Coco the Cupcake Fairy Read online

  I have a plan to make a mess

  And cause the fairies much distress.

  I’m going to take their charms away

  And make my dreams come true today!

  I’ll build a castle made of sweets,

  And ruin the fairies’ silly treats.

  I just don’t care how much they whine,

  Their cakes and candies will be mine!

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Map

  Poem

  A Sweet Surprise

  Baking Blunders

  Fairy Spies

  A Rude Customer

  Icing to the Rescue

  The Great Cupcake Sale

  Teaser

  Copyright

  “This has been such an exciting day,” said Rachel Walker, licking her Marshmallow Magic ice cream. “We’ve already been to Fairyland and helped two fairies get their magic charms back from Jack Frost.”

  Rachel and her best friend, Kirsty Tate, were walking home from the Wetherbury village square, where they had been looking around the market. Rachel was visiting Kirsty for spring break, and it looked like they were going to have an exciting week.

  “The day’s not over yet,” added Kirsty, smiling. She paused to lick her Strawberry Sparkle ice cream, which was melting in the hazy afternoon sun and running over her fingers. “I have a feeling that now that magical things have started happening, they’re going to keep happening!” she went on, licking her fingers one by one.

  No one in the human world knew that the girls had been on many adventures in Fairyland. They were always excited to make new fairy friends and help outwit Jack Frost and his naughty goblins. That morning, Honey the Candy Fairy had visited them to ask for help again. This time, Jack Frost and his goblins had stolen the seven magic charms belonging to the Sugar and Spice Fairies. Without them, all of the candy and treats in both the human world and Fairyland were ruined!

  “We’ve already rescued Lisa the Lollipop Fairy’s magic lollipop charm and Esme the Ice Cream Fairy’s magic ice cream cone charm,” Rachel said, chewing on a deliciously sticky marshmallow. “But there are still five more charms to find.”

  “And if we don’t find them fast, Fairyland’s Treat Day will be ruined!” said Kirsty, biting her lip.

  The day after tomorrow was Treat Day in Fairyland. King Oberon and Queen Titania always gave a basket of special treats to each fairy to thank them for their hard work all year. But Jack Frost was using the Sugar and Spice Fairies’ magic charms to get all the treats for himself. There weren’t any left for the fairies! He was planning to build a giant Candy Castle, and he had given the magic charms to his goblins for safekeeping.

  The goblins had come to the human world to find even more treats to steal for the Candy Castle. Rachel and Kirsty kept a careful lookout for the little green troublemakers as they walked past the village hall. They knew that goblins could pop up anywhere!

  “It’s not just magical things that we have to look forward to,” Rachel reminded her friend. “It’s almost your birthday, and Aunt Helen said that she left a surprise waiting for you at home, remember?”

  Aunt Helen had visited earlier that day for lunch, but then she had to go back to work. She had an important job at Candy Land, the big treat factory on the hill overlooking Wetherbury.

  “Ooh, you’re right!” said Kirsty, crunching on the last piece of her cone. “Come on, let’s run the rest of the way!”

  The girls ran up Kirsty’s street and burst through her front door, panting and giggling.

  “Hello, girls!” said Mrs. Tate, peeking out of the kitchen and smiling at them. “Did you have a good time?”

  “Magical!” said Rachel, thinking of all their adventures so far.

  “Kirsty, there’s something waiting for you on the dining room table,” said Mrs. Tate.

  The girls exchanged excited smiles, then kicked off their shoes and hurried through to the dining room. There, they found an envelope propped up against the fruit bowl. It was pink, and Kirsty’s name was written in swirly gold letters on the front.

  Eagerly, Kirsty opened the envelope and pulled out two pink cards with sparkly edges. She gasped as she read the words on the cards.

  “These are tickets for a tour of Candy Land,” she told Rachel. “Look — there’s one for you, too!”

  “And the tour is tomorrow!” said Rachel. “What a fantastic present!”

