Celebrate Fall With Art On A Cookie!

The atmosphere outside of Windy City Sweets will be very festive this weekend as the candy store opens its doors to the attendees of the Lakeview East Festival of the Arts.

Although they will not have a booth set up in front of the store, they are fully participating in the activities.
“It will be an immersive experience of creating art at an art festival,” John Manchester, co-owner said.
Manchester owns the shop with his wife Jill.
The art, in this particular case, is Face On A Cookie, a sweet treat that Windy City Sweets launched about a year ago.
Each of the Face On A Cookie cookies can be personalized with a photograph, a logo, pretty much any visual the customer desires. And this weekend, Windy City Sweets will waive their customization fee, making the cookies a flat $6 each.
Windy City Sweets never celebrates with just one thing, so the festival will also feature all of the store’s fall flavors – ice cream, fudge and caramel apples.
With the fudge, which is made in-house, customers can choose between pumpkin pie fudge and pumpkin pecan fudge. Both are made with real pumpkin.
“It tastes just like pumpkin pie, we add the clove and the nutmeg and the cinnamon in with the real pumpkin,” Manchester said. “I’ve already made a batch of 30 pounds and between now and Christmas, we will probably make, go through about 100 pounds of it, between the pumpkin and the pumpkin pecan."
Fall ice cream flavors include pumpkin pie and apple pie ice cream.
“The other fall favorite is caramel apples, plain, peanut, dipped in different chocolate, milk chocolate or dark chocolate,” Manchester said.
The apple pie caramel apple is a granny smith apple dipped in caramel and white chocolate and cinnamon, then the creator sprinkles cinnamon, cane sugar and brown sugar on the outside of it.
The caramel apples are not just delicious, they are also part of a fundraiser for the company.
Windy City Sweets is donating $1 per apple to the Greater Chicago Food Depository to support their 86 Hunger Campaign.
Caramel apples cost approximately between $8 and $13, depending on ingredients and the size of the apples.
Lastly, the store will have much of its Halloween line on hand, although not all of it. But those wanting to celebrate spooky season a little bit early will be able to purchase those items.
“We will have our halloween gummies and candies that are in,” Manchester said. “We have sour jelly pumpkins, we also have 3D gummy eyeballs… sour, fall-colored gummy worms, cats, pumpkins, witches hat and witches brooms.”
“This year, we’re also, in addition to the pumpkin, there's a brand new fudge we are coming out with — sour caramel apple fudge.”
Manchester said since the store sells so many caramel apples, it’s a natural extension of their products.
“For the springtime, we have had sour watermelon and sour cherry,” he said. This is the fall version of that.
Manchester said the fudge pairs the tartness of a green apple and combines it with a layer of caramel that runs through the fudge.
Windy City Sweets is located at 3308 N. Broadway in Chicago.
The Lakeview East Festival of the Arts takes place from 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Sept. 13, with additional hours for live music, food and drink tents until 10 p.m. and from 11 a.m.-7 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 14. Lakeview East Festival of the Arts asks for a $5 donation upon entrance, this fee goes to supporting additional Lakeview East events and offerings.. Visit LakeviewEastFestivalOfTheArts.com for more information on artists, bands and offerings.
Ordering Face On A Cookie isn't limited to this weekend. You can order anytime at faceonacookie.com.