Ethan met Jason and Bobby in the hallway after school.
"I got the invitation to your party!" Jason said.
"Yeah, cool invitation," Bobby said.
"I liked the sharks."
Ethan's birthday party was this Sunday.
He and his mom had made invitations that looked like the ocean.
They had put little blue sharks on them.
They had even glued real sand on the cards.
"I'm coming to your birthday party, Ethan!" Izzie shouted.
"Me too!" Nina said.
Miss Shelly was setting up the table.
Ethan felt bad for not inviting Miss Shelly.
But no one invited teachers to birthday parties.
"Today we're making a tasty birthday snack," Miss Shelly said.
"We're making vanilla cupcakes!"
"Yum! I've never made cupcakes," Izzie said.
"Put on your aprons.
Things might get messy!" Miss Shelly said.
"We're going to use the hand mixer."
"Ooh, that looks fancy," Nina said.
"Like something a real chef has!
How do you use it?"
"It's easy. We put the ingredients in a bowl.
Then we turn on the mixer," Miss Shelly explained.
"What goes in first?" Jason asked.
"Flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt," Ethan read.
Nina and Izzie measured the flour and sugar.
Jason measured the baking powder and salt.
"Here's a whisk!" Bobby said.
Ethan used the whisk to mix the dry ingredients.
"I'll preheat the toaster oven," Nina said.
"Now we need the wet ingredients.
Butter, egg, egg yolks, vanilla, and sour cream," Jason read.
"How do we get just egg yolks?"
"Crack them into a bowl," Miss Shelly said.
"And scoop up the yolk with a fork," Miss Shelly went on.
Jason cracked two eggs into a bowl.
Next he separated the yolks.
"That wasn't so hard!"
The kids added the other wet ingredients to the bowl.
Nina poured the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.
They all took turns using the mixer.
"We made cupcakes!" cried Nina.
"Not yet! They're not baked," Miss Shelly said.
The kids filled the baking cups with batter.
They put the tray in the toaster oven.
"You can't put icing on cupcakes until they cool," Miss Shelly said.
"But I baked some cupcakes last night."
She pulled out cupcakes from under the table.
"We'll decorate these today."
"Oh, those look good!" Ethan said.
"Your mom showed me your party invitations," Miss Shelly said.
"She did?" Ethan asked, surprised.
"They were great!" Miss Shelly smiled.
Ethan was relieved.
She wasn't upset that she wasn't invited!
"They gave me an idea," Miss Shelly continued.
"Here is white icing and blue food coloring.
We'll dye the icing so it looks like waves."
She held up a bowl.
"These are crushed graham crackers.
They look like sand!"
"And there are even little surfboards!" Bobby said.
Ethan spread blue icing on his cupcake.
He dipped half the cupcake in the graham crackers.
Then he stuck a surfboard in the blue, sugary waves.
It was one cool birthday cupcake!
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