Guess who had the BEST weekend ever… that’d be me!!

This weekend I had the opportunity to attend the FIRST ever International Cake Pop Convention aka Cake Pop Con!!

Cake Pop Con consisted of 200+ bakers/ cake poppers from around the globe, uniting to strengthen our skills, knowledge and cake pop community bond. We took over Philadelphia, PA, and left a trail of candy melts and disco dust along the way.

While I cannot speak for every one in attendance I can assure you that I left Philadelphia a different baking professional.

So where do I start…at the beginning of course. LOL!

I arrived in Philly just a little before check in time, and was greeted with smiles from all of the wonderful staff at the Courtyard Marriot.

I knew right then that it was gonna be a great weekend. That and the fact that the very first people I met, where the wonderful parents of  Kim Celano. They were so super sweet and greeted me with big hugs and jokes! Kim your parents are the BOMB. They even let me call them Mom & Pops all weekend. How awesome is that? LOL!

With the tone set, I was ready to let my hair and guard down and just have a good time.

There were so many wonderful experiences that took place this weekend, but one that will truly remain with me forever is meeting Bakerella!! You heard me right, Ms Angie Dudley aka BAKERELLA,was at Cake Pop Con and I MET HER!!

Look I have proof…

This moment for me was EVERYTHING!!!  I picked up this woman’s book back in 2012 and I haven’t looked back since.

At the time I was laid of and looking for any sort of direction.  While working my sons book fair I her book and once I picked it up, I never put it down.  Thank you Bakerella…you truly helped change the direction of my life.

Ok Ok Ok before I run through a box of Kleenex, let’s get back to the happy…

From the minute the festivities got under way, there was fun fun and more fun.  The Friday night mixer complete with Ice Breakers, yummy guacamole and the ABSOLUTELY AWESOME surprise Bakerella Swag Bag Give Away was the perfect way to get the CPC party started.

I knew prior to going to CPC that there would be a quite a few “Cake Popperlebrities” (yeah I just made that up), but i had no idea that they would be swarm, friendly and selfie ready. LOL!  I mean I did not expect that moment that came next at all.  I got to meet The Piping Queen herself…Yuki of Creative Edibles by Yuki.  Although my pose may say otherwise, I was really screeching with excitement on the inside in this shot.

Once the mixer was over and I was able to pull my star struck nerves together I met up with a group of lovely ladies and headed out for a night filled with laughs, tears from laughs and well If i tell you i’ll have to put you in a hole in the group (B613 style).

Let me tell you I think that these ladies had no idea the fun that came with meeting me. S/O to my sweeties Shena, Carin, Gabby, Tanara & Jossie the official “Hips & Dips Crew”.  We turned that IHOP out…

I love those girls, can’t ya tell!

Anywho…Saturday was AWESOME I mean truly awesome!  We were greeted with yet another swag bag FILLED with copious amounts of fabulousness.  I mean we got everything one would need to dust off there Easy Bake Oven and get to Poppin’ right on the spot (minus a microwave) LOL.  I haven’t even had a chance to take a pic of all of the wonderfulness.  Heck I barely wanted to take off my name badge.

Saturday I got to meet more outstanding folks.  There was….

The biggest highlight for me was meeting this woman pictured below… THE “O” Pops By Angie!!! IDK what it was but I instantly felt like she was my Tia in my head.  Like her spirit just resonates and you just want to throw disco dust at her feet. LOL!!  On a serious note though…thanks for the amazing tips and trick that you taught in your class, and thank you for the kind word and encouragement.  I’ll go out on a limb here and say that maybe it’s the fact that you keep it realer than most that instantly clicked with my spirit.  My next time in Miami I need a full on tour of the Sweet Life store, and a trip to the best coffee spot around I can just taste the cuban coffee with toasted cuban bread to match.  LOL!

I mean so much happened in the span of 3 days that I could  go on and on, but seeing as though this is my first post and I don’t want to bore the 5 of you who may actually read this…I’ll stop now.

I will say this though, my name is Kiyonna Thomas and I am so proud to be a Cake Popper! Who would have thought that something as small as a cake pop could have such a following. and bring together so many men (yes there are men poppers too) and women.

I mean there was a popper who came from Bahrain for crying out loud!! Oh and she is so so sweet check out her work on Facebook at Popilicious.

Ok seriously I’ll stop here… thank you again to Kim and the crew for putting together this amazing event. Cake Pop Con 2014 was everything I expected and more.  I cannot wait until 2015.

Check out more pics on my Instagram @girlaboutcake_ and my FB Page Girl About Cake.

Thanks for reading stay tuned, and feel free to leave me some feedback.

Ki 🙂