Anthony's expression changed from one of mildly disturbed confusion to one of excited agreement in an instant. "Well, it wouldn't be right to let a contest go without judges..."

Susan patted him, "Go on, you'll have to get back to your diet when we get back home,"

Anthony frowned, his ears drooping for an instant. "Then I'd better make it count!" he reasoned brightly.

Susan kissed his cheek, "Go Daddy!"

"You can come and watch," Randy offered to Susan.

"You know I love to see you eat," she beamed.

Randy grinned and gave his ears a wiggle. "Perhaps you could enter; you're very good in the kitchen..."

"Oh no, I'm not much for competition, I'd feel bad if I won or lost," said Susan.

Randy chuckled and gave her a kiss. "Well, you can still watch," he said.

"I'll be more than glad," she replied.

And so the five of them headed in the direction of the bake-off, Randy and Anthony both eager to sign up as judges.

Erickson signed them both up, "I think we ha' enough judges fer tha first round, tak yer seats,"

Randy sat next to Anthony, who was too excited about tasting cakes and pies to be uncomfortable with it.

The first contestant was Marie Blackwelder with a triple cherry cheese cake. "It's made from scratch!" she said proudly.

"Oh, this is fantastic," Anthony remarked, almost forgetting to fill out his score card in favor of eating the cheesecake.
"Very good. I agree," stated Randy as he considered every aspect of it from the look and smell to the texture and flavor before carefully grading everything.

The next cake was a dark chocolate raspberry confection. It was heavy and dense with a thick layer of raspberry jam in the middle, "Flackery always liked this," said Kurt.