#thatbakelife. (insert baker thug pose, however that looks)

[You can find Part 1 of my Cookie Con coverage here!]

The Cookie Decorating Contest: As I mentioned earlier, I took off like a shot as soon as the convention floor opened in order to walk around before the crowds arrived. I wanted to get a chance to talk to vendors, try samples, and buy cookies or baked goods at my leisure… most importantly, I wanted to take pictures before the amount of people at the con became too restrictive. While this was mostly a success, I profess that I spent more time than I thought I would at the entries for the cookie decorating contest. Here are the pictures of my favorites, in no particular order. The theme was “Love”, which was timely for Valentine’s Day!

Cookies by Cookie Couture by Sarah.

I really loved the ‘shabby chic’ style and color palette of these cookies. The sugar flowers were gorgeous!

Cookies by Sugar Dayne.

By far my favorite entry…. which mysteriously didn’t win Fan Favorite or the official contest Again, I really loved the colors… muted pastels are my thing right now. The details were stunning–from the gold-kissed roses to the tiny, perfect seashells… and the sprayed gold pattern on the icing… the blue feathers on the cookie towers even had “LA Cookie Con” and the artist’s name hand-printed on them! I think my heart would break if I ever had to watch someone eat these…

Cookies by Whisk Sweets.

This entry won the decorating contest; while I didn’t find the execution as flawless as the cookies by Sugar Dayne, I did find the story quite moving. (A better overhead picture can be found here.)

I thought the colors and the letters were very cute for this entry… and man, am I a sucker for nice handwriting…

The Non-Edible Portion of the Con: The convention floor also played host to various food-related merchandise, goods, and gadgets. I stopped by the Nomiku Immersion Circulator booth to say hello… and definitely felt a twinge of regret for being too impatient and buying the Anova instead. (WiFi-connected sous vide, so fancy!)

Happy Pantry had an adorable set-up that included aprons, necklaces, towels, artwork, and more. The coffee latte apron was so cute! But I definitely have way more aprons than any one person possibly needs, so I had to pass… sigh. They advertise themselves as a ‘kitchen-themed brand featuring kawaii (cute in Japanese) characters,’ and kawaii is the only way I can accurately describe how cute their merchandise is.

(This is the goodie bag they shared with press passholders… my inner child is squealing!)

Even More Samples: After my digression into the contest entries and merchandise, it was back to doing what I do best–sampling!

Cookies by Stuffed Cookies.

[I actually bought the Oreo BDay Cake cookie shown above, but somehow lost the bag during the convention… still pretty bummed about it, because it was sinfully good!]

Cookies by Munch Bakery.

As a fellow Filipino, I was super-excited to see that Munch Bakery had ube (purple yam) and buko pandan (young coconut leaf) flavors! I probably came on a wee bit strong in my enthusiasm, but the ladies of Munch Bakery answered all of my questions with a smile.

The pound cake at Orange Clementine was one of my favorite things to try at the convention; one of my friends even bought several of the cakes to share with her family. Not only was the cake moist and flavorful, but the clementine flavor was perfect–not overwhelming nor too light to detect. The glaze on top was literally the icing on the cake; the clementine zest in the glaze cut the sweetness and balanced it well.

The press goodie bag also included two adorable citrus-themed sugar cookies that were promptly devoured later that night… pretty sure I ate my week’s worth of sugar in one day.

Now, if you’ve ever met me or my husband, you know that neither of us really subscribe to the idea of gluten-free being healthier or better for you in any way. Okay, now that that’s out of the way… I have to admit that these gluten-free Habanero Peanut Butter & Jelly cookies from Velvet Rope Bake Shop were my favorite cookies of the Con. Gasp!, you say. And gasp you should–it’s not an easy feat to make cookies without flour that are delicious. But man, were these cookies good. I suppose the flavor combination isn’t for everyone; the habanero salt paired with the strawberry preserves definitely throws your taste buds for a loop. But as a sweet/salty/savory fan, these cookies hit all the right notes for me.

