How the Cookie Crumbles

Summary
Muffy is having trouble coming up with a recipe for the Strawberry Festival contest. Her friends make a joke recipe, which turns out to taste good, and she enters it. Muffy wins the contest, but isn't sharing the credit with her friends.

Plot
The episode begins with Arthur, Francine, Binky, and The Brain as cookies inside a jar. They climb on top of each other and try to get the lid open to which they succeed and learn that they're cookies.

Francine reveals that she always wanted to be a cookie and Brain reveals that he always wanted to be an astrophysicist. Then Muffy reaches her hand into the jar trying to get her cookie friends, but they run away to hide.

They try to get Muffy to eat some fruit and tell her that it's not fair if they get eaten to which Muffy says that whoever owns the oven gets to make the rules and that's just the way it is. The cookies run away except for Arthur who leans up against a glass of milk as the shadow of Muffy falls over him.

HOW THE COOKIE CRUMBLES

Arthur and D.W. are in the kitchen asking their Dad what he's baking to which he replies that he's baking strawberries for the Elwood City Strawberry Festival which is one of the biggest holidays of that week.

Later on, D.W. asks Grandma Thora about the strawberry festival and Grandma Thora tells her that her father enjoyed the Strawberry Festival and that he was in the Parade for the Festival. She also shows D.W. a photo of her at the Strawberry Festival last year having a good time. Later on, Arthur, Francine, Muffy, Binky, and Brain are walking by the Sugar Bowl and Muffy notices a strawberry on top of the roof and asks if it's almost Strawberry Festival time to which Arthur tells her that it's this week and she runs away home worried.

Arthur wonders if Muffy hates strawberries to which Francine reveals that the reason Muffy is so worried about the Festival is that she won last year and we see a flashback of the previous festival to which Muffy did won but everyone wasn't happy that she won because they believed that she only won because her father Ed Crosswire was the judge.

Back in present day, Francine reveals that Muffy wants to prove that she won the contest fair and square, but she doesn't have any ideas and that she must win again this year to prove it. Arthur, Francine, Binky and Brain go to Muffy's house to cheer her up and ask her what she entered in the contest last year.

She said that she entered butter cookies with a strawberry in it to which her friends throw in other stuff such as peanuts, chocolate chips, peach slices, bananas, and a raisin. As the gang leaves they feel very happy for cheering Muffy up.

Muffy's cook bakes the cookies that Muffy's friends made, but she tells him that they were just joke cookies and to throw them, but when she tastes one of them she tells her cook not to throw them away because they're delicious. At the Strawberry Festival Arthur, D.W., Grandma Thora and Kate watch their Dad in the Parade and Muffy winds up winning the contest with her cookies, which she calls Scrumptious Snackeroodles.

Later on, when Arthur's Mom shows him the recipe for Muffy's winning cookies which are peanuts, chocolate chips, peach slices, bananas, and a raisin Arthur realizes that's the cookies that he and his friends helped Muffy bake and asks to see where Muffy mentioned that they helped her bake them, but he finds out that she didn't mention them and took all the credit.

At the treehouse, Arthur, Binky, Francine, and Brain are mad at what Muffy did and go to her house to confront, but her Mom tells them that she's not there and that she's in town posing for the bag.

The gang go to find Muffy at the camera shop where the cameraman Carl tells them that Muffy is going to sell her cookies at the Sugar Bowl and make money off of them to which the gang try to turn on Muffy, but she has Carl shoo them out to which he does.

When Muffy comes out of the camera shop after having her picture taken the gang tell her that they helped her make the cookies, but she tells them that she bought the ingredients, she owns the oven, and that she entered the contest and she also tells her friends that they're just jealous to which Francine calls her a bigger rat than Ratburn.

At home, Muffy tells her cook to bake lots of cookies for her to sell at the Sugar Bowl to which her Cook tells that he will as soon as she gives him the recipe. Muffy reveals that she doesn't have the recipe written down, but that she could remember it though and she tries to bake the cookies herself, but uses different stuff such as pineapple and apples which makes the cookies taste like junk.

