Bakers on Board
Authors: Sheryl Berk
Also by Sheryl Berk and Carrie Berk
The Cupcake Club Series
Peace, Love, and Cupcakes
Recipe for Trouble
Winner Bakes All
Icing on the Cake
Baby Cakes
Royal Icing
Sugar and Spice
Sweet Victory
Fashion Academy Series
Fashion Academy
Runway Ready
Copyright © 2016 by Sheryl Berk and Carrie Berk
Cover and internal design © 2016 by Sourcebooks, Inc.
Series design by Rose Audette
Cover illustration © Kristi Valiant
Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systemsâexcept in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviewsâwithout permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
Published by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc.
P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410
(630) 961-3900
Fax: (630) 961-2168
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Berk, Sheryl, author. | Berk, Carrie, author.
Title: Bakers on board / Sheryl Berk and Carrie Berk.
Description: Naperville, IL : Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, [2016] | Series: The
cupcake club ; [book 9] | Summary: In exchange for tickets on a Caribbean
cruise ship, Jenna and her friends in the cupcake club must bake 12,000
cupcakes for a pirate-themed event.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015032234 | (13 : alk. paper)
Subjects: | CYAC: Cupcakes--Fiction. | Baking--Fiction. |
Friendship--Fiction. | Clubs--Fiction. | Cruise ships--Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.B45236 Bak 2016 | DDC [Fic]--dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015032234
Source of Production: Versa Press, East Peoria, Illinois, USA
Date of Production: February 2016
Run Number: 5005974
George Washington's Cherry Cupcakes
PLC's Wonderful White Chocolate Cupcakes
Thank you to Aunt Peggy for always cheering for us!
Jenna Medina's stepfather, Leo, came through the door of their house singing a happy tune: “Sailing, sailing, over the ocean waves⦔ He kicked up his heels and did a little jig around the living room. For the finale, he jumped up on the couch and bowed deeply.
Jenna giggled. By now, she was used to Leo's silliness. A year ago, when her mom sprang it on her that they were getting married, his jokes and teasing had driven her crazy. But that was before Jenna knew himâand decided to give him a chance.
“I grow on you, kind of like mold,” he'd teased her on the big wedding day in Las Vegas. “Please let me show you what a great papa I can be.”
Leo
had
shown her, in more ways than one. He was always there for her when she needed to make a delivery for her cupcake club. He was there when she was sweating over her science final and needed someone to test her on the elements of the periodic table. He'd even convinced her
mami
to let her adopt Dulce, her Havanese puppy. Her own father had left her mom to raise five kids by herself, but Leo had assured Jenna that he would never leave. He had an enormous heart, and Jenna had grown to love him, as well as her new stepsister, Maggie, who stayed with them every other weekend.
Leo had found them all a bigger home so Jenna didn't have to share a bedroom with her two older sisters, Marisol and Gabby. Even if her room was small, she actually had some peace and quiet and privacy away from her maniac little brothers, Ricky and Manny. It was all hersâfrom the patchwork quilt her
mami
had sewn from Jenna's old baby blankets to the Oreo cookie pillow her BFF Kylie had given her, because like an Oreo, “she was a tough cookie outside and a softie inside.” Having her own space was a dream come true. Now, she could cover her walls with pictures of her favorite Spanish telenovela stars and not worry that Gabby would draw mustaches on all of them!
Yet there was no denying her family was more loco than most. Especially when Leo called for a family meeting.
“What is it,
mi amo
r
?” Her mother, Betty, came racing out of the kitchen, still carrying a raw chicken in her hands. “
Qué es la emergencia
?
”
“Mami, are we having
arroz con pollo
for dinner?” Ricky asked, tugging on her apron.
“No! I want pizza!” Manny protested. Jenna's five-year-old siblings never could seem to agree on anything.
Gabby skipped downstairs. Her hair was set in hot rollers. “Can we hurry it up? I'm meeting Marc at the mall.”
Jenna rolled her eyes. All her sister thought aboutâand talked aboutâwere boys!
Leo took a head count. “So, Maggie is at her mom's tonight, and I will have to call her with the good news. But where's Marisol?” No doubt Jenna's oldest sister had her nose in a book upstairs.
“I'll go get her,” Jenna volunteered. She raced up the stairs and barged right into Marisol's bedroom, even though her door was shut.
