“Go Team Christmas!” I held out my hand for a high five.
“I’m not on Team Christmas.” Matt glared at my hand.
“We’ll work on that,” I said confidently.
The lights lowered, and I waited anxiously for our turn to present to the judges. Hensley and Brody presented a Christmas bread pudding that looked a little dry to me.
Finally, it was our turn.
“Nothing says Christmas like a Christmas pudding,” I said to the judges and to the crowd, “and the Christmas season also calls for an excessive amount of food! To that end, my very attractive bake-off partner”—that earned me several cheers from the audience—“and I have prepared a variety of puddings both traditional and new. There’s something for everyone!”
“Can I just say,” Nick said as I cut a slice of the bacon, potato, and leek pudding and poured the cheese sauce over it, “that I appreciate that you put this in the oven to crisp it up? My grandmother was British, survived the war, and she would boil everything. Let me tell you, eating boiled meat with boiled bread and a boiled apple wrapped in boiled pastry dough for dessert will make you lose all faith in humanity.”
“This may not be a strictly traditional pudding,” Anu said, nibbling a piece of the sticky toffee pudding cake, “but it still evokes the feeling of it. Not to mention it’s an incredibly addictive flavor.”
“It’s like eating raw cake batter, except it’s cooked,” Meg said, scooping the last of her piece of the chocolate pudding with raspberry sauce up with her spoon, “and there’s nothing I love more than raw cookie dough and cake batter.”
“Raw cookie dough had gotten me through some tough times,” I assured the mayor. “But for those traditionalists in the audience,” I said, “we do have a very traditional Christmas pudding made with plums, currants, apples, suet, mincemeat, and, of course, booze. Matt?”
He stepped up, matches in hand but instead of pouring from the small ceramic beaker, he pulled a half bottle of brandy out of his suit coat pocket and dumped the entire thing over the pudding.
“Um I don’t think—”
The whole thing went up in a fireball that almost torched the glass roof over the baking stage. I shrieked and pressed a hand to my chest.
“Hell yeah!” Nick whooped as the crowd roared.
“We go hardcore at our bake-offs,” Matt said smugly.
I stood next to Matt,waiting anxiously for Anastasia to open the envelope in her hand and announce the winners.
“Oh my gosh, I’m so nervous.” I was bouncing up and down.
Matt wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me close to him.
“Relax,” he said, “At the very least we’ll win fan favorite again.”
“I know, but I want to win!”
He grinned. “I think you’ve been spending too much time with me.”
“As if. I’m way more competitive than you, buddy.”
Anastasia opened the envelopes. “This was a close one,” she said, calling us and a team that had made a very gray and rubbery-looking Earl Gray-flavored pudding, “but the judges have selected their winner—give it up for this episode’s bake-off challenge winners, Matt and Merrie! The judges loved your attention to detail and your creativity in your puddings. Unfortunately,” she said to the other team, “that means you all were in the bottom this week. We hope your fans can save you.”
I jumped up and wrapped my arms around Matt’s neck.
“We did it!” I whooped.
Matt laughed and swung me around.
“We are so celebrating,” I said when he set me back down. “There’s a Christmas-themed bar the next block over,” I told him as he helped me with my coat.
“That doesn’t sound like a celebration,” he replied.
37
Merrie