At the treehouse, Arthur, Francine, and Binky write out the recipe and plan to make their own cookies so they can drive Muffy out of business. Muffy appears and apologizes for what she did and asks if she can have the recipe to which her friends give it to her and ask if she will give them credit, to which she says that she doesn't think that will be possible and that she had to win because she had to prove that she won it fair and square and that nobody knows that they helped her bake the cookies. Before Muffy leaves, she asks her if the recipe is right and if they didn't put anything in it that would make the cookies taste like junk to which Arthur replies that Muffy can trust them because they're her friends. Muffy then thanks them and leaves.

Later on, Arthur, Francine, and Binky are walking by the Sugar Bowl, refusing to go in there anymore because of the cookies being sold there, but Muffy comes out with some cookies for her friends to which on the bag it says MUFFY & FRIENDS and the cookies are of Arthur, Binky, Francine, and Brain.

Muffy tells her friends that she has learned that friendship and honesty are more important than winning a contest; she and her dad talked about it, and he said a lie is a lie even when you get away with it, and that he won't stand for any lying.

Muffy and her friends then go into the Sugar Bowl to work on new recipe ideas for next year; Binky suggests, "Banana. Lots and lots of bananas."

Major

 * Muffy Crosswire
 * Arthur Read
 * The Brain
 * Francine Frensky
 * Binky Barnes

Minor

 * Thora Read
 * David Read
 * Jane Read
 * D.W. Read
 * Mrs. Powers
 * Mr. Bellamy
 * Carl Patcheeva
 * Cook
 * Millicent Crosswire

Cameo

 * Kate Read
 * Billy
 * Ed Crosswire
 * Molly MacDonald
 * Alex
 * Pickles
 * Nancy
 * Otis
 * Jessica
 * George Lundgren
 * Brian
 * 4th Grade Female Aardvark
 * John
 * Jenna Morgan
 * 3rd Grade Female Aardvark (Number 2)
 * Amanda Hulser
 * Mary
 * Kyle
 * 3rd Grade Male Dog (Number 3)
 * Cecilia Tingley
 * Unnamed crocodile
 * Mr. Marco
 * Maria lookalike
 * Bitzi Baxter
 * Mrs. Wood

Mentioned

 * Nigel Ratburn

Trivia

 * The barbershop quartet sings .
 * Muffy seems to forget that the recipe was printed in the newspaper, instead asking her friends for it.
 * Throughout this episode, a bunch of strawberries fall down any time the scene changes. This is done because of the Strawberry Festival being part of the main plot.
 * Portions of the Strawberry Festival was recycled from the episode My Club Rules.
 * The title is based on an idiom "that's how the cookie crumbles", which means to forcefully accept a situation, even if it is unpleasant or undesirable. This may refer to Muffy's friends having to deal with the fact they get no credit for making the cookies and helping her win the contest.
 * The newspaper fails to mention that the recipe consists of peach slices, peanuts, and oatmeal. Francine, however, remembers the most of the recipe; but when writing it down, she forgot to mention the chocolate chips and peach slices.
 * Both Sue Ellen's Little Sister and this episode show the same "Binky Blows a Bubble" title card.
 * Strangely, Brain becomes absent in the second half of the episode, as he does not appear alongside Arthur, Francine and Binky, who work out their own recipe in the tree house.
 * Lincoln lets fame get to his head in Out on a Limo
 * Same with Spongebob and Patrick in Porous Pockets and Rule Of Dumb respectively.
 * Moral: Dont steal the credit for your own benefits.
 * Running Gag: Binky mentioning bananas were his idea.
 * Karma: Muffy stole the credit from her friends, so she was lonely.

Errors

 * Muffy's hand was covered by the table when the picture was taken, but seen in the picture in front of the sugar bowl.
 * It is unknown why Muffy didn't check the newspaper for the ingredients as it was printed on there.

Home Video
VHS: DVD:
 * Arthur's Tasty Treats
 * Arthur's Tasty Treats
 * Arthur: The Complete Series 3