Boga Bake-Off 2020 Recap: Blow Torches, 5-peat, Barry Wood

Boga Bake-Off 2020 is done!  By now you've probably seen the winners, but we wanted to highlight a few funny moments, special guests and all the cookies submitted.  

Boga Bake-Off started late morning at Jamie's house.  Robin came and realized Mia is now old enough to actually chill with.  We zoomed in Adam & Maryanna in Pacifica, and Ellen, Barry, Nancy & Doug in Santa Fe.  

You may remember Cousin Adam from "CookieHenge" fame, the winner of the 2012 Boga Bake-Off.  He blazed new trails with the first 3D cookie, and showed up with a blow torch this year.  We appreciated the performance art as he set his cookie on fire, symbolizing the sh*tshow dumpster fire that was this year!

Jamie got a later start and struggled to finish her first cookie, which actually was not submitted.  Sometimes the weight of 4 straight wins, with aspirations of a 5th is too much for one to bear.  But turned out it wasn't so; Jamie persevered and went on to win the top two spots with RBG love and Stocking Stuffer.  While most people are familiar with the Barry Wood meme, turned out NONE of the Bogas were, which made Jamie a little nervous to post it publicly.   But people paid it plenty of love to secure it the #2 spot.

Nancy showed up with aplomb.  We had high hopes for her Trump's Gambit cookie, but perhaps it was too niche to garner the majority of votes.  Robin had confidence in her submissions...but better luck next year BOBS!

Here are the full submissions and scores :)

1.  RBG love (Jamie) - 142 votes

2.  Stocking Stuffer (Jamie): 126 votes

3.  Flygate (Robin) - 76 votes

4.  The Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020 (Robin) - 57 votes

5.  Trump's Gambit (Nancy) - 51 votes

6.  Happily Ever Baskin #tigerqueen (Robin) - 49 votes

7.  The 6ft Social Distance Cookie (Jamie) - 32 votes 

8.  #FollowTheFauci (Nancy) - 28 votes

9.  Van Gogh was here (Ellen) - 15 votes

9.  2020's going up in flames, so this cookie will too (Adam) - 13 votes

10.  Vote out the turd on Nov 3rd (Maryanna) - 13 votes

11.  Bogas on a Zoom (Nancy) - 12 votes

12.  Just Do It! (Doug) - 10 votes

13.  Out with the old, in with the new (Ellen) - 7 votes

12.  Surrounded by Barrs (Ellen) - 7 votes

13.  A Covid Christmas (Mia) - 4 votes

14.  K-Recovery (Doug) - 3 votes

Additional Entries:

2020 up in Flames (cookie before flames) - Adam

There’s no place like cookie! (Adam)

It was all a conspiracy from BIG BIDET (Maryanna)

One spike mutation to rule them all (Maryanna)

Final Jeopardy (Jamie)

Masked Gingerbread Man (Mia)

Thanks again for voting, until next year!!

Vote in the 2020 Boga Bake-Off!

Welcome to the Boga Bake-Off!  Each person should vote for their TOP THREE COOKIES in a single vote.  Click on three images, scroll to the bottom, and hit SUBMIT to enter your vote.  Your vote doesn't count unless you hit SUBMIT.

SCROLLING & SUBMIT (some users are having issues):  The Scrolling is a little wonky, you need to hover over the images to scroll through cookie images, and click your top three.  Keep scrolling to see the Submit button.  Sometimes it helps to scroll along the blue side of the page (outside the poll widget) to view more of the cookies, and to get to the SUBMIT button.

While most of you have participated in previous polls, here is a quick history for any newbies:

The Chiribogas used to decorate Christmas cookies like any other family, but as they continued to bake, their creative juices flowed.  Santa turned sexy, snowflakes become infinitely more elaborate, and cookie shapes were seen as mere suggestions instead of strict guides for designs.  Toothpicks became the go-to tool for applying individual sprinkles and a new type of cookie decorating emerged...the Boga Bake-off was born - over 20 years ago!