“Hey!” Marisol yelled. “Do you ever knock?”
“Nope,” Jenna said, shrugging. “Leo wants you downstairsâ
ahor
a
!”
“I'm just finishing up,” Marisol said, focusing on something on her laptop screen.
“Qué pasa?” Jenna asked, peering over Marisol's shoulder. She assumed her sister was working on yet another term paper that would earn her yet another A+.
“None of your business,” Marisol replied, slamming the computer shut. “I'll be right down.”
⢠⢠â¢
Once everyone was gathered, Leo cleared his throat. “
Mi querida familia
, the Medina-Winters clan,” he began. Jenna tried to stifle a laugh but it was hard. Leo loved to speak in Spanishâalthough he wasn't very good at it. “As you all know, my boss, the
fabuloso
fashion designer Ralph Warren, has been looking for a unique venue to premiere his new resort collection.”
Jenna did know. Leo took great pride in his vice president of marketing position and talked about it all the time. His passion for fashion was one of the things that had drawn him and Betty together. He had come into the tailor shop where she worked one day by chance and spotted her beautiful sewing. According to him, it was love at first stitch.
“Well, I've found it. And I am going to take all of you along with me on this trip,” he continued. “If you guess where it is.”
“Paris? Are we going to Paris?” Gabby asked excitedly.
“Good guess,” Leo teased her, “but no cigar.”
“London? Milan? New York?” Marisol picked up where Gabby left off, naming the rest of the fashion capitals of the world.
“No, no, and no.” Leo shook his head. “You're not even warmâwhich is a hint.” He winked at Jenna.
“Warm? So the location of your runway show is someplace warm?” she asked. “Like tropical warm?”
“
SÃ! Estás cerca
,” he teased. “You're close.”
“A beach!” Ricky piped up. “I wanna build a giant sand castle.”
“Think more surf, less sand,” Leo hinted.
“Hawaii? Are we going to Hawaii?” Betty jumped in. “I've always wanted to see it.”
“No, not Hawaii.” Leo grinned mischievously. “I'll give you another hint: I'm sure this collection is going to make a big splash.”
“Water!” Jenna exclaimed. “Is it the rain forest?”
“You're missing the boat.” Leo winked. “Think harder.”
While the rest of her family was completely baffled, Jenna suddenly remembered the sailor song Leo came in singing. “Sailing⦠Missing the boat⦠Wait, are we going on a cruise ship?” she guessed.
“Ding-ding-ding! Give that girl a prize!” Leo cheered. He handed her a brochure that read “Victory Cruises” and showed a photo of a giant white ship with seventeen decks. “Yes, we are all going on a seven-night cruise to the Bahamas over midwinter break from school!”
“You are so lucky,” Kylie told Jenna when she broke the cruise news at lunch in the Blakely Elementary cafeteria the next day. She had brought the brochure Leo gave her to school to show her friends.
“Ralph Warren bought out the entire cruise for a corporate retreat so they can present the new spring-summer line to the company,” Jenna said proudly. “Leo is organizing the entire thing.”
“It looks amazing,” Kylie said. “I can't wait to tell the cupcake club!”
“I know you're president of Peace, Love, and Cupcakes and all,” Jenna said gently. “But it's my cruise. Let me do the telling,
por favo
r
?”
“Oh sure,” Kylie replied. “You can tell the girls.”
Sadie sat down next to them. “Tell me what? What did I miss?”
“The fact that Jenna is going on a cruise to the Bahamas with her family in two weeks!” Kylie was so excited she wouldn't let Jenna get a word in. “Can you imagine? It's like a giant hotel floating on the water.”
“Sweet!” Sadie replied. “That'll be so much fun. I saw this cruise ship commercial, and the ship had ginormous rock climbing walls.”
Jenna shook her head. “No, no rock climbing for these feet.” She pointed to her sneakers. “You're the jock, Sadie, not me.”
Lexi dropped her tray down at the table next to Kylie. “Ugh, do you think the cafeteria lady could even
consider
the art of food presentation?” She groaned. “Honestly! She just threw my mac and cheese on top of my hot dog. It's gross!” Since Lexi was the cupcake club's official cake decorator, she bristled anytime anyone presented a plate that was less than pretty.
“You won't believe Jenna's amazing news,” Kylie began. But this time, Jenna put her hand over her friend's mouth.
