Cake competition final

In early April I reported that I had been booted out of the cake competition by none other than Susan. She was through to the third round. I can't remember how many rounds there were, but she came through all of them! And then only the final was left. And it would be between her and Robin, the researcher with whom I had made the SOS picnic bench. So I was looking forward to the finals! I would by definition be quite appreciative of the winner.

It was a bit of a wait; Susan, of course, had been on the other side of the world. But the day came! And I did know what to expect; we had had dinner with the usual six the Friday before, and she had baked a trial cake for the occasion.

I got there early, so I was able to take a picture of both intact cakes. And then it really started! They were both really good. Robin Hood baked is sticky toffee pudding baked cheesecake, and Susan a carrot cake with orange.

I told Susan I was a bit conflicted about the whole competition thing. Could I vote in good conscience? I knew who had baked what, and I was good friends with one of the bakers. Not sure if being friendly, but to a lesser extent, with the other baker made things less bad or worse. But she told me she just wanted me to vote for whichever cake I preferred. So I did.

Normally, you get the results a bit later on by email, but given that this was the final, the organisers counted the votes there and then. And then the Head of School stood up to announce the winner. It was Susan!

Very backlit picture of John handing her the shield 

She gets the wooden spoon that is the trophy, and her name will be engraved on the winners’ plate. And she can decide where the money goes to that has been raised by this year's competition.

She chose the pet shelter she got her cats from. A worthy recipient! As our competition tends to only raise a few hundred pounds, she figured a small local charity would be the best, as they would actually notice an amount like that. And it has something to do with cats.