Then it was time for all of the judges to combine their scorecards and decide on winners... Randy was already quite certain of who he wanted to win.

The contestants sat on pins and needles as they waited for the judges to decide.

In the end, it was the cheesecake which came away with first place, though the others all received various prizes for more specific categories.

Marie proudly showed her grandfather her ribbon and the table was cleared and set up for the next round....

Anthony was excited; maybe there would be muffins in this round!

And indeed the very first entry was spiced banana nut muffins made by Alicia Harimura.

They weren't the sort of muffins he had been hoping for, but Anthony couldn't begrudge them a good rating.
Randy finished his muffin and stole what was left of Anthony's...

The next batch were some slightly hard, very dry, re-warmed store packaged oatmeal cookies with globs of cheap icing on them. Skeezy hoped people would be convinced he'd actually baked them.

Randy smelled a cookie, glowered at it, and chucked it at Skeezy with all the force he could manage--which, being Randy, was quite a lot.

Skeezy yelped and toppled over, falling right into Benti Harimura and dumping his cookie tray all over him, covering him with crumbs and icing.

Benti yelled and swatted at him. "Now look at the mess you have made!" he complained. "Get out of here, and take your cheating grocery store fare with you!"

Skeezy yelped and threw a cookie at Benti's face before he ran away.

Benti caught it in mid-air and threw it after Skeezy with a growl...

Alicia pulled out a tissue and began wiping at Benti's face, "now look...he's made a mess!"

"Filthy creature," Benti muttered, bending so that she could clean him.

After she had finished she gave him a kiss, "That's the best I can do my darling,"

The next entry was labeled "Mississippi Mud Pie" and it was submitted by Lady Stinkmeaner.

Randy ducked away from the table while pushing the pie toward the edge.
Seeing the name of the entry, Anthony eagerly took a bite without stopping to inspect it first...

The mud pie was indeed, a literal mud pie with mud scraped from the bottom of the Mississippi river among other, less pleasant ingredients.

Anthony spit it out in a hurry and yelped. "Is that... real mud?!"

"And summa my own milk!" Lady Stinkmeaner cackled shaking her chest.

With a grim expression, Randy offered Anthony the nearest trash bin in which to vomit...

The next entry was a peach cobbler made by Kari Johnson.

Anthony was careful to look at the entry and the person who'd entered it before tasting this time. He was much more pleased with the results.

The next entry was another Mississippi mud pie, but this time it was Karl's and it was made of chocolate and not actual mud.

Anthony still waited to see the other judges tasting the pie before he took a bite and sighed with relief.

The pie was perfect, a layer of chocolate custard over vanilla ice-cream in a chocolate crust and topped with dark chocolate sauce and shavings.

Anthony soon forgot all about the previous, much more literal mud pie.

The final entry was a traditional red velvet cake with vanilla icing submitted by Bert.

Anthony and Randy both were fairly pleased with this, and when it was time to judge, everyone had received fairly high marks--except for Skeezy and Lady Stinkmeaner.

Karl was announced the winner and to conclude the event the judges were allowed to select one of their favorite entries to take home with them.

Randy went straight for pineapple upside-down cake and refused to permit anyone else to take it.

"Oh my, Ah'm richt flattered," Ericka giggled.

"This will not see the end of the day," Randy assessed before taking a large bite out of the cake.

"Oh, weel perhaps Ah should make another fer ye, tha' way ye can share it wi' yar family!" said Ericka.

"Yes! Make more," Randy urged with an eager grin.

"Ah'll get started richt away," said Erika.

Randy seemed pleased as he debated whether to actually share the second cake...

Greta and Randy took Katie to another event, the petting zoo.

Curiously examining some of the animals was a familiar pair. "Greta, Randy!" Deedee greeted them with a grin.
"Hello!" said Mary, who was holding a chicken.

Greta waved, "I didn't expect you two to be here!" she said.