Hey everyone! So... K and I thought of this over the last weekend...and I think it is awesomely hilarious! Cupcakes is about a team-bonding exercise...baking cupcakes...which turns into utter chaos. I know...it's been done with Kensi and Deeks before...but this is everyone, except Hetty. Slight Nelric and Densi.
And...Before we realized it, the story got realllllllly long! This was supposed to be a one-shot, but it's going to be in 2 parts now. Enjoy!
This story is dedicated to all of my classmates in cooking class...you guys completely gave me some ideas for this story, and you rock!
Disclaimer: Just borrowing, maiming, and returning! I promise!
CUPCAKES PART 1
Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cupcake Recipe
2 and 1/4 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 and 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
3 and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoon baking cocoa
1 and 1/4 cups 2% milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 large eggs
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.
Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Mix at low speed for 30 secs. Then mix at high speed for 3 minutes, scraping the bowl every minute.
Spoon cupcake batter into liners until they are 1/2 to 2/3 of the way full. You should have enough for 24 to 36 cupcakes.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool 10 mins in pans, then move cupcakes to the wire rack to cool completely.
Frost!
This simple recipe and some easy team bonding. Easy enough, right? Wrong! Nell thought, rubbing her forehead Sunday morning. It was complete and udder disaster. You'd think 4 highly trained, undercover Black Ops Agents, a Technical Operator, and one Intelligence Analyst would be able to make one batch of simple Chocolate-Peanut butter cupcakes in about 40 mins, without injury. COMPLETELY WRONG.
(Flashback)
Saturday Evening (Grocery Shopping)
"Eric, can you go get us...a gallon of milk?" Deeks asked, pushing the cart.
"Deeks, we do not need a whole gallon of milk."
"Yes we do Nell...wait... 'c' is for...what is 'c' for?"
"Cup, Deeks. 'C' is for cup."
"Ok. Eric, get us a whole gallon...and 1 cup."
"Oh my God. Deeks, are you stupid?"
"It says 1 and then a...fraction. 1 over 4. The one over 4 is for the cup, and there's no abbreivation after the 1. So that means gallon."
"Trust me Deeks, we do not need a full gallon." Eric rolled his eyes at the blonde detective. He went to get the milk, chuckling softly. He didn't really bake, but even he knew that one gallon was way too much. Nell took the list from Deeks. She stared at him.
"Go get peanut butter. 1 jar. And one container of eggs." She said. Deeks saluted her and left. Nell rolled her eyes. She picked up vanilla, baking powder, baking soda, and cocoa powder. Eric returned with the milk. He put it in the cart.
"How much you wanna bet that Deeks is going to get lost finding the stuff?"
"Oh, he'll be lost all right. I just disposed of him quickly. 2 items. Opposite sides of the store. The faster we finish, the faster we leave." She paused. "We need flour, sugar, salt, pans, and icing."
"Alright." I'll go get the flour, sugar, and salt. Then I'll find Deeks. He went off again. Nell found the pans.
Eric found Deeks trying to pick a jar of peanut butter. Eric walked down the peanut butter aisle. "Just grab a normal size jar of Jiff."
"Ok." Deeks set one back, then left and came back with eggs. They went back to Nell.
Nell glanced back at them and sighed. The boys set everything in the cart.
"Are we done now?" Eric asked.
"Yea, we're good." Nell said, tossing the icing in the cart. They checked out quickly.
Kensi's House
The whole team was gathered in Kensi's kitchen. Callen looked around Kensi's house. He preheated the oven.
"We need a bowl." He said. Nell looked at Kensi.
"Which cabinet?" She asked as Deeks unloaded the groceries.
"Um...I believe it's in that one." Kensi pointed to one up and to the left, near Nell. Sam went over and opened the cabinet. The bowl fell out, hitting Nell square on the head. Nell clutched at the counter as the room spun. Her knees were wobbling a little bi, and only her grip on the counter kept her from falling.
"Nell? Nell, are you alright?" Sam demanded, as Eric came over and helped her to a chair. "Why did you have the bowl all the way on the edge?"
"How should I know? Not like I ever use it!" Nell was still silent. "Nell, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have kept the bowl so close to the edge..." Kensi said.
"Sorry, I should have expected Kensi to do something like that." Sam said.
"Hey!" Kensi turned and hit him. Nell finally blinked slowly. She leaned forward, her head resting on Eric's chest.
"Quiet voices..." She mumbled.
"Quiet down, guys." Eric said to Sam and Kensi.
"He started it." Kensi said.
"I don't care. Get her some ice and Tylenol." Sam went to the freezer to find an icepack as Kensi got out the Tylenol and water. Eric held the icepack to Nell's forehead. The pill and water were put on the counter near her. Nell slowly took the Tylenol, then sipped the water with a shaky hand.
"Thanks..." She mumbled. She took a few deep breathes. "I'm ok...I think..."
"Alright. Good. Rest for a little til the Tylenol kicks in, then we'll start helping." Eric said, gazing at her gently.
"Ok..." Nell leaned back a little bit. "Just help me move from the disaster area first." She slowly stood up, trying to steady herself. Eric put one of his arms around her waist and guided her to the living room, before settling her on the couch.
Kensi moved to stand beside her partner. Deeks blinked at her, watching Nell and Eric leave the room.
"You're actually quiet for once Deeks? Normally when I'm around, you never shut up."
"Oh, no reason...except Nell's banged head. But don't you worry...I'll be talking a lot now...especially since you noticed." He grinned. She groaned.
"I shouldn't have said anything."
