HAPPY BIRTHDAY "SELECTED TWINS"! Can't believe it's been a year of (fairly) steady updates! This is a first! A huge thank you to all my wonderful readers, especially those of you who review. Love you all so much and couldn't have done it without you!
Especially to majestictales, UltimateMaxmericaShipper, delovies, LadyAnj, 4Love4Love4, delovlies, fairy not princess, Smiley face, and PrincessSwim for reviewing last time!
The promised bake-off. It's basically "Cupcake Wars" with a tone of drama! These teams took forever to come up with. Shout out to UltimateMaxmericaShipper for taking the time to send me her ideas and to delovlies for spending an entire afternoon almost a month ago baking with me and exhausting almost every team combination!
…
This was going to be a disaster.
Cameras were everywhere, the kitchens were emptied out and prepped for a bake off, and the girls were dressed in color coordinated dresses designed by Amber, now that she back at work, as part of her new campaign, all covered with cute aprons, and the teams had been chosen randomly.
That had been a mistake.
The four royal children had served as the heads of the teams. Andrew had ended up with his wife, of course, that probably hadn't been random, as well as Michaela and Elvira, in blue. Much to the queen's displeasure, Wesley had scored Lissa on his team, as well as Nicole and Katherine, in white. Michelle wasn't looking to happy to be with Mackenzie, Gracie, and Adele, in pink, who were already fighting, when they weren't looking over angrily at Ethan's team-Ebony, Nat, and Sirena, in green.
The challenge was simple enough. In a poll, the public who were actually interested in this had voted that the teams make cupcakes. They were to make three different flavors, and would be judged by the judges—the king and queen, Sophia, and Taren—on taste and presentation. Cameras would capture everything in the three hour time frame, then cut down to forty five minutes and edited to be shown on the Report.
And everything was going to be a disaster.
…
"It's so unfair." Mackenzie fixed her eyes across the kitchens on Ethan and Ebony, and crossed her arms, tightening her jaw. "Why does she get to be on his team?"
"It was random." Adele brushed by her with several mixing bowls balanced precariously on each other. "The least we can do it beat them. So let's get started."
"The least we can do is nothing." Michelle grumbled.
"Okay, guys. Flavors. This is the fun part." Gracie clapped her hands together eagerly. "I'm thinking a play on raspberry lemonade, maybe lemon cupcakes with a fresh lemon curd filling and raspberry buttercream for our first one?"
"Sounds complicated." Adele wrinkled her nose.
"That's why you have me on your team!" Gracie exclaimed. "Next, maybe an interpretation of an s'mores? Chocolate cake on a graham cracker crust with a meringue frosting? And then the last one should be simple. Maybe snickerdoodle? Spice cake with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting?"
"Well, you have the most experience, so hopefully you can execute this." Michelle shrugged, filing through a recipe book. Gracie started the lemon cake, and set Mackenzie and Adele on the chocolate and snickerdoodle, and Michelle started straining the raspberries for the frosting.
"I don't understand how he could like a girl like Ebony." Mackenzie began the conversation again as she sifted flour into a bowl. "She's way too overbearing, she has too many ideas, and she has no poise-"
"Okay, the pathetic boy talk stops now." Michelle snapped, jamming raspberries through the strainer. "We're the only team of all girls. We can totally beat my brothers."
"Ethan is not pathetic." Gracie mumbled, switching on her mixer.
"You just say that because you think you're hopelessly in love." Adele reminded her.
"You should know. You were all over him at Trentworth." Mackenzie sneered.
"So were you." Gracie mumbled.
"Guys, he's my brother. Don't talk about kissing him in front of me." Michelle rolled her eyes. "C'mon. Less talking, more baking."
…
"Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry. What could be easier than that?" Wesley shrugged.
"Well, it doesn't seem very creative…" Katherine suggested.
"It's judged on taste and presentation. I don't think creativity matters much." Nicole fiddled with a stirring spoon. "We need to get going. We have a two hours and ten minutes left."