  “I just hope that we can stop Jack Frost from ruining all the treats at Candy Land — and everywhere else,” said Kirsty, her face falling slightly. “If we can’t help the rest of the Sugar and Spice Fairies find their magic charms, our tour will be a disaster!”

  Rachel frowned. Kirsty was right. They had to find those missing charms — and they didn’t have much time!

  As the girls gazed at the Candy Land tickets, Mrs. Tate came over and put her arms around their shoulders.

  “Girls, would you like to bake some cupcakes?” she asked.

  “Ooh, yes, please!” said Kirsty.

  “We could give some to your aunt Helen to thank her for the tickets,” Rachel suggested.

  “That’s a great idea,” said Kirsty. “I want to make our cupcakes as pretty as the ones at Cupcake Corner.”

  “Is that the new shop in the village?”asked Mrs. Tate, as she started gathering the ingredients. “They always have delicious-looking cakes in the window.”

  “Ours are going to be just as yummy,” said Rachel with a grin.

  “You can make the cupcake batter on your own,” said Mrs. Tate. “Call me when you’re ready, and I’ll help put the cupcakes in the oven.”

  She left the kitchen and closed the door behind her. Kirsty looked at the recipe book.

  “I’ll measure out the flour and sugar while you beat the eggs,” she suggested.

  Rachel nodded eagerly, but as she picked up the carton of eggs, it slipped out of her hand. SMASH! Six eggs lay broken on the kitchen floor, oozing across the tiles.

  “Oh, no.” Rachel groaned. “What a mess!”

  “Don’t worry,” said Kirsty. “We have another carton of eggs in the fridge.”

  While Kirsty measured out the flour, Rachel cleaned up the mess and got out the other carton of eggs. As she was beating them, Kirsty gave a squeal — and a huge puff of white flour covered both girls.

  “Sorry!” Kirsty exclaimed. “I lost my grip on the bag and dumped too much flour into the bowl.”

  “We’re not doing very well, are we?” Rachel laughed, blinking flour out of her eyes and shaking it from her hair. “It’s OK, we can just tip it back into the bag.”

  Soon, the cupcake batter was ready.

  “Let’s take turns stirring it,” said Kirsty. “The recipe says to ‘stir quickly.’ ”

  She plunged a wooden spoon into the bowl and stirred hard. Globs of cupcake batter flew everywhere!

  “Careful!” cried Rachel. “Here, let me try.”

  But as soon as she moved the spoon, batter splattered into the waiting cupcake wrappers.

  “Hey!” squealed a tiny, bell-like voice.

  “That came from inside one of the cupcake wrappers,” said Rachel in astonishment. “Oh, Kirsty, look! That one is glowing!”

  As the girls leaned in closer, Coco the Cupcake Fairy peeked out of the yellow cupcake wrapper, a dollop of cake batter on the tip of her nose.

  “Hello, girls,” she said with a giggle. “I wasn’t expecting that!”

  “Sorry, Coco!” Rachel exclaimed. “We’ve been trying to make cupcakes, but everything seems to be going all wrong.”
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br />   “No problem,” said Coco with a smile, wiping the cupcake batter off the tip of her nose. “Cupcakes are my favorite things — even before they’re cooked! I just wish that I had my magic cupcake charm so I could help make your cupcakes perfect. I’m here to ask if you’ll help me get it back from Jack Frost and his goblins.”

  “Of course we will!” Kirsty replied. “We’ll start looking as soon as we’re done baking.”

  Just then, Mrs. Tate came back into the kitchen. Coco zoomed into Rachel’s pocket as quick as a flash!

  “Are the cupcakes ready to go in the oven?” asked Mrs. Tate.

  “Almost,” said Rachel, spooning the batter into the cupcake wrappers.

  Kirsty helped her fill all the wrappers, and then Mrs. Tate used her oven mitts to put the tray into the oven.

  “Let’s make some colorful icing while the cupcakes are baking,” suggested Mrs. Tate.

  Rachel decided to make some purple icing, and Kirsty chose pink. But as soon as Rachel started to stir her mixture, she groaned.

