Beverly's Birthdays cookie competition in Irwin showcases young bakers
The best cookie bakers aren’t always grandmothers in flour-dusted aprons.
A group of young bakers showed their kitchen competence Sunday during the fourth-annual Great Birthday Bake hosted by Beverly’s Birthdays at Antonelli Event Center in Irwin.
Their creations scaled the heights of culinary creativity with original recipes and presentations worthy of the fanciest patisserie.
The competition is the signature fundraiser for the North Huntingdon-based organization that provides birthday celebrations for area children whose families are in need or experiencing homelessness.
About 30 bakers ages 5-13 from Westmoreland and Allegheny counties set up stations with dozens of cookies to be sampled by judges and more than 200 attendees. They were vying for best cookie honors in categories of Birthday Nut, Chocolatey Cheer, Classic Christmas Cookie, Fruity & Fun and Overall Best Cookie.
“We love this event and are excited to bring it back since we were unable to host it in 2020,” said Megs Yunn, Beverly’s Birthdays founder and director.
Judges included Chris Fennimore, former host of WQED’s “QED Cooks;” Danielle Bonura, Mrs. Pennsylvania International 2021 and a maternal mental health advocate; Jasmine Cho, founder of Yummyholic and a Food Network veteran; Denise Vay, a Beverly’s Birthday volunteer baker; and radio host Kelly Dzanaj.
Fennimore stopped to sample chocolate peppermint kisses made by Archie Shattuck, 12, of McDonald, as proud dad Chris Shattuck looked on.
“He’s been doing this all four years, and one year he won fan favorite,” Chris said. “He loves to bake and cook and hunt and he makes up his own venison recipes.”
Nico Mospan, 10, of Irwin said he combined two of his favorite things to come up with his Merry Mango Oatmeal cookie recipe.
“I love fruit and I love oatmeal — I eat it almost every morning,” he said.
His grandfather Tim Ruane, who accompanied him, helped work out recipe measurements, he added.
Winning recipes
Fennimore said he was looking for “a certain competency aspect” in judging the young bakers.
“Really, how bad can sugar taste?” he said.
“I like to hear the stories and the family traditions behind the cookies, and the energy they’re putting into it,” Bonura said.
Noting that the judges had to taste every cookie, Vay said she would work off the sugar rush by “doing a lot of cleaning this afternoon when I get home.”
Winning recipes in each category were determined by the judges’ scores and votes by the cookie-consuming crowd. Overall Best Cookie was based on crowd vote alone.
When the last cookie crumbled, these were the winners:
• Birthday Nut: Rocky Mountain Avalanche by Niomi Kearns, 9, a fourth-grader at Sunrise Elementary School in Penn-Trafford School District.
• Chocolatey Cheer: Candy Cane Cocoa Crunch by Giada Gagliano, 11, a sixth-grader at Hillcrest Intermediate School in Norwin School District.
• Classic Christmas Cookie: Pumpkin Spice Snickerdoodle by Lily Ash, 12, a seventh-grader at Elizabeth Forward Middle School in Elizabeth Forward School District.
• Fruity & Fun: The Christmas Peach by Brooke Corey, 10, a fifth-grader at Jefferson Hills Intermediate School in West Jefferson Hills School District.
Corey also took Overall Best Cookie honors with her sugar cookie filled with peach jam and shaped and tinted to resemble a peach. She even made a video walking viewers through her baking process.
Shirley McMarlin is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Shirley by email at smcmarlin@triblive.com or via Twitter .
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