I'm home from Cookie Camp! It was an amazing time with my dear cookier friends. We went to Camp Ba Yo Ca up in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Lisa (TheBearFootBaker) was our most excellent hostess. She and her husband Alan are the camp directors all year round, and they took good care of us.
I was able to go early (right after Keith's Army BCT graduation), so Lisa & I baked cookies together for the event. First we made plaid hearts to give to all the campers.
Then we made some fall cookies for Bea's (Cancun Cookies) demonstration on making bouquets.
And then I attempted to make an entry for the cookie decorating contest we had at the beginning of camp. Since I didn't have time to plan, I just did some quilt cookies. Taken out of my normal environment (even though Lisa's kitchen was MORE than adequate and wonderful to work in with her!), I felt like I was not doing my best work......but at least I had something to enter the contest.
Once everyone arrived, we had a field trip to Hobby Lobby. Some of the ladies had never been to HL. (gasp!) When we arrived at the store, we asked a lady who was walking out if she'd take our picture in front of the store. She was willing, but she said, "You DO realize that this is just a craft store, right?" It still makes me chuckle to think about it. :)
From left to right: Gina (ThePastryPrincess), Bea (CancunCookies), Dawn (KneadACookie), Susan (AndoverCookieMama), Brenda (Brenda'sCakes-Ohio), Johnna (Polka-Dot-Zebra), Lisa (TheBearFootBaker), Jen (PoshPastries), Maryann (TheCookieArtisan), me, & Tracy (TracyLH).
Once back at the camp, we got to work and started baking cookies and making icing.
Here's Lisa (TheBearFootBaker), Tracy (TracyLH), & Maryann (TheCookieArtisan).
Gina (ThePastryPrincess).....our resident SnowWhite :)
Lisa(TheBearFootBaker) and a fantastic hostess.....
Here's all the cookies we baked up for the event....
Here's the entries for the best decorated cookie....a contest we had at the beginning of camp.
Doughboy: Dawn (KneadACookie) / Apple Basket: Bren (Brenda'sCakes-Ohio), Black Bear: Lisa (TheBearFootBaker), Cookie Sheet: Maryann (TheCookieArtisan), my quilts, Halloween Witch: Susan (AndoverCookieMama), and Slumber Party Pillow: Johnna (PolkaDotZebra).
And the winner is...........................
Maryann's fabulous Cookie Sheet with Cookie Camp Cookies. :)
Next we did a taste test, sampling some of the fantastic cookies people make.
And the winner is........................
Here's some random pics of camp....
Bea was sweet enough to bring us all Mexican candies and then tell us what each candy was. She is a SWEETheart for sure!
Here's the prize table. Oh my goodness, we had SO MANY wonderful prizes donated. We are so thrilled that so many sponsors were willing to share with. Everyone took home several prizes. :)
While decorating the cookies.....Karen (SugarDeaux) had a lot of fun with the sanding sugar (her first time with it) and had a little accident with the green sanding sugar glass jar.
We all decorated 5 shapes.....it was kind of hard since it wasn't in our own environment and lots of fun distractions.....but I finally eeked out my five designs. We each did a chocolate square cookie with a letter on it.....spelling out the message, "Thank You Alan" to give to our host Alan for his incredible effort in providing us with all our meals and taking care of lots of needs for camp. Plus, he let us "borrow" Lisa for several days when she normally is working as hard as him taking care of camp.
After the decorating was done (and we even got to see a few informal decorating demos), we cleaned up and had lots and lots of very informative demos on everything from shipping cookies to photography to cookie bouquets to Kopy Kake. We were pleasantly overloaded with information that will hopefully make us all better cookiers. :)
Here's a pic of the flavoring demo. Tracy and Jen shared about flavoring icing (and cookie dough) with a plethora of yummy flavors from Spices, Etc. We got to smell many flavors and even got to sample some on cookies. YUM!!!!!
Bea showed us how to make cookie pops and arrange them in a bouquet.
We all stayed up late Tuesday night gathering up lots of info and trying out new techniques. We had a blast and came away with lots of things to improve our decorating.
We had a wonderful time, and I feel so much richer.....especially because of the amazing friendships I made while at the first annual International Cookie Camp. (Bea came from Cancun, Mexico.....so we decided to expand the name, making it sound much more impressive. :))
I hope to get more pics from some of my cookie camp friends so that I can show you even more glimpses into our time at camp.