Seasons Change

18.

"Luke, seriously, are you going to tell me what you're planning to do with all of this?" I asked as Luke added several types of coffee, chocolate covered coffee beans, and mocha powder to the cart.

"Not yet."

"Come on," I whined. "The suspense is killing me."

"Not yet, Lillian," he repeated. "Be patient."

I pouted, but since Luke didn't seem to care that I was practically dying of curiosity, I let the subject drop.

An hour later, Luke and I stood in the dorm's basement kitchen, all of the ingredients spread out over the counter.

"Now are you going to tell me?" I asked, eyeing the cupcake tins that Luke had bought. I still didn't get it. Did he want us to bake cupcakes? That was random.

Luke grinned. "Have you ever seen Cupcake Wars?"

I shrugged. "That TV show where they bake cupcakes? I've seen parts of it, I guess." It wasn't really my type of show.

"Well, Lillian, I'm going to set the timer on my phone for two hours. And using at least two different types of coffee, we're going to see who can make the best coffee flavored cupcakes."

I giggled. "Seriously, Luke? Do you even bake? Because I sure don't."

Luke grinned. "That's part of the fun. I printed us each off a basic cupcake recipe for guidance, but the flavoring and decorating is all up to us and our imaginations. If they turn out disgusting, it will be even funnier."

"You're crazy," I laughed. "Besides, how are we going to decide who wins? You'll just vote for yours, and I'll vote for mine."

Luke winked. "You said we're meeting Dylan for dinner, right? We'll make him do a blind taste test, and he'll decide which he likes better."

Setting the timer, Luke called out, "3...2...1...Go!"

I dashed over to the cupboard, pulling out a large bowl for mixing, and dumping in the flour, sugar, and other ingredients as I followed the basic recipe Luke had given me.

Figuring out how to incorporate the coffee was a bit more of a challenge. I decided to try to recreate the flavor pallet of one of my favorite winter coffee drinks: a mint chocolate mocha. So for flavor, I crushed up some of the chocolate covered coffee beans, added some mocha powder, and added a bit of mint extract for flavor.

Once I put my cupcakes in the oven, I set to work on making the frosting. I wanted the frosting to taste sweet and minty, so I added more of the chocolate mocha powder and more mint extract, and a bit of green food coloring to make the frosting a pretty green color.

Across the kitchen from me, Luke was hard at work on his own cupcakes, his brow furrowed as he taste tested whatever flavor concoction he had come up with. He must not like what he came up with, because he made a face, then reached for some caramel sauce.

I smirked. Baking wasn't my strong suit, but I was pretty sure my cupcakes were going to taste awesome. How could you go wrong with mint chocolate?

When the timer beeped two hours later, Luke called out, "Time! Bakers, step away from your cupcakes."

I laughed. "You're one of the bakers, you dork," I teased, sticking my tongue out at him.

I surveyed the six cupcakes sitting on the plate in front of me. I wasn't sure how they would taste, but they sure looked pretty. I was proud of how good my frosting job had come out. It looked almost professional, and I had dribbled chocolate sauce across the top for an extra flair.

Looking across the table at Luke's cupcakes, I had to admit that his cupcakes looked good as well. Honestly, it was much better than I was expected, and I wondered if Luke was secretly into baking. That was a strange thought. I'd always thought of him as a jock, and baking was so...domestic.

"What?" Luke asked, noticing my smirk.

"Nothing," I said, shaking my head. "It's just...how did you even come up with this? Are you secretly hoping to open a bakery or something?"

Luke smirked. "No, but if football doesn't pan out, maybe that should be my backup. You'll have to let me know if you would buy my baked goods."

I rolled my eyes. "Come on, dork. Let's get this mess cleaned up before we go meet Dylan. I'm dying to know who won."

In no time at all, we had the kitchen cleaned up, and when Dylan texted letting me know he was here, I told him to come down to the basement kitchen.

"Did I miss something?" Dylan asked, crossing his arms and quirking an eyebrow as he surveyed the cupcakes spread out on the counter before him. "Did you guys sign up for a bake sale or something?"

Luke grinned. "Just a little friendly competition. We need you to taste one of each cupcake, and tell us which one is better. It's our very own Cupcake War."

Dylan nodded solemnly. "Fair enough. What ingredient are you supposed to be highlighting?"

I snorted, because of course Dylan knew the rules of the TV show. He seemed to have an endless encyclopedia of useless trivia.

"Coffee," I said. "We had to highlight coffee as the ingridient."

Dylan reached for his first cupcake, one of Luke's, and took a tentative bite. "Interesting," he said after swallowing. "You were going for caramel macchiato, right? The frosting is fantastic—just the right amount of sweetness from the caramel compared to the bitterness of the coffee. But I'm not tasting much coffee in the cupcake itself. The caramel adds a lot of sweetness, so you needed to add more coffee or less sugar to compensate for that. But overall, not a bad attempt."

I snorted, because Dylan sounded just like one of the judges on those baking TV shows. He was taking this pretty seriously.

Dylan reached for one of my cupcakes next, and I held my breath in anticipation, nervous about what he was going to say.

"Hmm," Dylan said after swallowing. "So, the cupcake itself is great. It's very moist, and I really get the coffee flavor with just a hint of mint." Then, Dylan scraped the frosting off the top of the cupcake before popping the rest into his mouth. "The frosting, however, is disgusting. There's way too much mint, and not enough coffee. It tastes like toothpaste."

"So?" Luke asked.

"So?" Dylan repeated.

"Who won?" I asked, unable to contain my suspense any longer.

Dylan shrugged. "It's a tie. Cupcake A had great frosting but missed the coffee flavor in the cupcake, and Cupcake B tasted great, but had gross frosting. Honestly, neither of you should quit your day jobs."

We all laughed. "Did my frosting really taste like toothpaste?" I asked, shaking my head.

Dylan grinned. "That was the nice way of putting it."

Luke reached over and grabbed one of my cupcakes, taking a huge bite of it, frosting and all. "It's great, Lillian," he said, but as he chewed, he made a face, and I could tell he was really struggling not to spit it out.

"Okay, okay, I get it, they're disgusting," I giggled, handing Luke a paper towel so he could spit it out.

Even though the day hadn't turned out at all like I had expected it to, I had to admit, it had been a lot of fun. Spending time with my two favorite guys had been exactly what I needed. For the first time that semester, I felt like my life was pretty great, and I wouldn't change a thing.