“Stressed spelled backwards is desserts. Coincidence? I think not!”
There’s a whole lot of truth in that old saying! Stress was melting off in waves as a wonderful group of home cooks gathered for the latest Just A Pinch Blue Ribbon Showcase!
The guest of honor was the stunning Lorie Roach of Buckatunna, MS, winner of the recent Decadent Desserts recipe contest. Her Layers of Love Torte won us over, heart and soul. (Watch the video!)
“Well, there’s 4 ounces of softened cream cheese in every layer!” smiled Lorie slyly as she prepared her winning recipe in front of the eager crowd. “It’s a dreamy torte with three creamy mousse-like layers: Nutella, peanut butter and Biscoff. Super easy and elegant.”
If Lorie’s recipe has one secret weapon it has got to be that creamy, sweet Biscoff! A spreadable butter made of crumbled Biscoff cookies, each spoonful is jam-packed with unique buttery flavor.
“It is so good, so versatile,” exclaimed Lorie during the Showcase. Like yours truly, audience members were filled with questions as the Biscoff spread was passed through the crowd for tasting. “It’s becoming more and more available. I love it because it tastes like spreadable graham crackers and because I read where it was invented by a woman entering a recipe contest, too!”
Former contest winner Missy Wimpelberg served as the day’s emcee and joined Lorie in demonstrating the process of preparing her Grand Prize torte. As the audience followed along, they noshed on beautiful platings of the contest’s runner-up recipes: Noelle Boesenberg’s Brown Butter Blondies with Macerated Blackberries, Nancy Manlove’s Decadent Trio Chocolate Hazelnut Cheesecake, Maggie May Schill’s Citrus Coconut Milk Cake and Kathy Sterling’s Coconut Cloud Cake! With each bite there were audible “ooohs and ahhhs”… a sure sign that each and every recipe is a winner in its own right!
The opportunity to star in her very own Blue Ribbon Showcase was just one of the prizes Lorie won for her culinary creativity. She and her darling husband Richard received an entire fun-filled trip to Nashville! From a visit to the legendary Grand Ole Opry to a $1,000 shopping spree at the Viking Kitchen Store, Lorie was 100% VIP all weekend long.
“I just experiment a lot,” said Lorie of her secret to cooking and contesting success. “I have a food blog and I enter recipe contests a lot, so my family are my taste-testers. We cook a lot of simple things – I’m definitely not a gourmet by any stretch of the imagination. I just have a weakness for sweets.”
And we have a weakness for Lorie’s wonderful recipes… the tastiest way to de-stress this side of the Mississippi. I’ll take seconds, please!
Try your hand at winning… Check out our latest recipe contests!