PITTSBURGH — If Buddy Valastro gained fame as America's Cake Boss for his elaborate cake creations, surely Laura Magone should be celebrated as Western Pennsylvania's Cookie Queen for the countless cookies she's inspired local bakers to make and share with others.

Since starting The Wedding Cookie Table Community 10 years ago, the Monongahela native has made it her mission to celebrate and spread the gospel of Pittsburgh's cooking table tradition while also using the Facebook group as a sweet and tasty vehicle for doing good.

Along with cookie fundraisers for community organizations and events, the organizational development consultant has inspired the group's 390,000-plus members to bake for cancer survivors, nursing home residents, firefighters, first responders of the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Squirrel Hill and the 20th anniversary of the United Airlines Flight 93 crash in Shanksville, Somerset County.

As a documentarian and historian, Magone also loves to break a record, and set one, as evidenced by her group's latest event on Nov. 30 at the Washington County Fairgrounds.

On a cold and drizzly Sunday morning, more than 300 bakers in teams of 10 clustered around dozens of tables in Building 2, or as Magone affectionately dubbed it, "Kringle Kitchen." Thirty-five more teams stood at the ready off-site, including one 8,000 miles away in New Zealand. Their goal: to establish the record for the world's largest Christmas cookie exchange.

In a traditional cookie exchange, bakers make a set number of homemade cookies that they then swap with one another for an equal amount of cookies. The tasty result is that everyone goes home with a whole assortment of goodies.

For this exchange, each team member was charged with making three dozen of their favorite cookies — 360 per team. Two dozen of each variety (240 cookies) were set aside at the front door to be donated after the bakers checked in. Then, after the remaining 120 cookies were tallied by an official counter, the team decorated their tables, swapped sweets and set out extra cookies for public display and sampling.

The cookies left at the door were donated to the Monongahela Area Historical Society, which has hosted several "cookie table university" events along with the Facebook group's Guinness World Record-setting event in 2019 for the world's largest cookie table. The cookies will be sold in a fundraiser benefiting the historic Longwell House, which the society bought in 2019 and is restoring as its permanent home.

Keeping true to the group's focus on community, Magone also asked members to consider bringing a $20 bag of food to the event to be distributed to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank or donating $20 to buy Walmart gift cards for food purchases.

"Thank you for your kindness in remembering those who can use a hand right now.... The Wedding Cookie Table Community thinks big and takes care of others," Magone wrote in a note to participants, adding, "Now pick up that rotary phone and tell your friends."

Managing the madness

The day started early, with the mix of amateur and professional bakers arriving at the fairgrounds as early as 8:30 a.m. to haul boxes of cookies from their cars and set up tables. At 9:30 a.m., retired Washington County Court of Common Pleas judge Debbie O'Dell Seneca swore in six official cookie counters while simultaneously reading the oath to off-site counters. (Their forms would later be notarized.)

The group had hoped to set a Guinness record for the event after Magone put out the call gauging interest on Facebook in August. (The idea went viral on Oct. 1.) But getting an official adjudicator on site would have cost around $15,000. Guinness also wanted bakers to exchange recipes instead of counting cookies — something that's anathema to those whose recipes are a family or business secret.

So instead, WCTC is establishing a record for free with Record Setter, a community-driven platform established in 2011 that allows people to set their own unique world records with proper evidence.

Magone came up with the idea because the holiday season is "the Super Bowl of cookies," she said, and she thought it would be fun to get so many devoted bakers together "and let them shine."

She also considered the exchange as a way for group members to make friends. "A lot of folks found their teams online and are meeting for the first time, which makes it fun," she said. And it was an exercise in leadership, too, because each team had to choose a captain to be in charge of communications and organization.

Magone saw the event as an opportunity to call attention to local baking-related businesses USA Pan, Grama Joan's Cookie Forms and C. Palmer Manufacturing, which has been making pizzelle irons since 1946. Sarris Candies was also on hand with a boatload of discounted chocolate blossoms and Dave Jones of Johnstown demonstrated springerle cookies next to a stand displaying molds from Kitchen Vixen in Franklin, Venango County. Polypag3D showed off its 3D-printed cookie cutters.

"One thing I'm so proud of are the American manufacturers here," she said.

Even though Magone is known for having something of a Midas touch when organizing events, she admitted no one knew if this first-ever exchange would be as great a success as the world's largest cookie table, which produced 88,425 homemade cookies from some 400 bakers.

"Facebook controls who sees the message," she said.

As it turned out, so many baking enthusiasts signed up that a few teams had to go remote because they couldn't squeeze any more people into the Kringle Kitchen.

As one building filled up with bakers, cookies, twinkling lights and red-and-green holiday decorations, and another next door filled with baking-related vendors, Magone — aided by coordinator/sergeant at arms Merilee Madera of Washington, Pa. — appeared unfazed.

"When you launch a big event, there's excitement," she said. But thanks to help from volunteers, "we're working our way through it."

Swap and sample

The actual exchange between bakers ended up being about a half hour later than scheduled. A cheer went up when Magone made the announcement via microphone at noon, about the same time the invited public (who paid $5 to enter) started showing up. By 12:45, a line snaked the entire length of the building in light rain.

