Cupcake Bakery Mysteries in Order (Jenn McKinlay)

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If your ideal mystery comes with a swirl of buttercream on top, meet the Cupcake Bakery Mysteries by Jenn McKinlay. Best friends Melanie “Mel” Cooper and Angie DeLaura run Fairy Tale Cupcakes in Scottsdale, Arizona, and somehow trouble keeps walking through the door right along with the customers.

The series ran to 16 books with Berkley between 2010 and 2024. It is a favorite with readers who like their sleuthing funny, food-filled and built on friendship. Below you will find every book in order with a quick, spoiler-free note on each, plus where to start and what we know about a 17th book.

Cupcake Bakery Mysteries Books in Order

1. Sprinkle with Murder (2010). The one that starts it all. You meet Mel, Angie and their friend Tate, who have been close since high school, along with the little Scottsdale bakery that becomes the heart of the series.
2. Buttercream Bump Off (2011). Book two settles into the rhythm fans love: a busy bakery, plenty of banter between friends, and a new mystery that pulls Mel away from her ovens. If you enjoyed the opener, this is where you find out the series is a keeper.
3. Death by the Dozen (2011). The second release of 2011, so early readers got two helpings in one year. By now Angie’s big, protective DeLaura family feels like part of the furniture, and the friendships have real warmth.
4. Red Velvet Revenge (2012). The crew trades the city for a rodeo in the small Arizona town of Juniper Pass. Dust, cowboys and summer heat make this a fun change of scenery from the bakery kitchen.
5. Going, Going, Ganache (2013). A corporate boot camp is about as far from a cozy kitchen as you can get, and the fish-out-of-water setup is played for plenty of laughs.
6. Sugar and Iced (2014). A beauty pageant supplies the glitter and the rivalries this time. A good pick if you like a little behind-the-scenes drama with your mystery.
7. Dark Chocolate Demise (2015). A zombie walk sets the scene, which makes this our top choice for October reading. Spooky fun, never gory.
8. Vanilla Beaned (2016). Book eight lands at the halfway mark of the series. By this point the friendships and romances have years of history behind them, and that pays off for readers who started at book one.
9. Caramel Crush (2017). As the title hints, this one is about matters of the heart as much as murder. Fans of the series’ romantic threads tend to remember it well.
10. Wedding Cake Crumble (2018). Wedding bells and wedding cake are in the air, so a murder is the last thing anyone needs. The publisher’s description promises recipes too, including a few grown-up flavors.
11. Dying for Devil’s Food (2019). Named for one of the richest cupcakes in the case, it keeps the series’ trademark mix of jokes, friendship and suspense.
12. Pumpkin Spice Peril (2020). A fall-flavored entry, ideal for reading with a warm mug in September or October.
13. For Batter or Worse (2021). Wedding planning brings its own kind of chaos in book thirteen, and the bakery crew is right in the middle of it.
14. Strawberried Alive (2022). Fourteen books in, the Fairy Tale Cupcakes crew is a found family, and this outing shows how far they will go to look out for one another.
15. Sugar Plum Poisoned (2023). A Christmas-season mystery with holiday events and festive baking. Add it to your December stack.
16. Fondant Fumble (2024). The most recent book brings in two pro football players who want to franchise the bakery, mixing sports-world egos with buttercream.

What about book 17? In her newsletter, Jenn McKinlay has said she is “noodling” an idea for the next Cupcake Bakery mystery and that it will likely be independently published. As of October 2026 there is no title or release date, and we will update this list once there is.

Bonus for bakers: the companion cookbook

Want to bake along? Fairy Tale Cupcakes: Recipes from the Cupcake Bakery Mysteries (2022) gathers cupcake recipes inspired by the series. Jenn McKinlay created it with recipe developer Christie Conlee, so the flavors from the books finally leave the page and land in your kitchen.

Meet the Fairy Tale Cupcakes Crew

Part of the fun of this series is the gang behind the counter. Mel is the baker with a knack for noticing things she probably should not. Angie is her loyal, outspoken best friend and business partner. Their friend Tate Harper rounds out the trio that has been together since high school. Around them you will find Angie’s brother Joe DeLaura, plus bakery regulars Oz and Marty, who bring plenty of the humor.

The Scottsdale setting is a nice change from the usual New England village. Expect desert heat, Southwest flavor and a city backdrop, while the bakery itself keeps the small, cozy feel readers love.

Do You Need to Read Them in Order?

Not strictly. Each book has its own self-contained mystery, so you can pick up any title and follow the case. The relationships are a different story. Romances, friendships and family moments build across all 16 books, and some later books will make more sense, and mean more, if you have watched those threads develop. If you are planning to read the whole series, start at the beginning.

Where Should I Start?

Sprinkle with Murder (2010) is the natural first stop, since it introduces the bakery, the friends and the setting from scratch. Prefer to read with the seasons? Try Dark Chocolate Demise (book 7) for Halloween, Pumpkin Spice Peril (book 12) for fall, and Sugar Plum Poisoned (book 15) for Christmas. Each works fine as a stand-alone if you just want a taste.

If You Like the Cupcake Bakery Mysteries

Jenn McKinlay also writes the Library Lover’s Mysteries and the Hat Shop Mysteries, so there is plenty more of her light, funny style to explore. For more food-centered cozies, try our guides to Hannah Swensen mysteries in order (cookies and a Minnesota bakery), Coffeehouse Mysteries in order and Tea Shop Mysteries in order. Reading for the holidays? Our Christmas cozy mysteries list is a good next stop.

FAQ

How many Cupcake Bakery Mysteries are there?
There are 16 books, published from 2010 (Sprinkle with Murder) to 2024 (Fondant Fumble).

Will there be a book 17?
Possibly. The author has said she is working on an idea for the next book and expects to publish it independently, but nothing has been officially announced yet.

Do the books include recipes?
Many of them do. Publisher descriptions for several books mention cupcake recipes, and the 2022 companion cookbook Fairy Tale Cupcakes collects recipes inspired by the series in one place.

Where are the Cupcake Bakery Mysteries set?
In Scottsdale, Arizona, at Mel and Angie’s bakery, Fairy Tale Cupcakes. A few books take the crew on the road, such as the rodeo trip in Red Velvet Revenge.

Love a cozy with frosting on top? Follow The Teacup Sleuth on Facebook for new series guides, reading lists and cozy mystery chat, and tell us which Fairy Tale Cupcakes flavor you would order first!

Sources

For reading order and publication years on this page our source of record is Penguin Random House’s Cupcake Bakery Mystery series page. We checked the newest entries on this page against it on 27 October 2026. Books that are announced but have no confirmed release date are marked as such rather than given a year. We also cross-check Jenn McKinlay’s own series page. If anything here is out of date, tell us in the comments and we will fix it.

Keep reading: Goldy Schulz culinary mysteries · bakery cozy mysteries · every cozy series in order (full index)