"Okay. I guess that works." Katherine set the cookbook on the counter.
"Are you sure? You're the only one who knows anything about baking here." Lissa said.
"Yeah, but we mostly did bread and stuff. I'm not the cake expert." Katherine looked over her shoulder, catching sight of Ebony and Ethan pouring over a recipe book together. She frowned, and turned back to her team. "Whatever you guys think is best."
"So here's a recipe for chocolate cake, and here's one for vanilla. I don't see strawberry." Wesley squinted at the cookbook. "Oh, I didn't know frosting was made out of butter?! Who knew?" He held out the cookbook and pointed, grinning idiotically. Lissa giggled, and punched his arm gently.
"Too busy having all your meals cooked for you, Mr. Prince?" She teased.
"We still need one more flavor." Katherine flipped through the pages.
"What if we put chocolate chips in the cake?" Wesley exclaimed, pulling out a bag from their designated pantry and eating a handful. "Or cookie dough? Kath?" He glanced at her. "Can you make frosting taste like cookie dough?"
"I can try." She bit her lip. "Let's put that on the vanilla cake, and do a coffee cake for the chocolate frosting, and put the vanilla frosting on the chocolate cake."
"Wait, can you repeat that?" Wesley said around a mouthful of chocolate chips.
"Do you need a leash?" Lissa stole the bag away, giggling, and scurried a few feet away. Wesley gave chase, and they lost two of their teammates for the next ten minutes.
"They must be in love." Katherine remarked. Nicole smirked.
"Ya think? C'mon. We've got a lot of baking to do."
…
"I just want to apologize about last night." Sirena whispered to Ethan as they began work on their cupcakes. "I was…I was drunk, and I got upset."
"It's forgotten. Are you sure you're okay?"
"I'm fine." Sirena smiled brightly, and she meant it. Or at least she would be soon.
"I don't understand why we're the only team who didn't get a baker on their team." Nat exclaimed, banging a mixing bowl on the table. "I have baked nothing in my life. Ever."
"You just follow a recipe. It's not that hard." Ebony scoffed, stirring the batter. They had decided on a chocolate cake with mint frosting, a banana cake with whipped cream, and a vanilla cake with a salted caramel frosting. Ethan gave a snort of laughter at Ebony's remark, and both Sirena and Nat swiveled around to look at him, eyebrows raised.
"Is that it?" He said, smirking as he mashed up a banana, a simple enough task.
"I take it you haven't spent much time in the kitchen?" Ebony asked him, taking the measuring cup from Nat. "That isn't how you measure flour."
"Sorry!" Ethan held up his hands, chuckling. "I'm a prince, not a chef!"
"I haven't either. Left that stuff up to Nicole." Nat seemed slightly hurt. Ebony could be really competitive.
"Obviously. Now go make the whipped cream. It has to cool. Just beat cream with the mixer, you can't mess that up."
Sirena dumped cocoa powder into her bowl. "You're right, Ebony." She said, her tone rather condescending. "It's not actually that hard." She gave Ebony a pointed look.
"Hey, Nicky, how's it coming?" Nat burst out, yelling across the kitchen, as she turned on the mixer to high, sending cream flying out of the bowl and across the counter tops and their designer dresses.
"Better than you at the moment!" Nicole called back around a loud laugh. Sirena doubled over with giggles, and Ethan couldn't keep a straight face, although he tried to look upset for the cameras. Ebony groaned, wincing as Nat and Sirena's giggling grew to full out laughter as they saw the cream splattered over each other, which soon led to them laughing so hard and hardly being able to stand.
…
Michaela and Elvira's team seemed to be the only functioning well at the moment. Michaela, being a cake enthusiast, had jumped into the competition head first, pulling out her repertoire with a coconut cake with chocolate frosting topped with toasted coconut, red velvet with a silky white chocolate buttercream, and a yellow cake with raspberry filling and dark chocolate cream cheese frosting.
