Crowds in a sweet mood at Naperville Chocolate Festival

Betty Wilmont walked into the vendor room at the Chocolate Festival in Naperville hoping she could limit herself to one treat.

Less than an hour later, she'd eaten three.

“It was just too hard to resist,” she said, laughing and finishing off a piece of dark chocolate from Le Chocolat in downtown Naperville. “But I think I'm done now.”

The eighth annual Chocolate Festival, held Saturday inside Neuqua Valley High School's Freshman Center, was a fundraiser for Naperville-based NCO Youth and Family Services. The organization provides counseling and other services to children and adults throughout DuPage County.

In addition to money, though, the event also raises awareness, NCO Development Director Julie Lichter said.

“We look at it as a fundraiser and a ‘friendraiser,'” Lichter said. “It gives us an important chance to let people know that we are located right here in the community and that we're doing important work.”

The festival included chocolate sales, cooking demonstrations, live entertainment and games for young children. Dozens of people, many of them scarfing down chocolate treats, roamed the Neuqua Valley halls during the festival's first hours.

“We've had a steady flow of people, which is great,” Lichter said. “The weather isn't subzero, which has happened to us in the past. That helps.”

Vendors on hand offered lots of free samples and sold a little bit of everything — fudge brownies, chocolate-covered fruit, truffles, you name it.

Gourmet cupcakes were the item of choice for Naperville resident Jeny Lee, owner of JenyLee Cupcakery, a delivery-only business that serves Naperville and beyond. It can be found at jenyleecupcakery.com or at (630) 854-7415.

Lee, who has participated in the festival's cooking demonstrations in the past, started the business a little more than six months ago, shortly after being laid off from her corporate job.

“It's gone really well so far,” Lee said Saturday as customers eyed her Chunky Monkey and Grasshopper cupcakes. “I definitely think we're growing, that people are finding out about us, which is key because I don't have a storefront.”

Lee said the Chunky Monkey cupcakes were the biggest hit of the morning, though her Chocolate Lavender cupcakes made a big splash, too.

“I handed those out for free, so I think that gave them an advantage,” she said.