Tag: award winner

Dubai Chocolate Coffee Cake

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:

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.
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.
If mixture begins to separate, use a double boiler to gently heat the bowl, or a kitchen blow torch over the mixture, to emulsify.
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.
The base layer is the cardamom cake, on purpose, as it is the most dense, and that structure is needed at the bottom.
The less typical 330 degrees F works here to keep the cake moist and the marbling intact.
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.

Peaches & Cream Coffee Cake

This Peaches & Cream Coffee Cake is a surefire crowd-pleaser. It’s moist, has a good crumb and is low in sugar. Furthermore, this recipe is an award winner and is super easy to put together.

In just over an hour, you can have this coming fresh out of your oven.

In no time, you’ll be noshing on it.

This peaches & cream coffee cake recipe comes from Christina Bergstrom, who won third place at the Minnesota State Fair, Splenda Magic Baker Contest, in 2022.

Christina’s inspiration came from recipes she found on Tastes Better from Scratch. She looked at some sour cream coffee cakes, then started experimenting. She loves baking with her daughter, an activity she got to do at her hometown fair, the Minnesota State Fair, with a live demonstration to fairgoers.

The batter in Christina’s creation has all the classic coffee cake ingredients: butter, eggs, flour, leaveners, and vanilla. Instead of sugar, however, you use Splenda’s sugar blend product, which cuts the sugar in half and reduces the calories, and cuts the sugar in half. You can use the sugar blend in both the batter and the topping, or the Magic Baker version Splenda also makes.

This is what the coffee cake looks like before you add the topping and bake it. You can see the bits of peaches and the cream cheese:

The peaches and cream theme comes from using a can of “no-sugar-added” sliced peaches, which you chop, and cream cheese, which you add to the batter. As a result, the texture is moist and rich without being heavy or indulgent.

The topping is a simple combo of these ingredients.

Splenda sugar blend
cinnamon
flour
walnuts

We can’t get enough of this coffee cake. You will know why once you try it too!

If you want to also try the 1st place or 2nd place winning recipes from this contest, follow the respective links.

This Peaches & Cream Coffee Cake post was originally published in September 2022, then updated with new photos and text in July 2025.

Mocha Cake & Cupcakes

Mocha Cake & Cupcakes: If you want to be a blue ribbon baker, bake this Minnesota State Fair 1st place winning recipe. The batter has both freshly brewed coffee and espresso powder in it, plus cocoa powder. As a result, the cake’s flavor is out of this world. The thick, rich and creamy buttercream frosting is phenomenal as well.

Dahna Jacobson, a repeat winner in multiple divisions, absolutely loves this mocha cake recipe, originally a cupcake recipe from the Brown-Eyed-Baker. She adapted it into a layer cake.

The mocha chocolate cake immediately became Dahna’s go-to recipe and she went on to win multiple Minnesota State Fair ribbons with it, including one in 2023. Ten years in – 2014 was her first year competing – and she already has 12 ribbons total, including 3 blue ribbons, mostly for various cakes, but also quick breads. Dahna keeps photo boxes celebrating her achievements, like this one.

About her state fair baking experiences, Dahna shared, “I’m most proud of my first ribbon because I entered a single cake that year and really didn’t expect to win. I had never entered any baking competitions prior. Also, my first blue ribbon has a funny story. When I arrived at the fairgrounds, my white cake had shifted and was smushed on the side… I rushed home and made a fresh batch of buttercream and re-frosted the cake and it ended up winning first place!

TV News Appearance

We invited Dahna to showcase this favorite mocha cake recipe of hers on KARE 11 News (NBC-Minneapolis St Paul), live at the fairgrounds. Here’s a link to her appearance. Find it here.

This mocha cake & cupcakes recipe makes one double layer cake, 32 cupcakes, or about 64 miniature-sized cupcakes. You simply adjust the pans and baking times for the different versions.

Put this is the must-make pile for your next home-baking adventure. It’s a winner!

-Cyndi

p.s. Love the buttercream? Try these, also cupcakes, or type in “buttercream” as a search option for numerous more options.

Best Low-Sugar Layer Cake

This Best Low-Sugar Layer Cake recipe won its top honors at the 2022 State Fair of Texas.

The gluten-free and sugar-free carrot cake is a “must make” recipe for those avoiding gluten, as it’s made with almond flour.

The recipe comes from Sally Muhl, who baked and won with it at last year’s fair.

We re-baked it, as both a cake and as cupcakes. One bite in, we could see clearly why it won. With 2 1/2 cups of grated carrots in the cake, cinnamon, a touch of molasses, and pineapple extract, we found the cake moist and flavorful. It also has just the right amount of sweetness.

Baking Tips

If you like extra frosting, double the recipe and you can frost the sides and have a thick filling between the two cake layers.

