Blue Ribbon Group Dubai Chocolate Coffee Cake
Minnesotan Win Best Coffee Cake Honors at State Fair
Dubai Chocolate Coffee Cake, is an award-winning creation made by Minnesotan, Maram Falk, who took first place in our Blue Ribbon Group Coffee Cake Contest at the 2025 Minnesota State Fair. Her recipe combines three batter layers (one cardamom, one chocolate, and one pistachio). She marbles them together and sprinkles a chocolate/cardamom crumble on top before baking.
The topping features the Middle Eastern dessert, knafeh, a nod to her Palestinian ethnicity, while the cardamom cake recognizes her husband’s Swedish heritage. Crushed pistachios, chocolate ganache, and pistachio cream are the cake’s finishing touches. This winning entry blurs the boundaries of the coffee cake category, something the special contest encouraged.
First Blue Ribbon Win for Maram Falk
Maram is an engineer and project manager by day, and hobby baker in her spare time. While she has placed in prior years at the fair, this is her first blue ribbon win. She credits French pastry chef, Bruno Albouze, for the marbling technique she used. She tested various temperatures for baking and settled on 330 degrees F. As a result, the cake stays moist and the marbling intact.
State fair baking judge Maureen Fischer said about the entry: I loved the beautiful appearance and taste of this coffee cake which has a warm spice (cardamom) added to both the crumble and the cake. The crumble topping included pistachios and knafeh which gave it a lot of texture, without being overwhelming, and a green and chocolate drizzle brought it all together. The cake was deliciously moist and had great visual appeal with pistachio (green), white and chocolate cakes ribboning around each other.
Dubai Chocolate Coffee Cake: Best Out of 80 Entries
Maram won out of 82 coffee cakes delivered for judging; 152 people had registered. As the first place winner in the Blue Ribbon Group Coffee Cake Contest, Maram wins a $200 shopping spree from King Arthur Baking Company. Additionally, Maram takes home a Blue Ribbon Group apron, plus of course a blue ribbon and all the glory that comes with that honor.
Maram shared what inspired her entry, by noting, “Dubai Chocolate is the current social media craze but it has been around for a few years now. It features an ingredient (knafeh) that is significant to my family’s Palestinian ethnicity. I wanted to make this coffee cake about my and my husband’s cultures being “married” so it is a marbled cake featuring the knafeh and his Swedish heritage in the cardamom cake.”
Baker Tips
Find Maram’s Blue Ribbon Group Coffee Cake Contest winning recipe below. Bake like a blue ribbon winner with these helpful baking tips:
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When you butter the pan, apply a thin layer on bottom and sides of pan, using a pastry brush. Add parchment paper to match bottom of pan and butter that too. As a result, your cake is less likely to stick, and will release more easily from the pan.
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Use freshly ground cardamom, prepared in a spice grinder or by mortar and pestle). The already ground kind is not strong enough to be aromatic or have the desired flavor in this coffee cake.
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If mixture begins to separate, use a double boiler to gently heat the bowl, or a kitchen blow torch over the mixture, to emulsify.
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Buy knafeh, unbaked, from a local bakery, if available. If not available, try phyllo dough. Maram used an air fryer to make it crisp. A toaster oven, regular oven, or pan on stovetop are back-up options. Maram got her knafeh and her pistachio cream from Goden Nuts in Columbia Heights.
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The base layer is the cardamom cake, on purpose, as it is the most dense, and that structure is needed at the bottom.
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The less typical 330 degrees F works here to keep the cake moist and the marbling intact.
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Add a green drizzle, in addition to the ganache for a color accent, using pistachio cream, white chocolate, and a splash of heavy cream.
Additional Winners
The Blue Ribbon Group Coffee Cake Contest had impressive runners-up too. Jen Walker won 2nd place and a $100 prize for her Blueberry Corndog Coffee Cake. Joanne Holtmeier took 3rd place and a $50 prize for a Tiramisu Twist Coffee Cake. Some of the other standouts were a chocolate cherry version and one with pumpkin, cranberries, and pepitas, and an almond one with candied fruit.
Special Award Coffee Cake Winners, each taking home a $25 King Arthur Baking Company gift card, are:
- Karen Cope for her apple coffee cake, Kimberly Maize for her ring-style coffee cake
- Michele Seyward for her pull-apart coffee cake, Marilyn Johnson for her square coffee cake,
- Sean Johnston for his Bundt-type coffee cake.
You may recall Seward won our Kowalski’s Markets Best Chocolate Cake Contest with this stunner.
Look for all these winning entries, plus hundreds more, all on display in the Creative Activities Building during the entire fair (Aug. 21 to Sept 1, 2025). In addition, discover more award-winning recipes at BlueRibbonGroup.net and BlueRibbonFoodies on Instagram and Facebook.
Dubai Chocolate Coffee Cake
Ingredients:
Cake:
200 g unsalted butter, softened (plus extra for pan)
215 g granulated white sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
280 g all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cardamom (added later)
Chocolate Cake Mix:
60 g cocoa powder
50 g heavy cream, warm
25 g milk, warm
Pistachio Cake Mix:
150 g pistachio cream
50 g heavy cream
1/4 tsp almond extract
Crumb Topping:
70 g brown sugar
70 g all-purpose flour
40 g cocoa powder
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp salt
Chocolate Ganache:
100 g heavy cream, warm
100 g dark chocolate chips or chopped chocolate
Topping:
1 c knafeh, broken into small pieces, toasted (air fryer or sauté pan)
1/4 cup pistachios, toasted and crushed
Instructions:
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Preheat oven to 330°F and butter a 9-inch spring form pan.
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To make the cake, combine the butter and sugar in a standing mixer with a paddle attachment. Add eggs, one at a time.
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Add the vanilla, flour, and baking powder to the batter. Mix to combine.
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Separate the cake batter into thirds; set aside.
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In a medium bowl, combine chocolate mix ingredients (cocoa powder, warmed heavy cream, and warmed milk), until thoroughly combined. Add this mix to a new 1/3 portion of batter.
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In another medium bowl, combine the pistachio cream, heavy cream, and almond extract to make a uniform mix. Add this mix to the 1/3 of batter until uniformly combined; set aside.
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To the remaining 1/3 cake batter, add the cardamom (1 tsp), then spread this into greased pan.
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Spread the chocolate mix over the cardamom mix. Using a piping bag is easiest, otherwise drizzle.
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Repeat with the pistachio cake mix, again using a piping bag, if available.
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Using an offset spatula, marble the battery, using a figure 8 pattern, driving the spatula all the way to the base of the pan and dragging the batters.
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Combine the crumb ingredients by using a spoon or by hand, until it resembles crumbled Oreos or dirt. Then evenly distribute it on top of cake.
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Bake in the 330 degree pre-heated oven for about 35 minutes, until center is just set.
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Combine the warmed heavy cream and the chocolate, until a smooth ganache is formed.
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Remove from oven, top with knafeh, crushed pistachio, chocolate ganache, and additional pistachio cream.
Serves 8-12
