Page 38 of Miss Humbug
For a moment, he paused, his face so close to mine it caused my breath to cease. And then he was gone.
Ethan’s absence hit me like a physical force, as if all the energy propelling me had vanished.
Everything would be fine. Just like Ethan promised. I could handle a baking competition. After all, we’d already done the hard part by delivering the cake in one piece.
I sent up a prayer of healing thoughts for his father. For the tree farm event Ethan hadn’t even mentioned until now.
He should have told me. Here I was monopolizing his time when a full-time job required his attention. The literal busiest time of year and I’d snatched him away to manage a cake contest.
I wasn’t sure who I was more mad at, him for not telling me or me for not knowing.
Around me, the tables filled with eye-popping creations. A cake in the shape of a Christmas tree, standing vertical with actual twinkle lights wound around it. A bundt cake with a soft dusting of confectioners’ sugar and edible greenery along the base. A cake shaped like presents stacked on top of each other. One with a Hanukkah theme where gold glittery frosting dripped down the side of a pristine white layer cake, topped with a menorah-shaped confection.
Shawn arrived with a hearty German chocolate layer cake surrounded by an honest-to-goodness holiday village made of cookies across a giant serving tray. Was that cheating? All those extra cookies that weren’t even part of the cake? It definitely looked like cheating.
Rafe and his family presented a tall cake striped in red and white frosting with mini candy canes for edging. An elaborate collection of candy canes adorned the top. Okay now. That cake had to be from a professional bakery.
I met Rafe’s gaze across the tent. A smug smile appeared. He knew that cake was amazing. The smug shifted to a sneer when he eyed my cake. How dare he!
Ashe, Cara, and the kids carried in a humble looking yule log. Lumpy like the ones I’d made in my practice runs. At least I had an edge over them.
Given my family’s contributions and Riley’s on-the-plain-side peppermint cake, I had a decent chance at scoring high points against them. Rafe’s cake was the one to beat, unless Shawn’s tasted amazing or the judges gave bonus points for all those cookies.
Yeah, I was still in this.
A towering snowflake monstrosity entered the tent carried by two men in white gloves and chef coats. Okay, not monstrosity. The cake was gorgeous. All white with ice blue details. Hardened sugar snowflakes and swirly little thingamabobs poking out the top. I didn’t even know what those were called.
A South Asian woman in a red wool coat approached. A fancy wool cap tilted on her head just so. “Hello, Miss…” She peered past me to the name plate beside the cake. “Oh, are you part of the Holly family? One of Emmaline’s?”
I forced a confident smile. “Yes.”
“Wonderful. Do you have the recipe for your cake?”
Panic set in. Was this a quality check? Confirming we’d actually made the cakes? “Uh, I mean, I don’t have it with me.”
“That’s okay. Here.” She handed me a business card. “Email when you have it. We list the recipes on the town website after the competition. It’s the number one question everyone asks. Last year we had so many people posting ‘recipe please’ on each photo on the event page, it took the entire website down.”
“Yeesh.” I’d get on that later.
“Now, name?”
“Marlowe Holly.”
She grinned. “Not your name. The cake.”
“Oh, sure. It’s a holiday Victoria sponge cake.”
“Ah, that’s the description. We need a name foryourversion of the cake.” She continued to look at me expectantly. “It’s number seven in the competition instructions.”
Dangit. Why hadn’t Ethan mentioned we needed a cake name? No, that wasn’t fair. Ethan had an emergency and now I needed to handle this. How hard could it be to name a cake? “How about Victoria’s Secret Spice.”
She arched a slim brow. “Okay.” She used permanent marker to complete the name on a festive card she then handed to me. “Set the card in the stand in front of the cake.”
I winced looking at the name on the card. Why did I pick a sexy cake name? My cake wasn’t sexy. It wascake. And named after a stodgy English queen.
Unfortunately, the permanent part of permanent marker meant I was stuck.
Ethan would have had a cake name at the ready. A non-sexy one. But Ethan wasn’t here.
