Hoping for sweet success: Wedding Cookie Table Community eyes new world record
Laura Magone has a sweet idea.
Magone, founder of The Wedding Cookie Table Community on Facebook – a group that has grown to include more than 381,000 bakers worldwide in the decade since she launched it – aims to set the world record for The World’s Largest Christmas Cookie Exchange.
It’s a lofty goal, but the Christmas cookie exchange isn’t the WCTC’s first attempt at a record-breaking venture.
In 2019, the group established the Guinness World Record for largest wedding cookie table. Held in Magone’s hometown of Monongahela, the event included 400 bakers – professional and amateur – who made 88,425 cookies to capture the title.
Magone also started Cookie Table University, which hosts events that feature cookie-baking demonstrations, vendors, and giant cookie tables. The events draw Facebook members from across the United States.
The group’s efforts to celebrate the Southwestern Pennsylvania tradition of wedding cookie tables, and their success at doing just that has gained recognition. The Wedding Cookie Table Community has been featured on local and national news media, including a segment on NBC’s “Today” show.
So, when Magone read an article about a Christmas cookie exchange in Cleveland, Ohio, that drew 300 bakers who produced 21,600 cookies, she started thinking about holding one in Washington County.
“I thought, ‘Well, that’s really nice, but my Wedding Cookie Table Community could do so much more than that,'” said Magone. “In the back of my mind, I thought, ‘I’m going to work on that in 2025.'”
Magone, a business consultant who also works as a documentary filmmaker and historian, believes the event will be a sweet success.
So, on Nov. 30, from 1 to 4 p.m., teams of 10 members (or fewer) will gather at Kringle’s Kitchen in the Washington County Fairgrounds in an attempt to set a world record.
Even better, said Magone, is that teams from across the country and around the world can participate remotely by setting up cookie exchanges in their areas. On a Facebook page Magone started for The World’s Largest Cookie Exchange, information on setting up the cookie exchange and gathering and submitting evidence is provided.
The response has been spectacular. So far, more than 1,700 bakers have joined the site, and teams have formed from locations including Chicago, Tucson, Ariz., Los Angeles, and Seattle.
In Toledo, Ohio, Team Sugar Plum Sweets – “rolling pins held high!” they said – is ready to bake. So is Team Buckeye Baking Crew from Findlay, Ohio, and Team Baking Spirits Bright from Pittsburgh.
“I’m just thrilled with the number of teams we have and the states that are represented,” said Magone, who noted that teams from Canada and New Zealand have signed up, too. “People from all over the country are excited to be a part of it.”
The cookie exchange is sponsored by the Washington County Chamber of Commerce & Tourism Promotion Agency.
“In Washington County, we’re always looking for new and unique events that celebrate our history and our heritage, and Laura and WCTC have met both those goals with the cookie tables and Cookie Table University,” said Jeff Kotula, president of the Washington County Chamber of Commerce & Tourism Promotion Agency.
“I think everybody can remember – and still look forward to – going to weddings and having these beautiful cookie tables; it’s a part of our heritage. And the same thing with Christmas cookies. Laura and the cookie table community have been doing a great job of keeping the heritage alive and introducing it to a new generation.”
Here’s how a cookie exchange works: Each person brings a designated number of one kind of cookie to swap with other bakers who also bring along one kind of cookie. So, everyone arrives with one type of cookie and leaves with a variety of sweet treats.
For the WCTC record-setting attempt, teams must register with the Facebook group, which can be found by plugging in “World’s Largest Cookie Exchange.”
Teams within 75 miles of the fairgrounds will convene there (out-of-towners will determine their own meeting place), set up and decorate their tables, and exchange cookies with the members of their team.
Team members are asked to bring 10 dozen cookies for the exchange, and an additional two dozen cookies that will be added to a “community table” for munching and sampling.
“We have some groups planning outfits to match their tables: One group is dressing up as elves. People are getting very creative,” said Magone.
Teams also are asked to submit two to four recipes “and a photo of a batch of cookies that are artistically arranged as if they are ready for Santa” that will be considered for inclusion in “The World’s Largest Cookie Exchange Cookbook.”
Judges will pick one team with the best decorated table, cookies and outfits at the fairgrounds location and each team member will receive a set of bakeware from USA Pan.
Judges also will choose one remote winning team that will be given a bakeware set for each member.
The event will be open to the public, with a $5 admission fee.
Magone, the daughter of a steelworker and a homemaker and the granddaughter of Italian immigrants, is proud of her roots and her family’s culinary traditions.
Growing up, cookies were a staple of family gatherings, and during the holidays, the kitchen was filled with the aroma of her mother’s pizzelles and biscotti.
“I grew up in the mid-Mon Valley steeped in the cookie table tradition. I had a mom and all of her friends and all of my aunts who baked for weddings,” said Magone. “Anybody from the area knows this is just what we do. It was inevitable that I’d become a cookie maker. My interest in cookies is not only in the baking, it’s in the cultural part of it.”
Side note: recently, Magone called into the Bubba Show on 100.7 FM where she weighed in with host Mark “Bubba” Snider on when wedding guests can start eating cookies at the reception (immediately, she said).
The Pittsburgh cookie table, a staple of weddings in Southwestern Pennsylvania, captures the spirit of community, says Magone. Baking is a labor of love.
“It epitomizes who we are. It’s about more than cookies. It’s about relationships and friendships and people nurturing each other,” said Magone. “It reminds us of our roots. We think about our parents and our grandparents and our aunts, and it’s a way of keeping them with us.”
That spirit of community has led WCTC to participate in outreach during times of tragedy and struggle. Group members have baked cookies for Pittsburgh Police Zone 4 and first responders following the Tree of Life shooting in 2018, organized cookie tables for those impacted by the school shooting in Uvalde in 2022 (the group also donated stuffed animals and grief books), put together a cookie table for the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 United Airlines Flight 93 crash in Shanksville, Somerset County, and bakes cookies for nonprofit organizations and events.
“The bakers in my community have the biggest hearts,” said Magone.
Magone said she never imagined the WCTC would have grown into an impactful site, where bakers not only exchange recipes and advice, but a community of women and men who make a difference in their communities.
“Out of everything I’ve done in my life, the Wedding Cookie Table Community is what I will be remembered for,” said Magone, with a chuckle. “And I am happy for that.”