From the Desk of Zoe Washington(10)

After I said goodbye, Ariana brought me to the back. It was less hectic than the front, but not by much. There were fewer people back there, but they were all bustling around, getting work done. The kitchen smelled amazing—like cake batter and chocolate. I’d bottle it up if I could.

“This is our busiest day of the summer,” Ariana told me. “Everyone wants cupcakes for their Independence Day barbecues.”

“Makes sense,” I said.

“I’ll introduce you around and give you a quick tour, and then I’ll set you up with a project.”

A project. I couldn’t wait to see what Ariana had planned for me to do. Would I get to help decorate cupcakes? Or use all of their huge equipment to mix batter? Or maybe Ariana would use my help at the front, since it was so busy. I could take the cupcakes out of the case and box them up to hand to the customers. That could be fun, but I really hoped I’d get to help with baking.

Ariana went into a closet and pulled out another pale-blue apron that matched hers, with the Ari’s Cakes logo embroidered on it. She also handed me a hat. “Here you go. Now you’re an official employee.”

The apron was a little big, but I adjusted the neck strap and tied the belt in a bow. I got to wear an apron when I had my birthday party at the bakery, but that one had been plain black. Now, I felt like a real pastry chef. I looked down at it and beamed. I thought about asking Ariana to take my picture, but I didn’t want to seem like an amateur.

When I was here for my birthday, I only got a quick look at the bakery’s kitchen. We spent the rest of the time in the party room, which had its own professional ovens. This main kitchen wasn’t super big, but it seemed well organized. On one side was a wall of ovens, a commercial stove with six burners, and a large sink. On the opposite wall was the biggest stand mixer I’d ever seen in my life. It was practically as tall as me! I bet I could fit inside the mixing bowl. Next to it was a table with large containers of flour and sugar underneath. Against the middle wall were a few tall cooling racks, and in the center of the room were two long stainless-steel tables.

On one of the tables were several pans of dark-red cupcakes; they had to be red velvet. An employee—a pale girl also wearing an Ari’s Cakes baseball cap, with a shooting-star tattoo on her forearm—held a huge piping bag of white frosting, which she piped on the rows of cupcakes faster than I’d ever seen before.

“That’s Liz,” Ariana said. “She graduated from culinary school a couple of years ago. She’s our second-best icing froster. The best being me, of course.” She winked.

Liz looked up briefly to give a quick wave and smile before going back to piping.

“Next to her is Corey,” Ariana said. Corey was tall and skinny, with dark-brown skin. He followed behind Liz, carefully sprinkling red and blue star sprinkles on top of the cupcakes she’d just iced. “He goes to Boston University. This is his second summer with us.”

Corey said, “Nice to meet you.”

“Same here,” I said.

“This is Zoe,” Ariana told them. “She’s helping us out on Monday mornings.”

I could stare at the Liz and Corey assembly line for hours. It was so mesmerizing to see plain cupcakes become beautifully decorated within seconds. But I couldn’t keep watching them because Ariana was already moving on to the next thing. I followed her to the stand mixer. An older man wearing a white chef’s coat and a black-and-white bandanna on his head stood in front of it, peering inside as the huge beater spun around to mix the batter.

“Hey, Vincent—this is Zoe. She’s our new helper on Mondays.” She turned to me. “Vincent is our head pastry chef. He takes care of most of the baking, along with Rosa.” She pointed halfway down the room to a woman dragging a huge bag of flour across the floor.

“Hello,” Vincent said, barely making eye contact with me.

“Where are we on red velvet?” Ariana asked him.

“Next batch is out of the oven in about five minutes,” he told her. “And I’m mixing more batter right now.”

“Great.” Ariana turned to me. “Our signature Fourth of July cupcake is red velvet with cream cheese frosting. You saw Liz and Corey decorating them. We’re selling a ton this morning. Want to try one?”

A cupcake for breakfast? “Yeah!”

Ariana handed me one of the cupcakes Liz and Corey just finished decorating. I took a bite and broke out in a grin. It was delicious. The cake was rich and moist, and the cream cheese icing was so smooth. I gobbled it all up in a few more bites.

With a laugh, Ariana said, “So I guess you didn’t like it?”

“It was amazing,” I said, reaching for the bottle of water in my backpack.

“Okay, back to work.” She led me to a walk-in closet in the corner of the kitchen. Inside were a bunch of shelves holding cardboard boxes. Ariana grabbed a large one and led me back into the kitchen to an empty table. Then she went back and got a few more.

I imagined all the things that could be inside the boxes. Baking supplies? Candy decorations? A secret ingredient?

Ariana opened the first box, and inside was . . . more cardboard. Flat pieces of cardboard in the bakery’s signature blue. Ariana pulled some of it out.

“You saw how busy it is out there,” she said, nodding toward the front of the bakery. “We’re going to run out of boxes pretty soon, so I could use your help putting some more together. It’s easy.” Ariana showed me how to fold the sides up and tuck them into flaps, so the cardboard transformed into a small box that could fit two cupcakes. “We also have boxes for four, six, and a dozen cupcakes. Think you can do this?”