The Cookie Museum presents
The Cookie Museum presents
Eight Austin home bakers, sixteen cookies, and a room full of voters. In both categories, the public vote and the judges picked the same baker.
The inaugural Austin Cookie Fest drew 300 to 400 attendees despite the rain.
Photos by Daniel Davila
Cookie Fest is a free celebration of cookies and the people who make them, built for the whole family. Bring your kids, your friends and your neighbors, and spend an afternoon tasting, playing and listening to live music together.
At the center of it all is the Home Baker Holiday Cookie Competition, where Austin home bakers bring their best holiday cookies and you help crown the winner.
RSVP and you're entered to win.
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Shop the MerchThe Home Baker Holiday Cookie Competition is the featured activity at the Holiday Cookie Fest. Austin home bakers bring their best, and you help decide who wins. Here's how it works.
Free to walk in, cookies everywhere, and kids taste and vote right alongside the grown-ups. Come hungry, vote loudly, and take a box home for later.
Yes. Walking in costs nothing, for adults and kids alike. There is no ticket and no wristband. Cookies from the bakers are sold at their tables, so bring a way to pay if you want to take a box home.
No, you can just show up. But an RSVP enters you in the free giveaway, drawn at the closing ceremony, and it tells the bakers how many people to bake for. You'll get a reminder before the day too.
A can if you can, never required. Everything goes to Central Texas Food Bank, which turns each donation into meals for neighbors across 21 counties. If you'd rather give online, there's a code at the door.
Every baker brings samples of their competition cookie, and they last while they last. Popular tables do run out, so the earlier you arrive the more you'll taste. Everything on the tables is also for sale.
The October fest was at SPACE512 on Burnet Rd. The Holiday Cookie Fest in December moves to a larger venue, and the address and parking will be announced to the RSVP list.
Please do. Kids taste, vote with their own card, and there is no charge for anyone. This is built as a family afternoon.
Every baker labels their cookies with ingredients and common allergens. These are home and cottage kitchens, so cross contact is possible. If an allergy is serious, please ask the baker directly before tasting.
Everyone gets a tasting card on the way in to keep track of their favorites as they taste. When you've found the one, cast your vote for it on the touchscreen at the voting station. One vote per person, and kids vote too.
If you want to taste widely, yes. Bakers bring limited batches and the favourites go first. Awards are given at the closing ceremony, so the end of the day is worth staying for too.
Austin's best home bakers. One holiday cookie each. One city deciding.
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