Tania Peterson is happy to share the secret to achieving a perfect, glossy top on a brownie. The Columbus resident enjoys gathering with fellow bakers, swapping recipes, and offering tips for creating the ultimate chocolate chip cookie or a flavor-packed dessert. But for Peterson, baking is more than crafting crowd-pleasing treats. It's about building friendships, sharing traditions, and finding community with people she otherwise might have never met.
“I look at this as a way for me to make new friends,” said Peterson.
PICTURED: Tania Peterson and fellow planning team member Logan Oates welcome bakers and community members to the Columbus Cookbook Challenge. Photo courtesy of Joel Lewis Photo.
In fact, a shared interest in baking is exactly how Peterson met Liz Martin. As members of the same cookbook club, Peterson and Martin discovered they both had entered the Ohio State Fair Cooking & Baking Competition. They found themselves discussing how much they enjoyed the experience while wishing it offered more opportunities to connect with fellow bakers.
“You go to the fairgrounds, you drop off your cookies to a random person, then you leave and come back a few weeks later to find out if you got a ribbon,” Peterson described the experience. “It had no community component. I was like, ‘Who are these other people that baked the cookies?’”
Craving more connection, Peterson and Martin launched the Columbus Cookie Classic in 2025, followed by the Columbus Baking Classic in 2026. These friendly competitions offer more than bragging rights and blue-ribbon baked goods. They create a welcoming space where bakers of all skill levels can connect, learn from one another, and feel part of a larger community.
Photos courtesy of Joel Lewis Photo.
Following the success of these events, Peterson and Martin began exploring new ways to bring even more bakers to the table. After attending a Social Club Workshop hosted by The Columbus Foundation’s Center for HumanKindness® earlier this year, Peterson had an idea: recruit 100 amateur bakers to make all 100 recipes featured in Cookies: The Best Recipes for the Perfect Anytime Treat, a cookbook by Vaughn Vreeland and New York Times Cooking.
Photos courtesy of Joel Lewis Photo.
Together with Martin and other members of the planning committee—Bethia Woolf, Logan Oates, Juli Carvi, and Kate Oliphint, Director of the Center for HumanKindness—the Columbus Cookbook Challenge was born. Unlike other events Peterson and Martin have organized, the Columbus Cookbook Challenge featured no competition, just an open invitation for volunteer bakers to take part in the challenge and connect around something they have in common.
PICTURED: Planning team member Juli Carvi. Photo courtesy of Joel Lewis Photo.
On October 4, volunteer bakers gathered at the Economic & Community Development Institute (ECDI) in Columbus to showcase their creations. Stretching across rows of tables, recipes from the cookbook were on display for participants to browse, discuss, and sample.
Community members could also purchase tasting tickets, with 100 percent of the proceeds benefiting the Gifts of Kindness Fund at The Columbus Foundation. Since 2014, the Gifts of Kindness Fund has partnered with central Ohio nonprofits to provide emergency grants to support individuals and families facing unexpected hardships, such as a medical crisis or job loss. The event raised more than $1,000 for the fund.
“When we discussed what we wanted from the Columbus Cookbook Challenge, we really wanted to find a way to use the event to give back to the community,” explained Peterson. “The Gifts of Kindness program is such a direct way to help our neighbors. We loved the idea that we could collectively help cover someone’s rent or utilities during a difficult period in their lives.”
Looking ahead, Peterson says she is excited to continue developing new ways to bring the local baking community together—whether through meetups, cookie swaps, volunteer events, or other activities.
“We want to engage more people,” said Peterson. “You don’t have to be a professional baker to get involved. You just have to love baking and meeting other home bakers.”