This year...WE ZOOMED (so predictable) 

After testing negative for Covid, Jamie & Mia hosted Robin for a live Bake-Off, while we zoomed with Nancy, Doug, Ellen & Barry in Santa Fe, and cousin Adam and his girlfriend Maryanna (ooooo) in Northern Cali.  Not the set-up we hoped for, but it was still a fun time full of good-hearted trash talking, and laughing at each other's ideas.

You will find many of the expected 2020 tropes (how could we not), but hopefully with some fresh and funny interpretations that you've come to expect from the Bogas.  

Now it's YOUR turn to vote!  Gather round with your loved ones; polls are open until Saturday, 12/26 at Noon EST.  SHARE with your friends and family, and thanks for voting :)  

Thanks for voting, stay tuned for results!

2019 Boga Bake-Off Winners, a Historic Year

Every year, we each set out to decorate the best damn cookies we can, with a sense of humor of course.  And after many hours of voting, one of us comes out victorious.  With at least one other Boga achieving second or third place and some sense of accomplishment.  But not this year.  This year, Jamie not only won for the fourth year in a row.  She didn't only win first and second place.  She took the whole damn thing and swept the top three places with Notre Dame, Peloton, and Popeyes.  How are Nancy and Robin you ask?  Nancy is "mildly perplexed" and disappointed, but enjoys the game regardless.  And Robin doesn't "like it, not one bit".

Other highlights:  Mia's "Psychedelic Piña" boasted 20 votes for 9th place, beating out all the adult men in the competition who scored the last three places ;)  Nancy's "Rudy Colludy" was thought to be a favorite given it's design and clever name, but in the end only scored 23 votes.  In total, we got 380 votes spanning from Hawaii to Sri Lanka.  Thanks to everyone for voting; the Boga Bake-Off brings us joy each and every year. 

Here are the full list of cookies by number of votes with their resident artist.

1.  Notre Daaaaame that Cookie is on Fire! - Jamie, 80 votes

2.  Peloton will Save You - Jamie, 53 votes

3.  Love that Chicken at Popeyes - Jamie, 40 votes

4.  Grande of Thrones - Robin, 31 votes

5.  Yoda Baby This Is - Robin, 28 votes

6.  Bogas in a Bake Off - Nancy, 25 votes

7.  Where's Greta? - Nancy, 24 votes

8.  Rudy Colludy - Nancy, 23 votes

9.  Psychedelic Piña - Mia, 20 votes!

10.  Be Best -Melania - Doug, 17 votes

11.  I Swear I Crew USC #collegescandal - Robin, 15 votes

12.  Fight Finished - Patrick, 14 votes

13.  Heart of Santa Fe - Adam, 6 votes

14.  Pollock MMXX - Tim, 4 votes

Happy holidays and see you next year!!

Vote for your TOP THREE cookies! 2019 Edition

Welcome to the 2019 Boga Bake-Off!

While most of you have participated in previous polls, here is a quick history for any newbies:

The Chiribogas used to decorate Christmas cookies like any other family, but as they continued to bake, their creative juices flowed.  Santa turned sexy, snowflakes become infinitely more elaborate, and cookie shapes were seen as mere suggestions instead of strict guides for designs.  Toothpicks became the go-to tool for applying individual sprinkles and a new type of cookie decorating emerged...the Boga Bake-off was born - over 20 years ago!

This year...

Jamie and family hosted the Browns (Robin, Patrick, Ethan, Henry) and the Bogas (Nancy & Doug) for an epic yet low key 5 hour decorating session.  We really feel we've hit our stride with perfecting the frosting recipe (not too runny, holds it's shape, dries shiny and bright).  Mia even sat for 3 hours, successfully alternating between applying her sprinkles and eating frosting.  

This year, top news stories and television were our main inspiration.  But it wouldn't be a Bake-Off without a Jackson Pollock and a "Bogas" cookie.  Nancy even threatened to retire the Bogas theme this year, but with a little coaxing she came up with quite the contender.  