Like Fish in a Barrel: As the day wore on, the crowds swelled and pushed the aisles between the booths to their limits; if I had to describe it in one word, it would be “smooshed.” It became harder to receive samples and talk to the vendors at each booth because they were overrun with other con attendees. The aisles became a little more bearable during specific programming times (we definitely saw everyone bum-rush the seats for Mr. Ben-Israel’s featured talk), but otherwise, the crowds and the lines were easily my least favorite part about the convention.

My friends and I left the show closer to 2pm after finding ourselves exhausted from the crowds on the floor. (One of my friends even ended up with a bleeding wound on her leg–man, are cookie fans vicious or what? Just kidding, we’re still not certain how she was injured.) When we walked outside, the line was still going out and around the block! We were even stopped by a few folks that asked us whether it was worth it to wait; apparently, the registration inside had come to a stand-still and the line hadn’t moved for some time.

Was it worth it? The million-dollar question (or however much you paid for your ticket, I suppose).

I think that the organizers behind Cookie Con did a great job for their first year. Like I mentioned in Part 1, I believe there are kinks that are tough to anticipate before the event itself occurs. If I were to suggest anything for next year’s con, I would definitely recommend getting the event staff and volunteers on the same page. From time to time, I would ask for directions or information and ended up with several different answers. I also believe that the VIP lounge wasn’t handled as well as it could have been; I didn’t even realize I was in the lounge until my friend pointed it out! The location of the lounge wasn’t optimal either–since it was not in a corner or in a separate room, people freely walked in without any clue that entry was restricted.

Perhaps I missed it… but I didn’t receive a map of the booths with a corresponding list of vendors, nor did I see a printed program with the events schedule on it in the bag I received when I registered. I think it would’ve enhanced my experience and certainly made it a bit less hectic if I’d had these references on hand. In the future, a short book with each bakery listed and a short blurb about each bakery would be great as well! Great advertising for the bakeries and very informative for con attendees.

The largest problem I had with the con was space, but again–completely understandable for a first annual event. In a post-event email, one of the organizers mentioned that next year’s event would span 2 days and be held at a larger venue… so it looks like this problem is already solved! As events grow and venues expand, having dependable safety coverage becomes even more important. Visit https://fastfirewatchguards.com to explore professional fire watch services that support smooth, well-managed events.

In the end, I had a wonderful time with my friends and at the con itself. The samples were amazing, the vendors were friendly, and my personal experience as press was very positive! I’d like to thank LA Cookie Con for a very fun Sunday, and I already look forward to next year’s event.

Whew! And that’s all she wrote.

I first heard about the LA Cookie Con & Sweets Show on the Food Bloggers of LA (FBLA) mailing list in September of last year… and to be honest, my curiosity was piqued, but it wasn’t something that I felt I absolutely couldn’t miss. I do love baking–very much so–but as I’ve said on here multiple times, I’m not overly fond of eating baked goods. One of the main draws on the initial emails mentioned a lot of free samples, and I figured that it was something my waistline probably didn’t need.

Another reason that initially held me back from attending was the convention’s newness. I’ve been to first annual events before (626 Night Market comes to mind) and–through no fault of their own–tend to be disorganized and overwhelmed with logistics they cannot anticipate prior to the date. This is not a new phenomenon, nor is it one that I unreasonably expect new organizations to avoid. There are no soft openings, no practice runs for conventions or expos. I still remember the vitriol spewed on the Yelp event page for 626 Night Market’s first year, and cringe.

With all of that said, I slowly came to see the light over the next few months–my coworkers at the bakery were attending (and excited to do so), and I continued to check on the website for updated information. And now that I’ve attended, I’m so very glad I did! Not only did I have a blast with my friends, but I also got to talk to a lot of the bakeries and businesses with booths. The experience was fun, educational and completely worthwhile. It was a little hairy at times–and I’ll get into that further below–but overall, I do think it was a great event and I already anticipate an even better con next year.

Before I begin: A Full Disclosure! I did get a VIP Press & Media pass for the event, so my experience is probably a little different than con attendees with regular passes.

A Sheepish Note: I tried to get business cards for every booth I took pictures of, but lost one of my bags with cards (and a cookie! Geez!) at the convention… so please let me know if I haven’t credited your booth and I will happily do so.

