Katy Kelly_Lucy Rose 04 (11 page)

That's when a girl teenager told Aunt Frankie, “I'd like 6 Lucy Roses, please.”

“There is only 1 Lucy Rose,” I said.

Mrs. McBee took out 6 little cupcakes that had green leaves and sparkling apricot roses on the tops and then she told the girl, “You know, Lucy Roses are twice as good when served with Sweet Joniques.”

Jonique started jumping and pointing at the blackboard on the wall. “We're cookies!” she said.

“Our names are on the board!” I said.

“We cost a lot!” she said.

“Finally, we're making money for the Divas, if you can believe it!” I said.

“I do believe it,” Mrs. McBee said.

“Me too,” Aunt Frankie told us.

One other thing: We are utterly delicious.

Lucy Roses

Makes 12 regular-size cupcakes

3 cups of grated carrots

1 cup of canola oil

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

2 cups of sugar

4 eggs

2 cups of all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons of baking soda

A good pinch of kosher salt

1½ teaspoons of ground-up cinnamon

38 or so raisins

         

According to Madam, these cupcakes are loaded with health because of having carrots and raisins and canola oil. You can pack in even more health if you add two handfuls of chopped-up walnuts but I don't on account of I already have health galore.

First have a grown-up help you preheat the oven to 350 degrees and put paper muffin cups in a cupcake pan. They will fit exactly.

Next put all the carrots and the oil and vanilla and sugar in a giant bowl. Then crack the eggs on the side and dump the egg contents on top. Then turn on the mixer and mix your heart out.

When it looks very smoothy, turn off the mixer and add the flour and the baking soda plus the salt and cinnamon and raisins and blend it all together. Also, throw in those walnuts if you're going to have them.

When that is finished, use a little measuring cup to scoop out batter and pour it in the muffin cups but don't fill them up to the very top or it will cause burning. Cook the cakes for 20 minutes and then have a grown-up help you do a test by poking a toothpick in one of them. If it's done it will come out looking like it's new but if the cake is still raw the toothpick will come out with hot batter on it and you'll have to cook it for 3 more minutes and then test it again.

Now for the frosting:

1 stick of real unsalted butter

One 8-ounce rectangle of cream cheese and not the diet kind either

2 teaspoons of vanilla

1 teaspoon of concentrated frozen orange juice straight out of the can

1½ cups of confectioners' sugar

         

Now, put the butter and the cream cheese in a bowl and turn the mixer on medium and mix away. When they are all the way blended, add the vanilla and frozen orange juice concentrate and mix them in. Add the sugar one scoop at a time but turn the mixer off before you pour. Otherwise that sugar blows everywhere, which is a thing that gets on my mom's last nerve.

When the cupcakes are completely cool, put a pretty big blob of frosting in a teacup and a not so big blob in another teacup. Then spread the rest of the frosting all over the cupcake tops. When that is done, get the teacup with the big blob and mix in the puniest drop of orange food dye—or even punier drops of red and yellow—and stir until that icing looks glorious and orange. Then put a puny drop of green food coloring in the other teacup and stir it around. Then put the green icing in a pastry squirter and squirt out some leaves. They don't have to look perfect because a lot of real leaves don't either. When that job is done, fill up a clean pastry squirter bag with the orange icing. The trick here is to squirt it out at the same time you are making your hand go in a circle. When Mrs. McBee does this, they come out looking like real roses. My roses are what's called abstract. But they are still delicious.

Sweet Joniques

Part 1

2 sticks of unsalted butter

1 cup of brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

2 cups of all-purpose flour

1 pinch of kosher salt

¾ teaspoon of baking soda

2 cups of chocolate chips

Part 2

2 more cups of chocolate chips

One 8-ounce can of sweetened condensed milk

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

Part 3,
which is optional. That means extra so you don't absolutely have to do it.

1 cup of chocolate chips

1 cup of cocktail peanuts (the salted kind)

         

         

Have a grown-up help you preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Put the butter and sugar in the bowl and mix them up with a mixer until those two things are completely blended together. Next, put in the eggs and the vanilla. Also put some vanilla behind your ears because it makes an excellent-O perfume. Then turn the mixer back on and mix until that's done and turn it off. Now add in the flour and salt and baking soda and chocolate chips and mix away until it looks exactly like chocolate chip cookie dough.

Here is advice:
Do not mix for too little time because getting a lump of baking soda in your mouth is a disgusting thing. Also do not mix for too long because it will make the dough feel like it's tough.

When all of that is done, rub the slippery sides of the butter wrappers all over the bottom and sides of a 9x13-inch pan. Then take half of the cookie dough and use your fingers to press it in the pan so it is very even.

         

Now for Part 2:
Put the chocolate chips in a bowl and microwave them for 90 seconds and get a grown-up to take them out for you. They will look pretty much like they are still regular chocolate chips but when you stir them they'll turn into melted chocolate. When that chocolate is completely smooth, pour in the can of condensed milk and stir until no white streaks are left. Then stir in that vanilla and let the whole thing cool down until the mixture is looking a little thick. Next spread it all over the top of the cookie dough.

When that is done, make balls that are as big as a walnut out of the rest of the cookie dough and put them all over the top of the chocolate and have your grown-up friend help you put that pan in the oven and cook for about 20 or 25 minutes until the top looks golden brown and divine.

If you want to do Part 3, which I always do, wait until the Sweet Joniques come out of the oven. Then drop 1 more cup of chocolate chips all over the top and after 5 or so minutes those chips will be melty and you can swirl that chocolate all over the top. Then, right away, drop on the peanuts.

Go outside and scooter or something and by the time you come in they'll probably be cool enough for a grown-up to cut up. Then you'll have 32 Sweet Joniques and the thing that is for sure is you will utterly love them.

A
ND DON'T MISS

Lucy Rose's

OTHER BOOKS
….

ISBN: 978-0-385-73203-1 (HC)

ISBN: 978-0-440-42026-2 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-0-385-73204-8 (HC)

ISBN: 978-0-440-42027-9 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-0-385-73319-9 (HC)

ISBN: 978-0-440-42108-5 (pbk)

ALSO BY KATY KELLY

Lucy Rose: Here's the Thing About Me

Lucy Rose: Big on Plans

Lucy Rose: Busy Like You Can't Believe

Published by Yearling, an imprint of Random House Children's Books a division of Random House, Inc., New York

This is a work of fiction. All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well-known historical and public figures, are products of the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Where real-life historical or public figures appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the fictional nature of the work. In all other respects, any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

Text copyright © 2007 by Katy Kelly

Illustrations copyright © 2007 by Peter Ferguson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law. For information address Delacorte Press.

Yearling and the jumping horse design are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

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www.randomhouse.com/kids

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The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition of this work as follows:

Kelly, Katy.

Lucy Rose : working myself to pieces and bits / Katy Kelly ; illustrated by Peter Ferguson.

p. cm.

Summary: In her diary fourth grader Lucy Rose, lover of palindromes and big words, records her adventures with friends Jonique and Melonhead, including their unorthodox ways of raising money for the McBees to remodel their bakery.

[1. Interpersonal relations—Fiction. 2. Family life—Fiction. 3. Diaries—Fiction. 4. Washington (D.C.)—Fiction.] I. Ferguson, Peter, ill. II. Title. III. Title: Working myself to pieces and bits.

PZ7.K29637Lwo 2007

[Fic]—dc22

2006028701

Reprinted by arrangement with Delacorte Press

Random House Children's Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

eISBN: 978-0-375-89217-2

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