Girl Scout Dessert Bake-off

One of the biggest fund raisers for the local Girl Scouts is their annual Girl Scout Dessert Bake-off. Having been a former Girl Scout and a lover of Girl Scout cookies and sinful sweet tooth, I have always wanted to attend this event. This year I was fortunate to be able to go with my friends Brenda and Lindsey. Brenda's husband sponsored a table so she invited me and a guest to go.

The event was held at the Radisson Hotel last Tuesday and well over 400 people attended. When I walked into the huge ballroom, it was packed with the sweet smell of desserts. People were milling around sampling all the desserts. Voting was very simple, I just placed a penny in the entry box of the dessert I liked best.

Sol World Cafe, which is located in the Radisson Hotel, won the first place and the People's Choice awards. The restaurant was among 11 eateries that participated in the the event. Chefs were asked to come up with desserts that used Girl Scout cookies in creative ways.

The Sol World Cafe team used Girl Scout cookies as one would use crackers to make five types of canapes. Ingredients that topped the dessert canapes included common items such as strawberries and strawberry jam, chocolate chips, peanut butter, apples, raspberries, blackberries, marshmallows and Cool Whip. When I stopped by their table, the chef told me she was trying to think of something that was easy to do. And this was indeed very simple and very delicious.

The second-place winner, Bravo!, used a stunning presentation to show off its Ice Cream Parlor Cheesecake. The Neapolitan-flavored cheesecake was served inside mini ice cream cones.

If there had been a best chocolate award, it would certainly have gone to Food Dance Cafe, which took its popular baked chocolate mousse dessert, the Cat's Meow, and combined Callebaut chocolate with Thin Mints. This dessert came in third.

The Union Cabaret and Grille also impressed me with a triple Chocolate Ganache Torte that had the gold image of a city skyline imprinted around the chocolate edge of the torte.

A simply delicious evening!