Erin McKenna Babycakes NYC Culinary Demonstration -- 2013 Food & Wine Festival

*This culinary demonstration took place on October 21, 2013. This does not reflect a typical culinary demo experience at Food & Wine as Babycakes NYC is a special diets bakery and all items were made to be gluten free, dairy free, soy free, egg free, refined sugar free, and vegan. Guests attending culinary demonstrations with a special diet should contact WDW's Special Diets Department in advance.

Babycakes NYC & Thin Mints!!

I was very excited to attend Erin McKenna's Babycakes NYC culinary demonstration this year. In fact, when the demonstration tickets went on pre-sale, I made sure to call that day to grab my ticket. This was the demonstration that I was looking forward to, primarily because Babycakes NYC is free of so many allergens and I knew I could eat safely without having to call in advance.This was definitely a great session to attend. In addition, I knew it would be dessert, and I liked the idea of going to a dessert demonstration which I normally don't attend due to the gluten & dairy issues. You can imagine my great excitement when I saw what the featured dish was....THIN MINTS! (Yes, I needed to type this all in caps because I was REALLY excited). This was going to be amazing! And I was thrilled to snag the recipe too!

You can find a PDF of this document HERE

For this demonstration, I grabbed a seat up front and also made some new friends, as I attended the demo by myself. It was a great view of the demo.First up were introductions by the master of ceremonies for this demo, I feel badly that I didn't get her name and couldn't find her name online. She mentioned that she was also a nutritionist and she seemed very knowledgeable as she talked with Erin about the ingredients during the demo. Not only were we introduced to Erin McKenna, owner and founder of Babycakes NYC, but also a representative from Chateau St. Michelle. The featured wine was a riesling and very much a dessert wine. Here's a brief clip from the welcome & introductions:Erin began her demo by talking about what she was making and why she chose to make thin mints. I agree with her--a sleeve of thin mints is the way to go!The other great part about the demo is that Erin really talked about the ingredients and why she uses them. In addition, she actually made the thin mints right there and baked them. As she talked and answered questions, the delicious thin mints were baking so she could fully demonstrate making these from start to finish. Love that! Here is a lengthy video from the demo as she explains the ingredients.And then it was time for tasting. The BEST PART! As you can imagine, I was dying to try out these thin mints, as they don't carry them at the Babycakes NYC location at Downtown Disney...yet! (I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Emily & the team at WDW will put them on the menu at least for the holidays!).

Thin Mint deliciousness!

Omigoodness! These were amazing. They were a much larger version than you would normally get from a Girl Scout Thin Mint cookie which is nice. Filled with mint and chocolatey goodness, these were definitely a hit. Now everyone close to me at the table did not have a special diet and it was really fun to hear their comments and joy in eating these.

Riesling from the demo

While I do understand that they like to do wine pairings for F&W, for me this dish did not need it. In fact, I wasn't a fan of the wine with this dessert. It was just really too sweet for my taste. But that's just me.

One of the fun parts of the demo was really watching Erin make these beauties! I loved that she even took the time to dip them in the chocolate ganache!

I have to say that this was a really fun demo, and I really enjoyed the thin mints. Who wouldn't really?! I also loved watching reactions to the taste and the questions people asked. It was neat to see people interested in gluten free & food allergy friendly treats!I hope Erin comes back again next year and presents, and you can bet that I will be purchasing my tickets again on pre-sale day. In the meantime, I'm going to be making these lovely thin mints very soon!! And so should you :)