  “I must have done something wrong,” she said. “My icing looks gray!”

  “Nothing’s going right!” exclaimed Kirsty.

  She hurried over to look in Rachel’s bowl, but her foot slipped on a glob of icing that had fallen on the floor.

  “WHOOPS!” She squealed as she skidded across the kitchen.

  Rachel held out her arms. Kirsty clutched them and stopped herself from falling. Her heart was thudding!

  “Thank you, Rachel!” she panted.

  Just then, the oven timer rang.

  “Ooh, the cupcakes are ready!” said Rachel. “We can just use plain white icing to frost them.”

  Mrs. Tate put on her oven mitts and opened the oven door. A bit of black smoke puffed out as she peered inside.

  “Oh, no!” she exclaimed.

  She pulled out the tray of cupcakes and the girls looked at them in dismay. Some were burned, while others didn’t seem to have cooked at all. A couple had spilled out of their wrappers. They were all ruined!

  “Girls, I think you must have made a mistake with the recipe,” said Mrs. Tate, coughing as more black smoke billowed out of the oven.

  “What a disaster,” Kirsty said, sounding miserable. “I tried to follow the recipe so carefully, but these look nothing like the cupcakes at Cupcake Corner.”

  While Mrs. Tate scraped the burned batter off the cupcake tray, Rachel pulled Kirsty aside. Her eyes were sparkling with sudden excitement.

  “Kirsty, I bet Jack Frost’s greedy goblins are at Cupcake Corner,” she whispered. “I think they must have Coco’s magic charm, and that’s why the cupcakes in the shop are so perfect.”

  Kirsty’s eyes opened wide. “You’re right!” she said. “But how are we going to stop them?”

  “I have an idea,” said Rachel, turning to Kirsty’s mom. “Mrs. Tate, could we go to Cupcake Corner to buy some cupcakes for later, since ours turned out so awful?”

  “I think that’s a very good idea,” said Mrs. Tate.

  Rachel and Kirsty changed their shoes and picked up their purses. Then they hurried outside, with Coco still safely tucked in Rachel’s pocket.

  The girls ran all the way to Cupcake Corner, hoping that they were right about the goblins. They stopped in front of the window to catch their breath, gazing at the display of beautifully iced cupcakes.

  “They’re so pretty,” said Coco, popping her head out of Rachel’s pocket. “Look at the red ones. They’re arranged to look like a bunch of roses!”

  “I like the butterfly shape,” said Kirsty, pointing to a large pink-and-white display in the middle of the window.

  “They all look delicious,” said Rachel, gazing at a tall stand holding tiers of iced cupcakes. Each one was decorated with a tiny candy fairy. “My stomach’s growling!”

  “I wonder why Jack Frost wants these cupcakes to be perfect,” said Kirsty. “I’m sure the baker is selling plenty of them!”

  “Look,” said Rachel, peering past the displays into the shop. “There’s a man with lots of kids at the counter. I wonder if he’s buying some cupcakes for a party.”

  Just then, the shortest kid turned around and made a face at the girls. They both gasped. The face was green!

  “Those kids are goblins!” Kirsty exclaimed.

  “And that man is wearing an ice-blue cape,” added Rachel with a shiver. “I bet it’s Jack Frost. We have to find out what he’s up to!”

  “Coco, will you turn us into fairies?” asked Kirsty. “Then we can stay out of sight and hear what they’re saying.”

  “Good idea!” said Coco, fluttering out of Rachel’s pocket.

  Luckily, there was no one else on the street. The girls ducked down below the window ledge so that the goblins couldn’t see them.

  Coco balanced on Kirsty’s knee, standing on one foot like a ballerina. Her golden-brown hair gleamed, and the jewels in her hair sparkled in the afternoon sun. She waved her wand in a wide circle until hundreds of tiny, sparkling cupcakes flew from it. They whirled around Rachel and Kirsty, who suddenly smelled the delicious aroma of baking cake!

  Their skin tingled as the magic began to work, and they shrank to fairy-size. Pastel wings appeared on their backs and they fluttered them in excitement, twirling up into the air.