The Line Stops Here: We arrived at 9am anticipating a line–but had no idea that the line would wrap around the block an hour before the ribbon-cutting ceremony! The VIP/Press line was much shorter (it’s the line on the right), but since one of my friends had a regular pass we decided to wait in the longer line until we got close to the front. Once people were let into the convention center to register, they were then funneled back out through another door to the holding area to wait for the ribbon-cutting ceremony and subsequent start of the con.

Things were much more lax for VIP/Press passholders, or at least that was my experience. Once we were given our wristbands, we were more or less allowed to wait inside while awaiting the ribbon-cutting. There was a bit of confusion with the official staff  for the event and the Le Cordon Bleu students helping the event–when I asked if I needed to wait outside with the rest of the regular passholders, I heard 2-3 different things. My friend and I decided to wait indoors until the ceremony began, in fear of being herded into the back of the crowd. It looks like a lot of other VIP/Press passholders had the same idea, as there were a lot of people lounging around the registration area.

The Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony: Apparently the mayor was running behind (or so I heard from the various event staff with walkie-talkies), so the ribbon-cutting ceremony was 15 minutes later than initially advertised. Not a big deal for me, but I did feel kind of bad for the general passholders that were stuck waiting under the morning Pasadena sun.

A few pictures were taken with some of the Masterchef and Masterchef Junior contestants before Ron Ben-Israel made his appearance as the official ribbon-cutter. What a nice guy! He mingled right into the crowd, made small talk, and happily obliged with every picture request. When the official ceremony started, he jumped up and down and joked that “what happens here, stays here.” His infectious energy made everyone smile–and while I’m not as familiar with his show on the Food Network, I was similarly swept up by his excitement.

Welcome to the 1st annual LA Cookie Con & Sweets Show!

The Frenzy Begins! After Mr. Ben-Israel’s dramatic ribbon-cutting, we immediately jumped inside of the convention center in order to beat the crowds. [And boy, was I happy about that–as the day wore on, the crowds got more and more intense and pushy.] As soon as we walked through the doors onto the main convention floor, the smell of sweets and the promise of samples hung in the air. My normally no-sweets-preferring stomach rumbled in anticipation.

I really liked the way they set up the booths–there was ample space between each booth, and the aisles were spaced so that at least 5-7 people standing side-by-side could walk through comfortably. At the very beginning of the day, it felt un-cramped and quite spacious! The displays for each booth would vary–some were very well-staged, and others were quite bare-bones. There were a healthy mixture of booths at the convention: cookies, cakes, baker’s tools, baker’s ingredients, commercial booths (Keurig and Whole Foods come to mind), even wine tastings in the “VIP lounge”.

Some of the booths had displays and samples… but were only there for show and not for business, as they couldn’t sell any of their baked goods at the location. That was surprising to me–but this was the exception more than the norm.

And did I mention how beautiful some of the displays were?

Cake display by Caljava Online

Cake Pop display by Charlie Pops Organic Cake Pops

Samples, please! Every booth that was selling baked goods had samples–every one! I thought my tongue was going to go into sugar shock. After a while, I found myself wishing I had a way to rinse my palette because the flavors were starting to run into each other. Samples of cupcakes, sweet bread, cakes, cake pops, cake truffles, cookies, pastries… this was every dieter’s (and diabetic’s) nightmare. And every sample was so generous, too–I never felt jilted, nor did I ever feel guilty asking for a sample if they weren’t readily available. Every booth, every baker was so obliging and willing to chat.

Ensaymada samples from BakerCakeMaker

Oatmeal Toffee Cookie Samples from Jen & Joe’s Cookie Dough booth

But wait, there’s more! Yes, there’s a reason this post has a “Part 1” in its title. Look forward to more sweets, more treats and more rambling from yours truly about LA Cookie Con & Sweets Show in the next post. (There was simply too much to cover, and I’ve never been a fan of overly-long entries.) For now, here’s a snap from The Social Booth Co. that I took with my friends. Yes, I’m the glutton with the cupcake…

Courtesy of The Social Booth Co.