Gracie's team was their biggest competition, since Gracie was practically a cupcake queen. But to Michaela, it seemed that they were spending a lot of time fighting or keeping their eyes glued to Ethan and keeping tabs on Ebony. Mackenzie even went over to their station to 'chat' for a while with the prince. On the contrary, Michaela's team was running smoothly. She had instructed Andrew and Christine to work together, and they worked well together. Elvira's killer instinct was helping, although she proved rather rubbish at baking, so Michaela had her stir things and do basic prep while she handled everything else.
Katherine, as Michaela's closest friend still here, was also a threat. She, Nicole, Lissa and Wesley were getting along well. But Katherine's expertise lay in breads and pies, not cakes and frostings. Still, she was better than Ethan's team, who had only managed to get cream everywhere, burn something and laugh enough for all of them.
As Elvira scooped the last of the batter, Michaela sent her off to the ovens. This was going great.
…
This was not going great. At all. Apparently being a team of all girls didn't help much.
"Did you set the timer?" Gracie brushed by Adele, and handed her a bowl of crushed and strained raspberries. "And is that almost done?"
"Of course I set the timers. And no, you'll have to wait." Adele shot back, dumping powdered sugar in the mixer with the creamed butter, and turning it on. Unfortunately, it erupted into a cloud of sugar crystals, all over Mackenzie . Who screamed. Loudly.
"What was that for?" She exclaimed.
"Sorry, honest mistake." Adele added a little milk to what was supposed raspberry buttercream.
"It was not, you did that on purpose!"
"She didn't Mackenzie. Calm down." Michelle shook her head, and went back to stirring the lemon curd.
"And get to work. You wasted enough time chatting up Ethan already." Adele taunted, turning the mixer on low, and adding the raspberries.
"I smell something burning." Michelle pointed out. "And the timer is done. I don't think you ever started it."
"Shoot." Adele raced over to the ovens, but the snickerdoodle cake had already burned on the top. She pulled the s'mores and lemon ones out, and put them on cooling racks.
"I thought you set the timer!?" Gracie cried.
"Yeah, well I forgot." Adele went back to her frosting. "We'll have to make a new batch."
"Okay, I guess there's nothing we can do. Just leave it to me." Gracie took a deep breath, and set to work.
…
"Wes!" Lissa swatted the prince away from the frosting she was making. "We won't have any left if you keep eating it!"
"You should be flattered! It's really good!" Wesley tried to get his spoon around Lissa to get more, but she was quicker, jabbing her own stirring spoon back at him. This began a spoon-duel, involving much giggling and earning disapproving glares from the queen. Nicole and Katherine quickly reigned them in, as they had a lot left to do.
"C'mon guys! If we don't get moving, we won't have anything for the judges!" Nicole exclaimed. "And I'm not losing to my sister."
"Oh, stow the seriousity." Wesley dunked his spoon back into the chocolate frosting when he thought Lissa wasn't looking.
"Oh no, you did not!" She whirled around, but jumped back because, this time, Wesley's spoon was covered with chocolate frosting, and they were all wearing white. Still, Lissa earned some frosting on her arm. She squealed dramatically and wiped it on Wesley's white polo, who then smeared the back of his spoon on her dress. The next thing he knew, Lissa threw a handful of frosting at him, giggling madly.
"Hey! No throwing the ingredients!" Katherine cried as Wesley grabbed Lissa around the waist and drew a moustache on her with the glob of frosting on his own face. Lissa squirmed away, and Nicole jumped between them.
"Enough, you two! Back to work." She tried to be serious, but it was hard not laugh at them, with the chocolate on their faces.
…
"Are these done?" Ethan returned from the ovens, where conveniently Gracie and Mackenzie had both ambushed him, checking on their cupcakes.
Sirena and Nat took one look at the half-cooked batter in the muffin tin and dissolved into laughter.
"Okay, even I know that's not done." Nat managed. "Go put it back in."
