Girl Scout cookies will show their grown-up side with a new fundraiser that is the Caveland Service Center’s first major event.

Desserts First, which will be from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. March 27 at Hilton Garden Inn, will feature local chefs making original desserts and hors d’oeuvres using Girl Scout cookies as the key ingredient and presenting them for tasting.

The chefs will compete for three awards – Best Dessert and Best Hors D’oeuvres, which will be chosen by judges, and the People’s Choice award for best dessert, which will be voted on by guests. Competitors will be from Tin and Tra Catering, The Cellar Restaurant and Wine Bar, Brickyard Cafe, Imagine Cakes and Candies, Vincent’s, Mariah’s Restaurant, Chaney’s Dairy Barn, Hilton Garden Inn, Cosmos, Let’s Party Catering and four students from Western Kentucky University’s Department of Consumer and Family Sciences. Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana Chief Executive Officer Terry Blackwell will also prepare a dessert.

“We’ll have 13 desserts and seven hors d’oeuvres,” Deborah Faircloth, regional director for Caveland Service Center of Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana, said.

Tickets, which are $35, are limited and may be purchased by calling the Girl Scout office at 842-8138. Proceeds will benefit Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana.

“The Caveland Service Center runs from Cumberland County to Trigg County and from Hart County to the Tennessee border and serves 3,200 girls and 700 adults in 15 counties. It costs $235 to support one Girl Scout for one year,” Faircloth said. “About 60 percent of the budget for Girl Scouts is covered by the cookie sale. We have to have other types of fundraising and grants.”

The evening will also include a silent auction featuring various items such as suite tickets to a 2008-09 Lady Toppers basketball game, a gift certificate from Alan Davis Photography, a spa basket and gift certificates to Ford’s Furniture. Music will be provided by the Bowling Green Chamber Ensemble.

Faircloth said a successful fundraiser could help the Girl Scouts grow.

“We could serve more girls and offer more programs for them,” she said. “It could also support membership and programs for girls who can’t afford it.”

Sponsors include Debby Peeples of Neil Turner Realty, the Martin Luther King Planning committee, Whayne and Nancy Priest, Harvey and Sarah Johnston, Bowling Green Junior Woman’s Club, NASCO, Hilton Garden Inn, Charles M. Moore Insurance; WUHU 107.1 FM, WBVR-FM the Beaver, WBKO-TV, the Country Peddler and SOKY Happenings.