City announces Strawberry Dessert winners

The City of Stilwell hosted a Strawberry Dessert contest on Monday, May 5, 2025 at City Hall, with Nancy Johnson taking top honors.

Mayor Jean Ann Wright said everyone loves Stilwell strawberries, so it’s the perfect opportunity for a dessert contest.

“Since the Fall Fest Dessert Contest was so well received, we wanted to give our talented bakers another opportunity to show their creative cooking skills,” Wright said. “We were so excited to see so many beautiful entries.”

There were 23 entries of strawberry-themed cakes, pies, parfaits, eclairs, cheesecakes, and more. The desserts began arriving at 8:00 a.m., and until 1:00 p.m., when about five people came in at the same time.

The judges had a difficult challenge choosing based on theme, appearance and taste, but eventually winners were chosen. 

Johnson won first in the Adult Category with her strawberry parfait, and also was chosen by the City Council members as Best of Show.

“I was surprised and very excited when Mayor Wright told me I won and was the City Council’s choice,” Johnson said.

The white chocolate strawberry parfait she entered is her husband Cody’s favorite.

“Sometimes I add blueberries and vanilla wafer crust. But since it’s strawberry theme, I did strawberry everything with berries from Navarro Farms. I used the homemade strawberry jam I made last year from Navarro strawberries,” Johnson said.

“I like Stilwell berries because they’re just sweeter than every other berry. And I like to help local farms.”

Winners in Youth Category

Youth category first place: Kingston Boyce with whipped cheesecake; second place James Pyeatt with a chocolate covered strawberry pie, and third place Lorelie Pyeatt with a roasted strawberry pie.

Winning the Youth Division made Kingston happy.

“I thought of it in my mind,” he said. 

It was his mom, Rosita Galardo, who explained that he was carrying on a family tradition.

“His grandpa on his dad’s side had a cheesecake catering business in Dallas, and a restaurant in Austin still sells his world famous strawberry cheesecake,” said Gallarado. “We have all his recipes, pictures and cards.”

 Kingston wants to follow the tradition, she said.

“And he follows me in the kitchen. He’s a pretty good cook,” she said.

A brother and sister won the next two places.

James Pyeatt chose a chocolate covered strawberry pie because he thought it would be nice, and delicious to eat. He received a certificate and gift card for $25.

“I was happy to win, and thought I’d spend it to buy food for my family,” he said.

Lorelei Pyeatt was looking through her mom’s cookbooks and felt attached to the roasted strawberry pie recipe.

“I was pretty shocked I won,” she said.

Winners in the Adult category

First place was Nancy Johnson with a strawberry parfait; second place Megan Fletcher with strawberry lemon bars, and third place Megan Aguado with strawberry vanilla marble cake.

City Council Choice was Nancy Johnson for her Strawberry Parfait.

Second place winner in the Adult Division, Megan Fletcher said she chose the strawberry lemon bars because her friends and co-workers at Freya Cake helped her choose. Her husband Draven came with her to pick up a certificate and gift card.

Third place in the Adult division, Megan Aguado was excited to learn she was a winner.

“My husband gave me the idea of making a cake shaped like a strawberry,” she said.

Other participants were Mariah Kiddy with strawberry s’mores cake, Rosita Gallarado with strawberry delight, Vincent Doublehead with strawberry fry bread dessert bowl; Brianna Brewer with a strawberry twinkie dessert, Teresa Butler strawberry pretzel salad, Kasey Larkin with strawberry upside down cakeplus strawberry no-bake cheesecake, Cheyenne Rinehart with strawberry napoleon, Jesika Wagnon with a strawberry shortcake, Vivian Roberts with Jennifer’s delicious strawberry dessert, Shonda Colvin with strawberry whoppie pie, Jordan Rinehart with a strawberry graham cracker cheesecake, Lindsey English with a strawberry pistachio cheesecake, Teresa Buzzard with strawberry cake pops plus strawberry cinnamon rolls, and Ashley Caudle with strawberry chocolate pistachio Dubai cups.

Kingston Boyce was excited to learn from Mayor Jean Ann Wright that by winning first place in the Youth Division of the Strawberry Dessert contest, he would receive a certificate and a gift card for $50!

photo: Renee Fite