America’s story told through cookies
Wedding Cookie Table Community celebrates nation\\\'s 250th
To borrow from Paul Revere, “The cookies are coming!”
On Sunday, April 19, the Wedding Cookie Table Community will host its 11th annual Cookie Table University at the Hilton Garden Inn at Southpointe.
And in honor of the United States’ 250th birthday, the theme is America 250.
More than 2,000 cookie bakers and cookie lovers are expected to attend the dough-lightful event, which will feature thousands of cookies – spanning more than 250 years of cookies baked in America – and will include vendors and baking demonstrations.
This year’s cookie extravaganza might be the sweetest event yet, said Laura Magone, founder of the Wedding Cookie Table Community.
“We will have two beautiful, professionally styled red, white and blue tables that will be decorated to celebrate America’s 250th, and what makes this year’s event unique is that we have done a lot of research and picked out cookie recipes that span 250 years, so we’re telling the history of the country through cookies,” said Magone. “People will be wearing red, white and blue, and one table will be formal while the other has a picnic theme.”
The tables will feature Duncan & Miller glassware – significant because from 1893 until 1955, the glassware company produced some of the country’s most well-known and beautiful glassware at its Washington facility.
The cookies, as always, will be the stars of the show.
Magone and the Wedding Cookie Table Community conducted extensive research, pulling recipes from a variety of early American and popular U.S. cookbooks.
“We have one recipe from what is considered to be the oldest cookbook printed in the U.S, called “American Cookery,” by a woman named Amelia Simmons. The recipe is from 1796, and at the time, cookies were so novel that one of the cookies in the cookbook was just called ‘cookies,'” said Magone.
Ingredients for the cookie included one pound of butter and three teaspoons of pearl ash, which was used before baking powder was invented (pearl ash is still available).
Another cookie that will be available at the event is a sweet wafer, pulled from the 1881 book, “What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking,” by Abby Fisher, a landmark book that is often recognized as the first cookbook written by a formerly enslaved Black woman.
“People didn’t have measuring cups at that time, so this recipe calls for a teacup of butter and a teacup of sugar, and part of our challenge is giving these recipes to our bakers and having them turn it into something people can bake in this day and age,” said Magone.
A cookie from an early 1960s Betty Crocker cookbook made with Tang will be featured, along with a version of the first cookie that traveled to the moon – a sugar cookie cube that was included in the first meal eaten on the lunar surface by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission.
“We really wanted to tell the country’s story through cookies,” said Magone. “We are tracing the evolution of the chocolate chip cookie and will have recipes for chocolate chip cookies from World War I and World War II, and we will have a recipe that served 10,000 sailors on a ship. We’re excited about this.”
The event, sponsored by Washington County Tourism Promotion Agency, will be held in two sessions, a morning session from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and an afternoon session from 2 to 5 p.m.
Vendors including USA Pan, Ankarsrum, Sarris Candies, and Hershey will be on site. A cookie cutter swap is scheduled – bring one to drop off, and select a different cookie cutter – and baskets will be raffled off. Attendees will be able to select a dozen cookies.
This year, festivities will span two days.
Starting at 10 a.m. Saturday, there will be three classroom workshops at Frank Sarris Public Library in Canonsburg that cover pricing your own baked goods, making your own extracts and how to 3D print your own baking tools and cookie cutters.
Use discount code CTUHalfOff to register if you are a Cookie Table University baker, volunteer, or participant.
Additionally, a cookie decorating workshop, Catherine’s Cookie Art, led by Catherine Marsh Gruda of Catherine’s Cookie Art, will be held Saturday at 2:30 p.m. (separate registration from the morning classes is required). Participants will learn how to flood a cookie and how to do the wet-on-wet technique. Everything needed to make six cookies, along with expert instruction, will be provided.
The cost is $50 per person, and seating is limited for the class. Advanced registration is required.
On Saturday, April 18, a free Duncan & Miller Glass Museum Tour will be held from 3 to 4 p.m. Advanced registration is required.
“We are making this a cookie weekend. It is all about cookies,” said Magone.
Magone said bakers and cookie lovers travel from across the country to participate in Cookie Table University.
Proceeds for Cookie Table University benefit the Monongahela Area Historical Society’s renovations of the Longwell House.
Registration for Cookie Table University is $40. For registration information and other details, visit the Wedding Cookie Table Community Facebook page.