Chocolate lovers indulge themselves this past weekend at the Kennett Chocolate Lovers festival. The event raised $16,500 for Community Impact Fund of United Way of Southern Chester County.
KENNETT SQUARE — The Kennett Chocolate Lovers Festival on February 21st raised $16,500 for the Community Impact Fund of United Way of Southern Chester County. The proceeds will help fund programs at over 28 local non-profits helping our neighbors in need.
Over 1,000 attendees gorged on 150 chocolate treats. “We can’t thank enough the adults, professionals, and students who baked for us,” said Carrie Freeman, UWSCC’s CEO. “Without their entries, this festival couldn’t happen. We also appreciate our sponsors: our lead Dark Chocolate sponsor – Bank of America, our Milk Chocolate sponsor – W.L. Gore, and our White Chocolate Sponsors – Union Street Financial and TD Bank.”
The first place winners in the five amateur divisions won Corian cutting boards and a $100 gift certificates to area restaurants – Twelves, Buckley Tavern, Two Stones, and Platinum Dining restaurants in Delaware. Ribbons were awarded for first, second and third place to Professional, Amateur, and Student divisions for cakes, cupcakes, brownies, cookies, and candies.
Top Professional winners in each category were: The Country Butcher for their Double Diablo Brownies, The Gables at Chadds Ford for their Lucy B’s Chocolate Hazelnut Cake, Heavenly Sweet Chocolates for their Nancy’s Heavenly Caramel Pretzel Bites, Heavenly Sweet Chocolates for their Nancy’s Heavenly Milk & Dark Chocolate Sandwich Cookies with Sea Salt, and The Gables at Chadds Ford for their Charlie’s Chocolate Cupcakes. Two professionals scored big with 3 ribbon each: Nancy Orlando from West Chester’s Heavenly Sweet Chocolates and Pam Matthews from Kennett’s Country Butcher.
Top Amateur winners in each category were: Patti Beauchesne for her Chocolate Peanut-Butter-Ganache Brownies, Michelle Cope for her Michelle’s Sinfully Delicious Dark Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse, Alison Snyder for her Chocolate Hazelnut Truffles, Lisa Gross for her Lisa’s Dark Chocolate Raspberry Bar, and Roberta Carlson for her I’ll Stop the World and Malt with You cupcakes. Our top baker from the amateur division was Lisa Gross from Lincoln University who won a 1st and 2nd for her cookies and a 2nd for her cake.
Kennett High School’s Family Consumer Science and the Pastry Arts students garnered 7 of the 15 top spots for student entries. Individual 1st place student winners were: Madison Bowe for her Chocolate-Mint Bars and Emily Schmidt for her Chocolate-Orange Cake.
It takes a village-worth of volunteers to work the festival. 47 student servers volunteered from Kennett High (21), Unionville High School (19), Tower Hill (3), Avon Gove Charter (2), and Oxford (2). Community volunteers and board members cut countless trays of brownies and cakes. 28 community members (including Mayor Matt Fetick from Kennett Square, Kennett Township Supervisors Richard Leff and Whitney Hoffman, and Estelle Tracy, a famous French food blogger dedicated to chocolate) had the difficult task of blind-tasting all the entries to pick the 15 top winners.
“We netted $1,000 more than last year, so it is great to see the proceeds growing year after year,” said Ms. Freeman.
