Olivia:You’ve only known him a few weeks. Even if it doesn’t work out, you can keep it as a fun story you tell at parties of the time you had a hot billionaire boyfriend.
Merrie:I want the hot billionaire husband, though.
Olivia:Just worry about the bake-off for now. You and I will talk later.
Fuck. I looked out into the crowd of the townspeople watching the bake-off. Olivia gave me a painted smile.
Was it obvious? Was I missing or overlooking something?
Olivia for sure did not seem to believe that Matt was committed to me.
My heart clenched.
“Do you want more than these?” Matt asked, holding out a cookie tray for my inspection.
“No,” I croaked. “They can just go in the oven.”
I was only half payingattention to assembling my cake because I was riddled with anxiety. The timer was ticking, and I needed to concentrate on baking an award-winning cake. The bake-off was important, especially if Matt was going to break up with me.
You could be back to sleeping in the nativity scene in a number of days, I reminded myself trying not to freak out as I made the intricate frosting pattern on the cookies.
I needed to win. I needed the money.
But as I worked on my cake, I was afraid it wasn’t going to cut it. If Olivia had been my baking partner, we would have nailed it. While Matt was certainly hot and rich, he was not a baker.
“I’ll do it,” I said more snappishly than I had intended as I grabbed the offset spatula from him before he could tear up the cake. Two hours was not enough for a cake to cool properly before frosting, even if the air was cold and there was a blast freezer.
I spun the cake spinner carefully, smoothing out the white frosting on the bottom tier of the cake. Matt added the next tier of chocolate cherry and fudge cake, and I frosted it while Matt readied the next layers. The third tier was an orange Creamsicle, and the fourth was a buttery caramel strawberry cake. The final tier was a raspberry and lemon cream cake that I had cut square so I could assemble the gingerbread cookie pieces of a little Victorian house around it as a fancy cookie cake topper.
“You can’t tell me that’s not worthy of a win,” Matt said, admiring it.
But I knew it wasn’t enough. We just didn’t have enough time to do all the intricate icing decorations the cake really needed to shine.
Maybe Hensley’s cake won’t be much better, I tried to tell myself as I quickly added little icing icicles to the roof of the cake-topper gingerbread house. Then I added the sugar and gingerbread cookies around the cake in an alternating pattern, adding groups of sugared cranberries, sugared rosemary, and orange slices around the cake for additional decoration.
“Not my best work,” I said dejectedly after Anastasia called time.
“I think it looks amazing,” Matt assured me, leaning in to press his mouth to mine.
Unfortunately, I needed the cake to be outstanding. I needed to win.
“First up, Hensley and Brody. Please bring your dessert to the judges’ table,” Anastasia said.
I watched, heart hammering, as Brody carried his team’s towering cake to the judges. They had really gone all out. They had made a huge tiered cake, but instead of the final two layers being cake, they were acroquemboucheof mini cream-filled puff pastries. While the cake depicted an intricate winter forest scene in icing on the first few tiers, thecroquembouchewas decorated with glittering spun caramel-colored sugar, candied fruits, and mini sugar cookies. Topping off the whole confection was a sugar cookie star.
How had they done all that in only two hours?
“I’m impressed with the amount of work you all accomplished,” Anu said as Brody cut her a slice of the cake.
Nick broke off one of the puff pastries and took a bite.
“These are literally perfect,” he said.
Brody preened. “When women come to my cabin, I always impress them with my cream-filled balls.” He winked at the camera. The audience tittered, and several women screamed for Brody to give them his balls.
Matt made a disgusted noise beside me.
Meg fanned herself.
