Saturday Spotlight: CookieCon 2014 Sugar Show Winners

Given the plethora of incredible talent on display at the CookieCon 2014 Sugar Show, it seems only appropriate that I cast this week's spotlight on the very deserving winners announced mere hours ago at the closing ceremony.

But before I do, a bit of background about the Sugar Show. This year, there were five categories judged by popular vote: Anything Goes, Home Sweet Home, Once Upon A Time, Spring, and Mystery Shape. You can read more about the entry requirements for each category here on the CookieCon site. Entries in all of the categories were decorated in advance, with the exception of the Mystery Shape. In that case, the cookies were iced during the "open decorating" session on Saturday morning, only after the mystery shape (a speech balloon) had been revealed - leaving people with just a few hours to bring it on! And did they ever, as you'll see in just a bit . . .

There were also several (seven, to be exact) amazing Instructors' Choice awards, though I regret that I was unable to capture those winners in photo form. My hope is that all of those amazing cookiers will proudly step forward and share their winning entries here on Cookie Connection in the not too distant future!

'Til then, I leave you with the first, second, and third place winners in each of the aforementioned five categories. What you're about to see is truly mind-boggling. Please take a moment to congratulate these ladies on these triumphs.

Anything Goes

First Place: Monica Holbert

Second Place: Barbara Florin

Third Place: Lynne Schuyler

Home Sweet Home

First Place: Kerri Roy

Second Place: Karen McCormack

Third Place: Tatiana Khromushna

Once Upon A Time

First Place: Jeanette Durham and Laurie Thompson 

Second Place: Melanie Burns 

Third Place: Arlene Pacheco  

Spring

First Place: Debora Ferri 

Second Place: Laurie Anglen 

Third Place, Karen McCormack

Mystery Shape

First Place: Monica Holbert 

Second Place: Sarah Schottler

Third Place: Jeanette Durham

Congrats again to all of the winners! It's quite possible that they've set an insurmountable bar for CookieCon 2015 . . . or is it 2016? As with everyone, I'm waiting with bated breath to know which it will be.