Another Gluten Free King Cake Showdown has come and gone (this past Saturday, February 8th), and if you attended and would like to share your feedback, we’d love to hear from you! Here’s a feedback form:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PYT9MXR
Here’s my personal feedback about the event:
All things considered, I’d say it was a wonderful year. We had at least 3 vendors pull out within 48 hours – 6 hours before the event due to health (many had colds or flus) or other reasons (one just totally no showed), and a few others weren’t able to participate because of conflicting events. Many of the bakers who did participate weren’t able to complete some of the cakes they’d planned on bringing due to time constraints. On top of that, we had over 20 people buy tickets in the last hour of Friday night before ticket sales closed (despite 9 or 10 posts begging people to buy by Wednesday), which put an additional strain on our bakers, so next year ticket sales will probably be cut off earlier. To make up for the difference, we purchased additional Girls Gone Vegan cakes Saturday morning so that guests would have more portions and DF options.
Everyone who stayed until the end got to fill up baggies and boxes and plates with all of the king cake they wanted, and we ended up with 2 or 3 full cakes left over– so be sure to stay until the end if you want to take stuff home! We made an announcement at 12:30 that anyone could have whatever additional samples they wanted, regardless of tasting tickets.
The time was a little awkward for sure, but it was a) the only time that we could fit in at the venue to avoid them having to open super early and b) a little later to allow our bakers to finish baking. Many of them are baking by themselves with a single oven, so they need every minute they can get to bring you delicious cakes! We’re carefully reading your survey responses to decide on time and venue for next year (although personally I loved the space and seating of the Deutsches Haus).
All in all, we had a pretty good turn out (over 100 people), almost double the turnout from the previous year, and we had more cakes than we had in the previous year. This is always a difficult event for me to plan, mostly because I have little to no control over what the vendors choose to make or present, I can only try to keep it as organized as possible. But I think all of the vendors who showed up did an amazing job and we appreciate them so much. And we’re learning to make it even better for next year!
Our Vendors, again, were:
Girls Gone Vegan
Creme Confectionery
Chef Bryan Faucheaux
Caluda’s Bakery
Shake Sugary
Everyday KETO to Go
NULA Foods
And our Sponsors were:
The Creole Caveman
Palmisano’s Cafe & Catering
Creme Confectionery
NULA Foods
Lola Bee’s Bakery
Premier Designs Jewelry by Sarah Laurent
Dare to Dream Color Street Nail Polish
NIMA Sensor
Sensible Meals
Quatrefoil Content Creation
The event was hosted by the Deutsches Haus.
Starbucks coffee was available for purchase.
Here are some pictures:
If you have pictures to share, please send them our way and we’ll add!
As for prizes, we gave out some amazing prizes to some awesome people.
We had the following Door Prizes:
Bag of GF Beef Jerky from Lola Bee’s
Bag of GF Beef Jerky from Lola Bee’s
Chocolate Peppermint GF Cookies
Chocolate Peppermint GF Cookies
Butter & Sugar GF Cookies
Butter & Sugar GF Cookies
Color Street Nail Polish Strips
1 Valentine’s Doberge Box from Creme Confectionery
1 Box of Almond Bars from NULA Foods
1 Box of Banana Nut Bread from NULA Foods
1 Jewelry Party from Sarah Laurent, Premier Designs Jewelry
1 Gift Certificate for Meal Prep Menu Items from Palmisano’s Catering & Cafe
1 Gift Certificate for The Creole Caveman for Barkus, which they’ll be appearing at.
We also had the following raffle prizes:
1 Gift Certificate for Palmisano’s Catering & Cafe (valued at $40)
A Nail Polish Gift Basket from Dare to Dream Color Street Nails (valued at $50)
One month of pre-portioned, pre-prepared Paleo foods from Sensible Meals (valued at $400)
A NIMA Sensor & Capsules (valued at $300)
One month of Social Media Design & Management from Quatrefoil Content Creation (Valued at $375)
When it came to prizes, the following cakes were winners, although many nice things were said about all cakes present!
Best Gluten Free Traditional King Cake — Creme Confectionery, Traditional
Best Gluten Free / Dairy Free King Cake — Girls Gone Vegan, Traditional
Best Filled or Flavored King Cake — Creme Confectionery, Browned Butter
Best Non-Traditional King Cake — Creme Confectionery, King Cake Doberge
Best In Show — Creme Confectionery, King Cake Doberge
We had a great food and drink menu with offerings from the Deutsches Haus, and here they are again so you can order if you ever go back:
And yes, there was a typo here. It should have had the sparkling wine included in the Mimosa and had a screwdriver option added with Tito’s and Orange Juice, but hey, no one’s perfect! 🙂 🙂 Will update for next year. Oops!
Additionally, here are the ingredients for all the cakes presented:
We can’t wait to see everyone next year!
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To living an amazing Gluten Free life (at Carnival time),
Rebecca