Later in the evening, the Bogas welcomed some friends for an intimate cookie review and voting session.  With the holiday music, pear rosemary vodka, Trader Joe's apps, and Anthro Christmas candles, an especially good time was had by all....

Now it's YOUR turn to vote!  Gather round with your loved ones; polls are open until Thursday, 12/26 at Noon EST.  SHARE with your friends and family, and thanks for voting :)  

Each person should vote for their TOP THREE COOKIES (check three boxes) in a single vote

Vote ONCE for your TOP THREE cookies!

Bogas in a Bake Off

Heart of Santa Fe

Fight Finished

Yoda Baby This Is

Grande of Thrones

Where's Greta?

Be Best -Melania

Notre Daaaaame that Cookie is on Fire!

Peloton will Save You

Pollock MMXX

Love that Chicken at Popeyes

Rudy Colludy

I Swear I Crew USC #collegescandal

Psychedelic Piña by Mia

Vote ONCE for your TOP THREE cookies!

Make your own survey

2018 Winners: The Year of the Jamie Three-Peat

The results are in...and Jamie has officially achieved a Boga Bake-Off triple crown with Thai Cave Rescue!  We closely followed the results for the full 48 hours, and Thai Cave Rescue kept a slight lead against the eventual 2nd place winner, Nancy's Trump House Arrest:  A Christmas Miracle.  Interestingly, the gap was exactly 12 votes almost the entire time, until the final hours when Thai Cave Rescue pulled away by a few more votes.

3rd place is awarded to Robin's picture perfect Coco cookie.  It battled with the similarly beautiful and detailed Boga Express by Jamie, but the people seemed to prefer the intricacy and originality of Coco.

In dead last was Jamie's This Cookie is Fire.  Jamie is still perplexed on why people didn't seem to like this on-trend cookie, and how the completely random We're all Human could have possibly gotten more votes.  But alas, that is how the cookie crumbled.

For some stats...We saw votes from near and far.  The majority of votes were concentrated on the Eastern Seaboard (DC, NYC, Boston), with other hot spots in Atlanta, LA, San Fran, Seattle, and the UK!  The most votes came in on Christmas Eve when we posted, with another little spike on Christmas Day night, likely when people were sick of their families and searching for an alternative activity.

Full results:

1.  Thai Cave Rescue by Jamie (118 votes)

2.  House Arrest: A Christmas Miracle by Nancy (100 votes)

3.  Coco by Robin (72 votes)

4.  Boga Express by Jamie (51 votes)

5.  Bogas on Mars by Nancy (31 votes)

6.  Team Meghan by Robin (29 votes)

7.  ALL CAPS by Robin (28 votes)

8.  We're all Human by Nancy (26 votes)

9.  This Cookie is Fire (8 votes)

Vote for your TOP THREE cookies! 2018 Edition

Welcome to the 2018 Boga Bake-Off!

While most of you have participated in some previous polls, here is a quick history for any newbies:

The Chiribogas used to decorate Christmas cookies like any other family, but as they continued to bake, their creative juices flowed.  Santa turned sexy, snowflakes become infinitely more elaborate, and cookie shapes were seen as mere suggestions instead of strict guides for designs.  Toothpicks became the go-to tool for applying individual sprinkles and a new type of cookie decorating emerged...the Boga Bake-off was born - over 20 years ago!

This year, we gathered at Jamie's house and watched the next generation of cookie decorators show us what they got.  Ethan and Coco focused on dumping as many sprinkles as they could onto their cookies, while Mia actually got the hang of using a toothpick as a paintbrush.  She tried her hand at a panda, penguin, and Pina...and they weren't half bad!  

Then the big kids stepped up.  Jamie, Robin and Nancy each have submitted three cookies below...ranging from traditional Christmas designs to Trump imprisonment, and everything in between.  So gather round with your friends and family, and get ready to VOTE!  

Voting ends Wednesday, 12/26 at 10am EST.  SHARE with your friends and family, and thanks for voting :)  

Each person should vote for their TOP THREE COOKIES (check three boxes) in a single vote

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