I heard the phone ring. I ran inside to get it.

“Hello” The voice on the other end said,

“I’m looking for Bella Skys”

“Thats me!” “Good Morning Bella, I am Skyler

Summers from the baking contest. The Judges have decided that you are going to be one of the four contestants in the quarter finals, and you will be flown to

Paris in a private jet. You will receive an information packet in the mail shortly…”

Thats when I stopped listening. !!

“MUM! Guess What?” I didn’t wait for an answer.

“I got into the baking contest, into the top four!” “Thats great darling, where is the

competition?” “IN PARIS!” I said.

!!

“Honey,”she said, “I need to tell you something.”

She came down stairs. “Bella, do you want to know why we’ve never gone

anywhere?” “Yes!” I’d only asked her like every day

for my whole life! !!

I’m afraid of riding on a plane.” WHAT? Thats SO selfish! I was about to tell her

just how I felt when I saw her face, it looked so sad, and so ashamed that I

didn’t have the heart to be angry at her anymore. But she continued “I have

asked my friend, you know the one who's an air hostess, and she said she would

send me a relaxing C.D to listen to during takeoff and landing. So, I will be coming

with you!” “Thanks Mum!”

1 Week Later, On a Plane, to Paris

“I’m worried mum.” I said, when the movie I was watching had finished.

“About what? This plane crashing? Me too!”

“No, about my recipe. It seems so plain now.”

“What? Chocolate Jam Tarts was a genius Idea!” “What?! I entered Pancake

cupcakes not chocolate jam tarts!” “I thought the recipe on the bench was the

one so I sent it!” “Oh but isn't that cheating?” “You can enter up to three

recipes honey.” “Thanks Mum!” I looked out the window, and thought how well my

summer had turned out. !

I was on a plane to Paris, to bake which I loved. And I was doing it with my Mum.

This was definitely the icing on the cupcake!