Sugar and Spice by Sheryl Berk

Author:Sheryl Berk
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2015-02-25T16:00:00+00:00

Herbie insisted that PLC hear him out before they put the finishing touches on the pageant order.

“I know you’re set in your ways,” he said, “but sometimes it’s good to shake things up a bit.”

He rolled a strange-looking machine into the teachers’ lounge where they were working. It looked a lot like a treadmill with a pillowcase hanging from a shower curtain above it.

“What is that thing?” Kylie asked.

“None other than my pipe-o-matic,” Herbie replied proudly. “I tested it out in the robotics lab, and I think it will work like a charm.”

Lexi looked at the ingredients piled high on the counter. They’d managed to get fifty dozen cupcakes done the past two nights at Kylie’s house, working till nearly midnight. Another thirty-three dozen still needed to be baked and decorated.

“We can do half today, half tomorrow,” Jenna suggested.

“It’s still a lot to do and a lot to assemble,” Lexi pointed out. She stared at the calendar on the wall—the pageant was Saturday morning, and it was already Thursday afternoon.

“Precisely my point,” Herbie said. “Give the pipe-o-matic a go.”

Kylie hesitated, then saw Lexi’s frantic expression. “Lex, you probably should be home with Delaney running your pageant routines, not worrying about the last batch of cupcakes,” she said.

“But how will you ever get this all done?” Lexi said, sighing. “I can’t just abandon you.”

“You’re not abandoning us,” Sadie insisted. “You already made all the gold fondant stars and the pulled-sugar tiara for the top of the tower. We can handle the rest.”

“I promise! My machine will be a huge help,” Herbie assured them.

Jenna handed Lexi her backpack and gave her a push toward the door. “Ir a casa. Go home!” she said.

When Delaney and Lexi had left, Herbie began tinkering with his pipe-o-matic. “Can we get the frosting ready?” he asked, opening the large sack suspended from the rod.

“Yeah,” Kylie said, tasting the white chocolate buttercream on her fingertip. “We have one batch done. How much can that thing hold?”

“Let’s see,” Herbie calculated. “If that mixing bowl holds five quarts, I’d say my pipe-o-matic piping bag can hold about twenty-five quarts.”

“Whoa!” Sadie gasped. “That’s a lot of frosting.”

“Which means you don’t have to keep refilling the bag,” Herbie explained. He’d attached a large metal cone to the bottom of the sack. “The machine uses air pressure to squeeze the bag. A few puffs and the cupcake is all piped. Then the conveyor belt moves it on its merry way.”

“Hmm,” Kylie said, examining the machine. “And how fast do the cupcakes move across the belt?”

“One every few seconds, but I can crank it up even faster if you want,” Herbie bragged.

Jenna handed him a platter of cooled cupcakes. “Here’s two dozen. I say we give Herbie’s thingamabob a whirl.”

“Pipe-o-matic,” he corrected her. He checked all the settings as the girls whipped up five more bowls of frosting. When he was done scraping them into the sack, he stepped back, cracked his knuckles, and took a deep breath.

“Here goes nothing!” he said.

Kylie covered her eyes.

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