"What have you done?" Ebony sidled along next to Ethan, standing quite close—too close.
"I told you I don't know how to do this…" Ethan laughed at his mistake, and Ebony joined in, sending ten heads flying in their direction and earned Ebony several death glares.
"That's fine. Just put them back in. The vanilla should be done anyway." They sauntered off to the ovens.
"Very chummy, those two." Sirena remarked.
"They sure don't like her." Nat affirmed.
"She's an outsider. And doesn't make her intentions known. She said she wanted to go home as soon as possible, but look at her now."
"Yes, but you guys didn't know I was just his friend until a few days ago." Nat reminded her.
"That's different. We like Nicole. We make allowances for you." Sirena teased. Nat elbowed her.
"Well, if they get any closer, I guess it's my duty to protect Ethan. And I have just the weapon up my sleeve." Nat rubbed her hands together suspiciously.
"Oh?" Sirena raised an eyebrow.
"I used it on Mackenzie once. It worked pretty well, if I do say so myself."
…
"Guys, we have seven minutes left!" Gracie cried, filling a pastry bag faster than even she thought possible. "Hurry!"
"Ugh, her voice can be so annoying sometimes." Mackenzie grumbled to Adele as they worked on filling the cupcakes. They had been pretty ambitious to put fillings in all the cupcakes. They both looked up, hearing Ebony laugh.
"But she's worse. I swear if she touches Ethan one more time I'll-"
"Throw a cupcake at her?" Michelle commented. "Didn't Nat do that to you on the plane ride when you first got here?"
Mackenzie didn't respond. Gracie swept over and piped on the raspberry buttercream and Adele filled the next bag with the meringue for the s'mores. The clock was ticking away, just two minutes left.
"Hurry! Christine's team is already done!" Michelle said, looking up. Wesley's team was still scrambling to be done, although they were going to make it. Ethan's time was slight. Ebony was trying to pipe on frosting, but Sirena and Nat were just throwing it on at that point.
Gracie garnished the raspberry lemonade cupcakes with a raspberry, and the other girls threw on sprinkles. The clock went off. They had made it.
"We did it!" Gracie cried, throwing her frosting covered hands in the air, but stopped short, seeing where Mackenzie was gaping.
"Good job. Couldn't have done it without you." They heard Ebony say, and then she hugged Ethan. Hugged him.
Before anyone could stop her, Mackenzie grabbed the nearest cupcake and lobbed it at them. Gracie shrieked, clutching her chest as the perfect cupcake hit Ebony square on the chest as she stepped back.
"Impressive." Ebony said, looking down at the cupcake as it fell to the floor. Then she grabbed one of the sloppy ones that were about to be presented to the judges and threw it Mackenzie. Who took it to the face. She screamed, practically growling and stormed out if the kitchens. Nat took the opportunity to throw another one of their not-so-perfect cupcakes at Ebony.
"No throwing cupcakes!" She yelled, laughing.
Sophia was already freaking out, and their finished products were quickly taken away from the danger zone. Mackenzie was corralled back and she and Ebony went to go change for the filming of the judging. In the end, Michaela's team won, since they had all their cupcakes to be served and they looked neater than Katherine's team. Ethan's team lost, because they were missing two cupcakes, whereas Gracie's team was only missing one, so they came in third.
"Ebony better watch out." Mackenzie muttered as the lights died down and the cameras powered off. "Sorry for making us loose, guys." She shrugged to her teammates.
"It's okay. It was pretty much worth it to see you and Ebony get cupcake-ed." Michelle said.
Adele nodded. "We probably wouldn't have won anyway."
Gracie sniffled, and stormed off, refusing to look at Mackenzie.
"She's mad." Adele pointed out.
"Then she's probably not going to like what I do next." Mackenzie smirked devilishly.
…
I've been wanting to feature a bunch off Sherri Hill dresses so I have a bunch pinned on my Pinterest (see bio!) as their outfits for this chapter! Check them out!
-Shades
