Do you love to bake, love baked goods, love anything that is sweet or enjoy being in the kitchen? All of the above? Then America’s Baking and Sweets Show might be to your taste.
This is the fourth serving of America’s Baking and Sweets Show, taking place Nov. 11-13 at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel. With baking, as in comedy, timing is everything. “It’s held before Thanksgiving,” noted Joanna Miller, Director of Business Development. “That’s when baking for the holidays kicks into full gear.”
Cable TV food networks, cooking shows and entrepreneurial chefs on social media have inspired amateur bakers to break out old family recipes or to experiment with new creations. They have also helped to launch careers. Elise Strachan, creator of the blog, My Cupcake Addiction, will be one of the celebrity participants spreading the baking gospel. As a child, she said she wasn’t allowed to buy candy, but baking was encouraged. “I started simply and honed my talent over time, discovering along the way that I not only loved the art of baking, I was actually pretty good at it,” she said.
Cupcakes were her specialty. “They’re classic, timeless and evoke a feeling of nostalgia,” she said. “But food in general has come so far in recent years. People are re-inventing the classics in ways we never imagined and, while food revivals are everywhere, the classics are still cemented in our history, our hearts and our culture.”
Strachan now boasts more than 10 million followers. She comes to America’s Baking and Sweets Show’s Main Stage at 12:30 p.m. Nov. 12 and 13 with a new cookbook, “Sweet! Celebrations.” She will be demonstrating a “wow” cake perfect for the fall season. “It’s one of the recipes from the Rustic Romance chapter of my new book and I’m excited to show people how easy it can be to make something amazing with simple techniques and a little patience.”
Also appearing throughout the weekend on the Main Stage will be Malika Ameen (Bravo’s “Top Chef: Just Desserts”), Emmy-winning producer Rushion McDonald (“Bake Like a Man”), blogger Sally McKenney (Sally’s Baking Addiction), Sarah Owens (owner of artisan microbakery BK17 Bakery) and Shauna Sever (the baking blog Piece of Cake).
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Those who’d rather bake than watch can enroll in “The Baking Academy’s” hands-on classes led by internationally-renowned chefs. The Family Zone, meanwhile, will offer a hands-on baked goods experience for kids ages 12 and younger, hosted by My Sweet Kake.
The show will also allow attendees the opportunity to shop from a wide variety of vendors offering everything from cake decorating supplies and kitchenware to sweets samples and therapeutic remedies for baking-related aches and pains.
America’s Baking and Sweets Show is all about taking baking to the next level, Miller said. “Don’t think you can make a macaroon or a homemade marshmallow? We have classes for that,” she said. “Baking is about bringing folks together. And there’s such a wide range of what you can bake — sweet or savory — it’s an endless opportunity.”
America’s Baking and Sweets Show
When: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Nov. 11-12, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 13
Where: Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel, 1551 N. Thoreau Drive, Schaumburg
Tickets: $15 adults, $10 youth, seniors and military personnel; free children ages 12 and younger
Information: www.americasbakingandsweetsshow.com