  “Come on, let’s go inside,” said Rachel, leading the way into the shop through a small open window. They hid behind some cupcakes on the top tier of a cake stand, peeking out carefully.

  Jack Frost was standing at the counter in his ice-blue cape, talking to the baker. Three goblins were next to him, all wearing green shorts and T-shirts with cupcakes on the front. While Jack Frost was talking, they were sneaking nibbles of the cupcakes on display around the shop.

  “Look!” Coco whispered. “Even their hats are shaped like cupcakes.”

  “What is Jack Frost saying?” asked Kirsty. “We have to find out!”

  “And don’t forget to draw my face on each cupcake in blue icing,” the girls heard Jack Frost snap. “There had better not be a single cupcake without my face on it! Do you hear me?”

  “Yes, sir,” said the baker, looking surprised at Jack Frost’s rudeness. “But I’ll need a picture to copy.”

  “That’s easy,” said Jack Frost, pulling a photo out of his pocket. “I always carry a few pictures of myself around with me. I like to have something handsome to look at sometimes, instead of this ugly bunch.”

  He jerked his thumb at the goblins, and the baker gave a nervous laugh.

  “He thinks Jack Frost is joking,” Kirsty whispered with a little grin.

  “Are you having a party, sir?” asked the baker, writing down the order.

  “Party?” Jack Frost exclaimed. “No! I’m going to use lots and lots of cupcakes to make myself a throne, of course. Look, here’s my design.”

  He thrust a crumpled piece of paper under the baker’s nose.

  “But . . . but . . . if you try to sit on the cupcakes, you’ll squish them,” said the baker.

  “Are you calling me FAT?” roared Jack Frost.

  “No, sir!” the baker cried, shaking his head. He changed the subject. “Now, this is a very big order, so it will take us some time. Maybe you’d like to come back later?”

  “We’ll wait,” Jack Frost growled.

  The baker looked alarmed and hurried into the kitchen.

  “That silly baker doesn’t know my clever plan,” said Jack Frost, rubbing his bony hands together. “When the cupcakes are finished, I’ll add an ingredient of my own — a magic spell that will make them strong enough to sit on. Then I can finally relax on a cushion of soft, tasty cake!”

  “It’s an amazing plan!” said the short goblin with a smile.

  “You’re a genius,” said the second goblin, bowing.

  But the third goblin didn
’t say anything at all — he was too busy nibbling on a cupcake. Jack Frost saw him, gave a furious yell, and grabbed him by the ear.

  “Listen to me, gargoyle face,” he shouted. “If anyone’s going to eat these cupcakes, it’s going to be ME!”

  With a bolt of icy-blue magic, he zapped the cake away from the goblin and shoved it into his own mouth.

  “Now, you listen to me!” he shouted, spraying bits of cake all over the cowering goblins. “Find me lots and lots of cupcakes and bring them back to the Candy Castle — OR ELSE! I have a lot to do, so I have to get going!”

  He pulled out a piece of paper and waved it under the goblins’ noses. The girls leaned forward and saw, in messy handwriting:

  Jack Frost reached inside his cape and pulled out something that glimmered under the lights. It was small and golden — and shaped like a cupcake. Coco gasped and grabbed Rachel’s and Kirsty’s arms.

  “Girls, that’s my cupcake charm!” she whispered.

  Jack Frost handed the charm to the short goblin, who had been making faces at the girls earlier. He held it in both hands, his eyes very wide.

  “Thank you for trusting me with this, boss,” he babbled. “I promise that —”

  “Enough!” Jack Frost snapped. “I don’t have time to listen to you. Just hurry and bring me lots of beautiful cupcakes — or you’ll all be sorry!”

  Before the goblins could say another word, he disappeared with a rumble of thunder and a flash of icy magic.

  Two of the goblins immediately turned to the cupcakes and started gobbling them down, but the short goblin put his hands on his hips.

  “You shouldn’t do that,” he said. “Jack Frost wouldn’t like it at all.”