Scene @ Dutton-Gotham Holiday Bakeoff

“There’s one dish where I like the taste and the presentation,” said a publicist sitting at a conference table on the second floor of the Penguin Group offices, “but there’s another where I like the taste better. What should I do?” “I think taste has to trump presentation,” another publicist said confidently. It was the sixth annual bakeoff between the editorial and publicity staffs of Dutton and Gotham; this year, it was the editors’ turn to cook while the publicists wandered around the table and sampled each of the thirteen dishes, which ranged from basic “Chrismint” cookies to a lemonade pound cake to a reasonably faithful reproduction of a Hostess Cupcake. (There’s only two rules to the competition, as far as I can tell: You have to do the baking yourself, and, after too many runaway victories, nobody’s allowed to make key lime pie anymore.)

The winners, from left to right, all came from the Gotham editorial team: First place went to Brianne Ramagosa for three varieties of petite cheesecake with lemon, then Patrick Mulligan in second for his deconstructed pear tart, and Erin Moore in third with a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

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