How To: Host a Chocolate Chip Cookie Contest

Hosting a chocolate chip cookie party is one of the easiest, most hands-off events I have ever hosted. Easy peasy!! I sent out an evite, printed score cards, and set up a foldable table in the backyard. The guests brought the food and the entertainment!

It is pretty amazing how many different versions of a chocolate chip cookie there can be. We had 9 entries, each of them unique in appearance and taste! Here's a little montage showing some of the entries:

The invites:

I sent out evites online, to make it easier on me and easy to track the RSVPs. On the invite, I directed every family to bring 24 of their best chocolate chip cookie! Everyone will be a judge and cast their vote for the "Best Chocolate Chip Cookie" based on appearance and doubly weighted for taste. Also on the invite, remind people this is a blind contest, so to bring their cookie platter concealed so nobody can see whose is whose upon arrival. Remember, the invite is a foretelling of the vibe for the event, so let the mood of your invite match the mood you are going for at the party!

The Set Up:

I put up a folding table in my backyard, threw a table runner on it, and printed tags 1-10 to label each platter of entries. I also offered disposable plates and plastic cups with a pitcher of milk! The milk was honestly an afterthought, but it made the party feel more intentional and it was fun to have a little drink stand! I also printed scorecards and had a jar of pens out for people to use. Be sure to define a place for judges to turn in their scorecards once they are finished! You may want to play music, so think ahead to get your speaker charged if that's the case!

Click here to see the Score Card

The Tasting:

The best part! It ended up working out well to cut the cookies into halves or even quarters because nobody could eat 10 cookies on their own! Or, a parent would take 1-2 of each cookie onto their family plate and then huddle with their kids and share a bite of each cookie. It's easy to get the cookies mixed up once you're judging so many, so I recommend ranking them all by appearance first, then tasting as you go. GIve everyone plenty of time to complete their scorecards and visit as you go.

The Results: I tallied up all the first place votes to get the first place winner. I went back through the scorecards and tallied every cookie that was voted in the top 3… that's how I calculated who won 2nd and 3rd prize. I ended up gifting a giant bag of candy and a Trader Joe's candle for the prize, but looking back I think it would have been fun to have every family contribute a $5 gift card of their choice to the winner. With 10 families, that's $50 in prizes, and the burden doesn't just fall on one person. You could even spread it out and give the winner $30, and the other places $10 worth of gift cards each. The entire event is just to have fun, so do what works for you!

Please let me know if you host this party! It is such a fun night with friends and I guarantee you'll find some new recipes you like too!