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Hear Ye, Hear Ye. It's CookiePalooza's 11th Year, Brought to You by the Letter C

A decade-plus of flour fights, frosting feuds, and oven timers ignored out of sheer confidence. What started as a handful of hesitant bakers has become the most exclusive street in December. Elmo's world has three-year-olds arguing over whose turn it is with the crayons. Ours has grown adults arguing over whose turn it is with the stand mixer. Elmo's world has three-year-olds negotiating for one more goldfish cracker; ours has grown adults negotiating PTO around this very event. Same energy, higher stakes, better snacks.

This year's theme: Sesame Street, because we've decided the only appropriate way to close out the year is by fully regressing to preschool by way of competitive baking.

Bring your best Sesame Street-inspired bake and battle for trophies and bragging right. Oscar the Grouch would still throw it in the trash out of principle.

This year's categories:

Hear Ye, Hear Ye. This year marks 10 years of CookiePalooza! That's right, it's been a decade of baking hijinks, heartbreaks and hilarity. Each of you has made this annual event the hottest invitation on campus. We've grown from a small number of hesitant, but enthusiastic bakers, to an invite-only Flour Fight Club.

This year's theme is a very fitting Celebrity Recipes theme. Bring your red carpet ready cookies and enter them to win our version of an EGOT 🏆 (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony). Your 2024 judges have all agreed to return-as long there is no reality show drama (or Central Florida hair pulling) so save your mid-day martinis for your week off and enjoy this red carpet celebration right before we all leave for our holiday break.

Crack open your celebrity cookbooks (I'm looking at you Coolio, Frank Sinatra, Snoop Dogg and Reba McEntire) and find your favorite recipes for this year's themed category. Sounds easy BUT I challenge you to go deep in your cookie recipe searches, span the decades, and go to the depths of the B, D and E list celebrities. Embrace the theme and the theme will love you back. Promise.

Click the Sign Up Button in the TOP RIGHT CORNER to sign up. Deadline to sign up and pay is November 15th.

Have More Questions? Starting Dec. 1-December 10, visit the Cookie Info Booth in the 6th floor lobby between 12-2 p.m.

Keep checking this page for updates.

The Competition, Categories and Criteria

Best Themed Cookie-2025 Celebrity Baker/Recipes

Each year we are able to select a category that can really highlight our baker's skills. This year's theme is celebrity recipes.

You got this.

Category: Best Tasting Cookie

This is the cookie you want to be buried with. This cookies has the right balance of flavor and textures. It may not be the prettiest but the only thing that matters is what is on the inside, right?

Category: Most Creative Cookie

One of these Cookies is Not like the Other

Thinking outside the cookie jar…...this is where the baker exercises the fine balance between interesting concept and sad failure. Creative can mean all sorts of things like unique ingredients, unique design, unexpected flavor profiles, or an unusual use of an element…….etc. Being creative should be celebrated and this cookie does just that.

Category: Judge's Choice

Every year a cookies comes along that is deserving of an award for one reason or another. Were the judge's split in their decision? Or was the cookie such a miserable failure and the baker brought their offering regardless of their shame? The judges are tasked with awarding this special award to a bakers whose efforts might go unrecognized otherwise.

Category: Best Looking Cookie

Best looking is really subjective, isn’t it? And superficial. Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder but like art, this cookie should speak to you and stand out among its peers.

Category: Best Bar/Non Cookie

Like your favorite dive bar, this category is just the best, because it just is. Having to explain why it’s the best, is in itself, a disservice. For those who can only bake in 9 x12 casserole pans, this category is designed for people who are adverse to rolling, scooping, cutting, and decorating, but still have something to add. We see you bar/non cookie people, and we celebrate you.