Mariella Mystery Investigates a Cupcake Conundrum. Kate Pankhurst

      

      First edition for the United States published in 2014

      by Barron’s Educational Series, Inc.

      First published in Great Britain in 2013

      by Orion Children’s Books, a division of the Orion Publishing

      Group Ltd., Orion House, 5 Upper St. Martin’s Lane,

      London WC2H 9EA Great Britain

      Text and illustrations copyright © Kate Pankhurst 2013

      The right of Kate Pankhurst to be identified as the author

      and illustrator of this work has been asserted.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be

      reproduced in any form or by any means without the

      written permission of the copyright owner.

      All inquiries should be addressed to:

      Barron’s Educational Series, Inc.

      250 Wireless Boulevard, Hauppauge, New York 11788

       www.barronseduc.com

      eISBN: 978-1-4380-9291-1

      For Mum: enjoy the cakes …

      Contents

      Saturday: May 3rd

      Tuesday: May 6th

      Friday: May 9th

      Monday: May 12th

      Tuesday: May 13th

      Wednesday: May 14th

       Thursday: May 15th

       Friday: May 16th

      

      3:00 PM

      MYSTERY GIRLS HQ

      Even when I’m not solving mysteries I can still use my amazing detective skills to help other people. Today the Mystery Girls completed an important mission. This is my mission report in full:

      OPERATION BAKE-A-CAKE

      PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: To make sure fellow Mystery Girl and BRILLIANT baker, Violet Maple, gets through to the finals of her favorite TV program – Bake or Break.

      (I haven’t seen it before but Violet says it’s really difficult and if you win you are officially the best young baker in the whole country.)

      8:45 AM: Leaving Mystery Girls HQ, Operation Bake-a-Cake is intercepted by the Prince of Annoyingness, Arthur Mystery (claims to be my little brother).

      He is waving his Bake or Break Annual book and begs us to tell Bake or Break he is seven, not five and a half, so he can enter too. I say no way.

      8:55 AM: Bake or Break auditions, Puddleford Village Hall. The only way Poppy and I could gain access to the auditions was to enter the competition ourselves. I don’t know much about baking, but I know I like cake.

      9:03 AM: Violet has laid out her ingredients and is busy reading Grandma Maple’s recipe book.

      It’s full of useful baking information and has helped Violet think up loads of great ideas for her own recipes (with a mysterious twist).

      9:05 AM: Poppy and I find tables next to Violet where we can watch for signs of stress. If we spot them early, hopefully we can avoid a full scale Maple Meltdown.

      9:15 AM: I get out my recipe for Rainbow Cake. I’ve never tried baking anything before, but I don’t think it will be difficult – not compared to mystery-solving.

      9:30 AM: The Bake or Break Talent Spotter says we all need to take this really seriously – if we bake some wonderful cakes we could go through to the next audition and even to the finals on TV. She says, “This is Bake or Break, guys. Five … four … three … two … one … BAKE!”

      9:45 AM: Violet is staring into space holding a mixing bowl and a whisk. I alert Poppy using our emergency code word: FLAPJACK. We bang pots and pans. Violet snaps out of her trance and leaps into action. Meltdown averted.

      10:30 AM: Poppy takes her cake out of the oven. It makes a weird fizzing noise and then explodes.

      Poppy deduces the twelve bags of popping candy she put in gave her cake too much “pop.”

      My cake doesn’t look like the picture in the recipe either.

      11:00 AM: TENSE MOMENT. We hear Violet say, “I’m not sure about this” worriedly to herself. This is a clear sign she is starting to panic. (She is icing her Mystery Cake.) Poppy runs over and fans Violet with a towel.

      11:30 AM: The Talent Spotter shouts that our time is up and judging of the cakes (the ones that survived baking) will commence. She tastes my cake first and looks as if she might throw up.