“Yes, it's
my
news,” she reminded Kylie. “So let me tell Lexi.”
“She's going on a cruise ship!” Sadie blurted out. “And it has like a dozen restaurants and a kids' club and a giant waterslide and three pools⦠Oh, and a magic show at night!”
Jenna threw her hands in the air. “I give up!”
“Sorry, Jenna,” Sadie apologized. “It just slipped out. But you can tell Delaney and Herbie at the PLC meeting after school.” Since Delaney attended another school and their advisor taught robotics all day, the club met once a week at 3:30 p.m. in the Blakely teachers' lounge.
“Oh, I kinda emailed them both just now,” Lexi said, holding up her phone. “Sorry. I couldn't wait.”
Jenna shook her head. “I am surrounded by
bocas grandes
, big mouths! Remind me never to ask any of you to keep a secret.”
“And
you're
such a great secret keeper?” Lexi teased her. “How about the time I told you I had a crush on Jeremy Saperstone and you blabbed it all over the place.”
Jenna blushed. “Okay, fine. I might have told a few people.”
“Me!” Kylie said.
“And me,” Sadie added.
“And the entire fifth grade,” Lexi pointed out. “I'm just sayin'.”
⢠⢠â¢
Delaney and Herbie were equally excited by Jenna's announcementâeven if it came through Lexi's email.
“Can you take me with you, please!” Delaney pleaded as she burst into the Blakely teachers' lounge. “Maybe smuggle me on board in one of your suitcases?”
“A cruise ship that size has a very complicated computerized system,” Herbie added thoughtfully. “Maybe you should bring me along tooâin case of any glitches.”
Jenna shook her head. “Sorry, guys. Leo only has eight ticketsâenough for him, my mom, my sisters and brothers, and our stepsister, Maggie.”
“No problem,” Kylie reminded the club. “We're going to be very busy over break. Remember? We said we're going to work on a new PLC website to show off our cupcake creations and drum up more business.”
Delaney scowled. “Well, Jenna's break sounds like a lot more fun.”
Kylie opened her official cupcake club binder to an order labeled “Mount Vernon Library” and showed it to her friends. “Any ideas for this one?”
Lexi read the client's request carefully: “Twelve dozen cupcakes commemorating our forefather's influence on our great country.”
Delaney's eyes lit up. “Hey, maybe we could make a life-size replica of the Lincoln Memorial out of cupcakes.”
“Oh no,” Lexi exclaimed. “Not happening. I went to DC with my family a few years ago, and that Lincoln is almost a hundred feet tall!”
“That's taller than Sadie,” Jenna teased.
“Nice idea, wrong president,” Kylie interrupted. “Mount Vernon was George Washington's home, and this is the library's annual fund-raiser cocktail party.”
Lexi heaved a sigh of relief. “In that case, I think we should bake something elegantâbut with presidential flair.”
“What do you think of when you think of George Washington?” Herbie asked them. “I'll admit American history was never my best subject.”
“Mine neither,” Sadie said. “But I do know he got in trouble as a kid for chopping down his father's cherry tree. When his dad asked him if he did it, he said, âI cannot tell a lie!'”
Delaney made a face. “Ooh, busted! I bet he was grounded for a week.”
“How did you ground a kid in the seventeen hundreds?” Kylie wondered out loud. “They didn't have TV or Xbox or iPhones to take away. It must have been really tough to come up with a punishment.”
“This cupcake design is really tough to come up with too,” Lexi said, chewing on her pencil eraser. “We could do red, white, and blueâbut that seems so boring.”
“What about red, white, and blueberry?” Jenna suggested. “Cherry vanilla cupcakes, our famous white chocolate cupcakes, and blueberry cobbler cupcakes?”
“Okay, I'm liking this direction,” Kylie replied. “Keep going.”
Lexi held up her sketchpad. “I could do a silhouette of Washington out of fondant,” she said. She'd used a charcoal pencil to show how the silver gum paste would look when molded to resemble the first president.
Jenna took a quarter out of her pocket and compared it to Lexi's drawing. “That's pretty goodâbut don't forget the bow on his ponytail. And make it strong and commandingânot floppy.”
Lexi added a ribbon to the bottom of George's do. “Happy now?”
Jenna smiled. “
SÃ! Muy feliz.
”
Kylie put a check next to the order in her book. “Then all that's left is for us to get baking.”