Dessert Party (Solution)
by Asheesh Laroia, Shira Helft, and Karen Rustad
The Caesar salad plate says:
KPKVKCN QH HQQF DGEQOGU C
which decrypts (shift down by 2) to:
INITIAL OF FOOD BECOMES A
This clues you that the initial (letter) of the food items are used as a key, with A=0, B=1, C=2 (clued by C=2 for Caesar salad).
These are the letters on the desserts:
Coffee Cake:+---+ | C | +---+ | U | +---+
(which decrypts to AS)
Ho Hos:+---+ | U | +---+ | T | +---+
(which decrypts to NM)
Mini Muffins:+---+ | F | +---+ | A | +---+
(which decrypts to TO)
Twinkies:+---+ | B | +---+ | Z | +---+
(which decrypts to IG)
Put them together, sorted alphabetically by treat name, and you get:
+---+---+---+---+ | A | N | T | I | +---+---+---+---+ | S | M | O | G | +---+---+---+---+
The answer is: ANTISMOG.