Dozens of local dessert vendors are squaring off at the Central Florida Fairgrounds this Saturday from 3 to 6 p.m., competing not just for bragging rights but, for the first time at the Orlando stop, actual cash. First place walks away with $5,000, second place takes $2,500, and third place gets $1,000 — a new wrinkle for a festival that organizers bill as the largest dessert festival in America.
According to WFTV, the Orlando event brings together local dessert vendors competing for those cash prizes and bragging rights at the Central Florida Fairgrounds. The venue itself is a familiar host for large Orlando gatherings: the fairgrounds along West Colonial Drive span an 87-acre exposition park with indoor Expo Buildings that regularly handle regional community, trade, and cultural events, according to the City of Orlando.
How the Voting Works
At the Pittsburgh event, each ticket holder received one voting chip, and the three top public vote-getters advanced alongside the judges' choices. Four judges selected winners in a separate judges' category, alongside the People's Choice category, per the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Ticketing has historically followed a staggered structure too, with VIP entry starting earlier and carrying a larger sample allotment than General Admission, and no door sales offered.
Leading the judging table in Orlando is Kristina Lavallee, the chef and cake artist behind The Cake Girl, who serves as lead judge of Dessert Wars. Per WFTV, her work has been featured on Today, Food Network, and in People, media credits that organizers themselves have cited. Lavallee is also a graduate of UCF's Rosen College of Hospitality Management, giving the judging panel a direct tie to Central Florida.
A Tampa Baker's National Résumé
Lavallee's credentials extend well beyond those media mentions. She won Food Network's Bake It Til You Make It during its Dessert Wars Cake Showdown episode and was selected in 2021 by the NFL Business Connect program to supply custom desserts for Super Bowl LV events in Tampa, according to her Wikipedia entry. She grew up in Puerto Rico and earned dual bachelor's degrees in Hospitality Management and Restaurant and Foodservice Management from UCF's Rosen College in 2013, before launching her bakery as a mobile food truck and pop-up vendor — a path detailed in Hoodline's earlier coverage of the St. Pete Coliseum party move. The Cake Girl didn't open its first physical storefront until 2019.
Cottage Bakers Get a Seat at the Table
Part of what makes Dessert Wars accessible to small operators is Florida's cottage food law. Under Florida Statute 500.80, small-scale home bakers can produce non-perishable baked goods for events like this one without state food permits or commercial kitchen inspections, as long as they stay under $250,000 in gross annual revenue, according to the Florida House of Representatives. At Tampa's 2023 event at the Florida State Fairgrounds, local vendor Meli Greek Street Donuts swept both the People's Choice and Judges' Championship categories, per Q105.
Dessert Wars was founded by Miami resident and former sports industry professional Brad Matthews, who built the concept to showcase independent regional bakeries across eight major U.S. metropolitan markets, the Post-Gazette reports. Strong finishes in Orlando can carry weight well beyond Saturday afternoon. Top-placing vendors from regional stops have previously qualified for the Dessert Wars National Championship, an annual competition featuring 48 regional dessert vendors competing for $10,000 top cash prizes in both People's Choice and Judges' Choice categories, according to a release distributed via PR Newswire.
Past winners have shown just how far that momentum can carry a small business. Yonutz leveraged regional titles in Miami and Las Vegas into national brand recognition and franchise expansion across multiple states, including a recent push into Louisville's Highlands neighborhood. Whether any Central Florida vendors follow that same path out of Saturday's fairgrounds competition remains to be seen once the judges — and the crowd — pick their favorites.
