P'nut Butter Ribbons....

Last weekend I was involved in a baking contest that was put on by the Historic Mordecai House in downtown Raleigh. This was my first year participating and their second year hosting it. I made my Oatmeal Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies as, I believe they are the best, richest, most decadent cookie in my stable of recipes. There is a peanut butter buttercream in the middle of two of the oatmeal peanut butter cookies and for this competition, because appearance was part of the grading, I ribboned the top with melted dark chocolate. They looked gorgeous....and tasted lethal. Out of 60 contestants, my cookies took 2nd place! Yay!

The grand prize cookie and 'best of show' as well, was a pumpkin cookie that I unfortunately did not get a chance to taste. I'm hoping to snag a copy of the recipe from the Mordecai folks so I can taste what beat me out of that blue ribbon! I did get a letter from the organizer of the event yesterday telling me that mine was her favorite and that my cookie lost the grand prize by only 2 points. Ouch. She did request my cookie recipe for their holiday cookbook that will be sold in their gift shop. Pretty cool...I'm gonna be published! And I will go back next September and get that Grand Prize.

What this has done is whet my appetite for competitive baking and cooking contest. The North Carolina State Fair is coming up next month and there are loads of baking events to enter there so that will be next up on my roster.....