Dessert Wars

Life is uncertain, Eat Dessert First! My motto & words to live by. So imagine my joy when I heard about this event! For $ 15 we were able to enjoy delicious sweets followed by the UM vs Clemson basketball game.
We arrived promptly at 4PM because we are fatties and did not want to miss out on any deliciousness. But, this definitely was not an issue with this event. All the vendors were well prepared and none ran out of samples. Sadly however, we ran out of room in our tummies early on.
We were each given a long strip of tickets and we had a crap load of tickets left over. I was so disappointed in myself! I should have fasted beforehand.
My favorites were as follows:
~ Donut Divas and the delicious Red Velvet Fried Oreos with a dallop of cream cheese frosting topped with chopped Oreos.
~ Patty Cakes served up a layered bar thingy made up of chocolate chip cookie, Oreo cookie and brownie. Deeeeelish! Would be even better served up warm with vanilla bean ice cream!
~ Sugar Buzz Buffet was just too cute. Everything looked ah-​mazing and made me want to have a party just to have a dessert buffet! My stand out here was the Key Lime Pie mousse thingy.
~ Liquid N2 Ice Cream was serving up Cinammon Toast Crunch ice cream. Seriously yum!
~ Miami Beach Chocolates. Okay, I generally don’t care for dark chocolate but their chocolate was absolutely delicious.
Mind you, my husband & I shared our samples and we were still only able to sample from maybe 10 out of the 30 vendors.
This was a great event in terms of price and availability of products. It wasn’t overly crowded either. Hopefully we will have Dessert Wars again next year. I will be better prepared to conquer all the deliciousness.
The only reason for the 4 vs 5 stars is the lack of drinks available. I don’t drink milk and the only water available was warm. I could have made a killing selling cold water from a cooler. Hmmmm, maybe next year! ;)

Dessert Wars provided the best of both worlds. For $ 15, you got enough sweets to devour until you simply had to tap out AND a ticket to an exciting Hurricane basketball game. This was an inaugural event and I hope it becomes a yearly production!
With tipoff at 6:30pm, Dessert Wars started at 4pm in the Bank United Center Fieldhouse, adjacent to the basketball court. No need to worry about VIP ticket levels here, everyone paid a flat fee and got a long stream of raffle tickets that could be exchanged at any of the thirty vendors. Upon entry, we were also given a sheet of paper to rank each company from 1 – 3, with one ultimately named the best.
Even with sharing almost every bite, my boyfriend and I still got stuffed without making it all the way around… Some standouts include the red velvet fried oreos from Donut Divas, Nutella chocolate chip cookies from Casa Gioia (the winner), key lime pie from Sugar Buzz Buffet, and Smores brownie from Patty Cakes. But really, we didn’t have a bad bite. After about an hour of sampling, we had to reluctantly throw in the towel and turned in our ballot boxes to save ourselves from getting sick.
Winn Dixie was there with some milk but I think everyone wanted more water. The poor guys from Liquid N2 Ice Cream (the only food truck in attendance) were getting flooded with people buying some, even at room temperature. There was also a pie eating contest which I think should’ve been advertised before. They kept calling for contestants but I assume everyone was already full like we were! Knowing about it beforehand might convince some people to save some room.
We headed to the game afterwards on a sugar high that definitely led to a crash mid-​game. Thankfully, the Canes kept it exciting and pulled out a victory in the end! All in all, definitely enjoyed this Sunday afternoon treat. It’s always nice when you feel like you get the bang for you buck and I discovered so many new vendors and places here that had never even crossed my radar!

Unless you’re a personal friend of Willy Wonka, Dessert Wars was as close as you were ever going to get to raiding the Chocolate Factory. Over 30 bakers and confectioners defended themselves from ravenous fans during an epic dessert-​sampling event at the BankUnited Center. As an added sweet treat, every $ 15 admission came bundled with a golden ticket to the UM vs. Clemson basketball game after the event.
The military plans to field women in combat by 2016, but PattyCakes was already stationed on the front lines annihilating cravings with their arsenal of themed cakes and cookies. When the Donut Divas cried havoc and let slip their dogs of war, they were referring to Fudge Puppies: Belgian waffles dipped in milk chocolate. They also deep-​fried limited-​edition red velvet oreos which paired well with the complementary offerings from Winn-Dixie’s Milk Bar. Many hydrated or cleansed palates while watching competitors in the Pie Eating Competition for prizes. At last the winners were announced by the panel of judges that included the Burger Beast and Casa Gioia, who made an unbeatable Guava Crisp, took top-​honors.