“I like the idea,” the third judge said, “but the execution is a bit rough around the edges.”
Overall, the judges rated Tony’s cupcakes at a 7.3. As long as Kinsley did better than that, she’d be okay. She was nervous, though, and sweating. Had she gotten all of the salt off of her cupcakes? I wasn’t sure.
“Tell us about your cupcakes,” one of the judges said to Kinsley.
“Well, my original plan was to create snowman cupcakes,” Kinsley said. “That didn’t quite happen, though,” she gave Tony a frowny-sort of look.
“So, what did you decide?”
“I went with a simple buttercream frosting topping,” she said. “It’s sprinkled with powdered sugar to represent snow. I’ve found during my time baking that sometimes, less is more. A concept doesn’t have to be extravagant in order to be delicious.”
It was true.
There were many times in life when something that was simple could end up being something incredible. She’d shown me that. She’d shown all of us that. Now, Kinsley was showing the judges how that applied to her cupcakes.
The first judge took a bite and nodded.
“Delicious,” he said. He gave her a 10.
The second judge tried the cupcakes.
“I like it,” she agreed. She rated the cupcakes an 8.
The last judge took her time eating the entire cupcake. Everyone held their breath. As long as the judge like it and didn’t end up with a mouth full of salt, Kinsley would win the competition.
“Interesting texture,” the final judge said. “The concept is quite nice, as well. I like that you went for simple. Sometimes, cupcakes tend to be overwhelming when it comes to sugar.”
The judge finished the entire cupcake and then smiled.
“Well?” One of the others asked. “What’s your rating?”
“10,” the woman said. “Hands down. It’s the best cupcake I’ve ever had.”
Kinsley jumped up and down, and I hurried over to grab her and hug her.
“No!” Tony yelled, throwing his baking hat down. “That’s not fair. She cheated.”
“The only cheater here is you,” I said to him.
Tony glared, but didn’t make a fuss. He just stormed off into the crowd, vanishing through the swarm of people who had gathered to congratulate Kinsley.
“You did a great job,” I told her, hugging her.
“Thanks for catching that,” she said. “I never would have expected that Tony, of all people, would try to cheat.” She shivered, as though it was the most horrifying idea to her.
“Anything for you.”
“Hey, great job,” Beatrix from Savored came over and stole Kinsley away for a hug. “We all believed in you.”
“You made us proud,” Cordelia agreed, sneaking over, too.
“Thanks everyone,” she said. “I really appreciate that you were all here.” Then Kinsley’s eyes swung over to me. “Especially you,” she whispered.
Kinsley was wonderful. I stayed with her as groups of people came over to congratulate her on her big wing. She was awarded a big blue ribbon, as well as a $10.00 gift card to a local shop, which she promptly gave to Bailey and Liam when they arrived. Bailey was thrilled and tugged at Liam’s hand, dragging him off to the store in question to start her shopping.
Once everyone else had cleared away, it was just the two of us.
“So,” she said, coming over to me.