Peter Dzimiera of Monongahela agreed to be one of six cookie counters both because his mother, Laura, was a big baker and "because I know Laura, and that's dangerous!" His job was to look at each box of 12, count them and make sure the forms were signed so the numbers could be validated.

Cookies, he said, are unique for the happiness they bring.

"There is more joy and laughter in this room," he said as he tallied apricot delights, cherry chocolate kisses and other festive sweets made by Santa's Sweet Swap, a team headed by Rebecca Elder of Uniontown.

"Wow! Beautiful job!" he exclaimed in admiration as he counted the boxes and tins. "God bless you all for being organized."

"Nobody can be angry with cookies," agreed Bob Capp of Youngstown, Ohio, who met Magone years ago in an IT class.

"It's like doing the polka," said his teammate, Gwen Martino of Brookfield, Ohio. "Everyone smiles when they're doing the polka!"

Team names were as jolly as Santa himself — Yinzerbread Bakers, Stinky Bandit Bakers and Baking up a Blizzard joined Merry & Bright Bakers and Santa Babes Club on the floor. Most bakers took Magone's suggestion to dress up for the event to heart with colorful holiday aprons, Santa hats and lots of sparkle.

The playful, Hawaiian-themed Jingle Leidis team featured a Christmas tree made of pineapples decorated with sunglasses and grass skirts.

Viviana Altieri, who founded Istituto Mondo Italiano in 2003 and was captain of the Italian-themed Team Befana Bakers, dressed up as the Befana, a witch-like old woman who delivers gifts to children throughout Italy on Epiphany Eve. Their specialty: a simple shortbread-like cookie from Liguria known as canestrelli.

With a set of baking supplies going to each member of the team named Best Christmas Cookie Table (everyone who attended from the public got three votes), table decorations were also fierce.

Trish DelBusse of Finleyville got her husband, John, to craft a gingerbread house out of old kitchen cabinets to reflect her team's name, Gingerbread Cottage Confections. Her daughter-in-law, Jaylyn Lenhart, decorated the roofline with wood molding that she painted red and white.

They made the extra effort, she said, not just because the family loves gingerbread but also to show their love and enthusiasm for cookies in general.

"They are the answer to everything," whether you're feeding good news or bad, said DelBusse, an avid baker who is a vice president of Polish Falcons of America. "They're fun, provide comfort and are made with love. When you make cookies for someone, they know you care for them."

The Holly Jolly Cookie Company stood out for their display featuring recipes and baking utensils handed down over the generartions.

Matriarch Patricia Redlinger, 84, of Mount Oliver, and her sisters Joan Mussomeli of Scott and Audrey Schroeder of Robinson wanted to honor their grandmother, Bessie Van Horn, who taught them to bake as kids. Their treasures included grandma's nutcracker and hand whisker, metal cookie cutters and a one-handled rolling pin that team captain Pam Beene didn't know should have had two handles until she took home ec class in high school.

"We wanted something that would reflect what the holiday is — family —and what we're passing down," Redlinger said. "We wouldn't know what to do at Christmas without cookies."

Top honors ended up going to The 12 Days of Blingmas team from Weirton, W.Va. They wowed with a beautiful display that featured a feathery Christmas tree decorated with golden pear cookies and other cookies representing the 12 days of Christmas, and "blingy" performances of the famous song by a toy soldier, guitarist John Gruda.

Judges also picked one team with the best table/cookies/outfits at the offsite "North Pole" Kringle Kitchen.

Every member on the top team won a set of bakeware from USA Pan, which has supported the group since its inception. And one lucky raffle winner walked away with a high-end Ankarsrum mixer.

Setting a record

The event drew hundreds of people eager to get ideas for their own holiday baking and taste the wares of bakers who are really good at it. Greg Ondich and fiance Linda Romeo came all the way from Staunton, Va., to take pictures and get ideas for their nuptials on Dec. 20. They also were planning to buy some of the cookbooks put out by the group and on sale in the vendor building to distribute as gifts.

While both grew up in the area — he's from Mount Pleasant and she hails from Perryopolis— they guess many of their wedding guests in Virginia will have no clue about the cookie table tradition.

"We put on our invite that in lieu of gifts, they could donate to one of three charities or if they're familiar, bring three dozen cookies for a cookie table," Romeo said.

They plan on doing a slide show of all the cookies they saw at the event at their reception, and their sisters will also do a cookie table presentation.

Tammy Nolan of Greensburg said she traveled to the exchange with three friends to get into the Christmas spirit, get some ideas "and to eat, naturally," she added with a laugh.

Beth Spilak, who was waiting in line in the rain about an hour after the event opened to the public, also came to "see Christmas," and was hoping to get her hands on a form to make lady locks.

While official accounting might take a few days because so many teams were remote, Magone estimates about 670 bakers made around 80,000 cookies for the event. That shows there is enough enthusiasm for a second (possibly bigger) exchange next year.

"We'll put it out to members," she said.

She added that the bakers should be proud of themselves for a job well done. "What you've done today is amazing!"

And if you missed it? Producers from NBC Nightly News were at the event, and plan on running a segment on the exchange on Dec. 21, or perhaps earllier, according to news associate Storey Wertheimer.

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