"Well Fern, you did...so, too bad for you." He looked at them. "Let's get baking!" Kensi got out the measuring cups that she forgot she even owned. Sam looked at the recipe. Deeks gathered the pans and put the little cupcake papers in each hole. Callen got out the dissembled mixer.
"What are we mixing, Sam?" Sam rattled off each ingredient and the amounts of each. Kensi grabbed the sugar and measured it out. Deeks measured the vanilla, baking powder, baking soda, unknowingly adding more baking soda then needed. Then he reached for the eggs.
Eric sat next to Nell.
"Thanks Eric..."
"No problem." He continued to press the ice to her head gently. Nell leaned to him, giving him a small smile. He shifted the ice to look at the bump, then kissed her hair softly. "Feel any better?"
"Yea, a bit." She smiled.
Deeks began cracking eggs into the bowl, and succeeded with the first two, but dropped the third one on the floor. "Shit." He wiped it up quickly. Callen laughed.
"So that's funny, huh?" Deeks grabbed an egg and threw it at Callen. Sam grabbed an egg and threw it towards Deeks, defending his partner, but it missed and hit Kensi.
"There's egg in my hair!" She yelled. She grabbed an egg and pelted it towards Sam.
"We should probably go supervise them before they do anything stupid." Eric said a few minutes later.
"True. But I'm not sure we can stop them from that anyway." Nell said, smiling.
"Very true." They headed towards the kitchen.
"This doesn't sound good..." Nell whispered.
Deeks fired at Callen first, and then followed with Sam, laughing. Callen pelted at Deeks, hitting him smack on the back of his head. Kensi chuckled softly at Deeks. Sam, Deeks, and Callen's shirts were completely covered in egg. Sam fired eggs at Deeks and Kensi, just as Eric ran into the room. Kensi shrieked, feeling egg yolk going down her shirt.
"Stop it right now!" Eric yelled. Sam blinked, never hearing Eric sound so...commanding before. Nell came in behind Eric, ducking just in time to avoid the egg that hit Eric in the chest. Callen grinned, laughing. Deeks looked away.
"Deeks, was that you?" Eric asked. Kensi was already laughing hard, and Sam was trying to hold his laughter back. Deeks shook his head, as Callen slowly raised his hand. Nell laughed, and shook her head. "Callen? Really?" Eric tried to get the egg off of his shirt, but was unsuccessful.
"You guys are helping me clean my kitchen later." Kensi said. Deeks laughed.
"Maybe..." Kensi punched her partner in the arm, grinning. Nell rolled her eyes. Callen looked at them. He cracked the final egg into the bowl. Deeks chuckled. Eric looked at Nell.
"Glad it missed you." He said quietly, with a small smile forming.
"Me too. I don't need egg on my already sore head." Nell replied softly.
"Come on, let's get these things in the oven!" Callen said. "Start measuring stuff." Sam and Kensi started measuring out ingredients, not paying much attention to the recipe.
"I don't think these cupcakes are gonna taste too good." Eric whispered to Nell.
"You may have been talking too soft for us to hear, but I can still read lips, you know. And they will taste just fine." Kensi stated. Nell chuckled.
"Yea...right. If you say so. I have poison control on speed dial. Someone's going to need it." Kensi narrowed her eyes and slightly pouted, pretending her feelings were hurt, but kept measuring.
"Ok, G, everything's measured."
"Ok, everything's in the bowl, right?" He put the mixer beaters in, not noticing they were backwards. He started the mixer slowly, and then...POOF.
"G...Flour...needs to be mixed in slowly before the beaters go at it..." Nell said, wiping flour from her face, looking at her very white co-workers. Eric wiped some of the flour off.
"I think we should stand at least 5 feet away from them." He mumbled.
"Yeah..." Nell agreed. Kensi and Sam both dusted themselves off.
"Flour, eggs...great combination." Sam said. Of course...the flour stuck to everything covered in egg...including themselves.
"Shit!" Callen said. Deeks took the mixer from Callen.
"Mix it together by hand!" Callen rolled his eyes. Kensi shoved a spoon at Callen.
"Be careful this time!"
"We are never making cupcakes as a team ever again."
"This was never a good idea." Callen mixed the bowl slowly. Deeks wiped his face off.
"Next step, paper thingys." Kensi tossed the recipe to the side and filled the papers pretty high. She opened the oven door and Sam picked up the tray to put it in. Kensi tried to move out of his way, and accidentally bumped into him as he was reaching to the place the tray into the oven. Of course the batter splashed out of the papers into the hot oven, causing huge flames inside. Kensi cursed in Portuguese.
"My oven is on fire!"
"Aw shit!" Deeks grabbed a fire extinguisher. He pulled the pin, aimed, and fired the extinguisher. Nell kept back, Eric beside her. Kensi and Sam both backed up a few feet, then started another argument.
"You set my oven on fire!"
"You were the one who filled the papers up to the top instead of 2/3 full like the recipe said. They were bound to spill!"
"More batter = bigger cupcakes." She said innocently. "You should have been more careful putting them in the oven!" Deeks just about had the fire out.
"You bumped into me!"
"That was an accident and I didn't do it hard enough to "make" you spill them!"
"Shut up! It was a combined effort!" Callen snapped. Kensi muttered under her breath, then looked at Deeks.
"You need help Deeks?"
"No, it's out."
So...yes...we maimed Nell. But I promise, she's ok... And no...I do not think Deeks is completely stupid, but I'm not sure of his baking abilities...so...I'm implying he didn't know!
I hope everyone enjoyed! Reviews are welcome!