The recipe makes one layer cake, 24 classic-sized cupcakes, or 48 mini cupcakes.

We invite you to bake this best low-sugar layer cake recipe. If you do, post it on Instagram or Facebook and tag us @BlueRibbonFoodies and of course @Splenda.

And if you’re looking for more diabetes-friendly baked goods, check out the best low-sugar fruit pie here or visit Splenda.com.

State Fair of Texas Best Sugar-Free Pie

State Fair of Texas Best Sugar-Free Pie: This recipe earned its “best sugar-free pie” at the 2022 State Fair of Texas. It’s a blueberry apple pie that’s packed with 6 cups of blueberries and a sliced apple.

The recipe is from Robert Cook, who has won MANY times at the State Fair of Texas. Learn how to make this “sweetened with Splenda” award-winning pie with Robert’s detailed recipe below.

My family raved about this pie when my niece re-created it for a special occasion. They especially liked how it wasn’t overly sweet.

The filling cooks up perfectly and the pie sliced just how you want it to.

If you love fruit pies, this is the recipe for YOU! And if you want more blue ribbon winning pie recipes, simply search for “fruit pie” on our site and you’ll find a huge collection of drool-worthy delights.

Enjoy!

-Cyndi

Giant Peanutty Banana Cookie

Go big or go home and bake this Giant Peanutty Banana Cookie! Make an impression with this oversized double chocolate cookie and its delicious toppings: a peanut butter-meets cream cheese layer, peanuts, and chopped candy bar. You finish it with banana slices and a chocolate drizzle.

Not only is this a show-stopper in it’s appearance, the creative cookie is also mouth-wateringly delicious! Are there are dozens of ways you change it up and make it your own.

Step by Step

It starts simple with an easy dough you spread in a greased 15-inch pan. We used a large non-stick pizza pan, which worked great.

Once assembled, the base of this Giant Peanutty Banana Cookie bakes in 20 minutes. Then the only hard part is waiting for it to cool. After the toppings are on you have a giant size dessert that will wow anyone who sees and tastes it. You could even call it a “chocolate-peanut butter banana pizza.”

Blue Ribbon Winning Cookie at Carolina Classic Fair

Congratulations to Jennifer Smith who came up with this winner!

Jennifer won first place at the 2015 Carolina Classic Fair (formerly Dixie Classic) with this Giant Peanutty Banana Cookie. It’s another all-time favorite from our archives.

You are going to absolutely love this cookie! And if you’re looking for more recipes with the chocolate-banana flavor combination, don’t miss this blue ribbon winning – and super creative – banana bread recipe.

Enjoy!

-Cyndi

Chocolate-Dipped Peanut Butter Cookies

The classic peanut butter cookie is reinvented with these Chocolate-Dipped Peanut Butter Cookies. Minnesota State Fair contester Loretta Ratajczyk created these. The simple but inventive additions of chocolate, chopped peanuts, and crushed vanilla wafers, paid off! Loretta won 1st place and blue ribbon bragging rights in our special cookie contest back in 2013 .

What also makes these peanut butter cookies so incredibly tasty is her addition of almond flavoring. Just wait until you try these! They are also easy and fun to make. In fact, my daughter Olivia enjoyed helping me this time around. Check out the steps below to see how we put together these award-winning cookies.

Step-By-Step: Chocolate-Dipped Peanut Butter Cookies

While your oven warms up (set to 375 degrees F), mix together the sugars, butter, shortening, peanut butter, and egg.

Here comes what I like to consider the “secret” ingredient- almond flavoring, instead of typical vanilla. Once the batter is mixed, add it in. It really gives the cookie a fantastic flavor. Next combine the all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt to the mixture. Get everything mixed together and shape dough into walnut sized balls. Olivia was a fantastic helper during this step.

Dip tops into sugar. Place sugared dough balls on a baking sheet, sugar side up. Crisscross tops with a fork. This step in making peanut butter cookies always makes me think of making them as a child. It’s classic.

Bake 10-11 minutes, or until lightly-browned. Allow to set 5 minutes on cookie sheet. Remove and fully cool.

Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth

While cookies are cooling, prepare the topping ingredients. Grind together the peanuts and vanilla wafers. I used a food processor for a finer texture. You could also put the ingredients in a plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin. Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave in 30 second increments. Loretta has a great tip: to thin the chocolate she adds a generous tablespoon of solid shortening when melting the chocolate. Here is my toppings station.

Dip half of each cookie in the melted chocolate. To apply the peanut and vanilla wafer topping, you can either dip the cookie into the mixture, or set the chocolate dipped cookie on a parchment lined baking sheet and sprinkle with topping. Refrigerate a few minutes for a quick set. I recommend this, because you won’t want to wait to bite into these cookies!

Chocolate-Dipped Peanut Butter Cookies

Another great winner’s tip is to save any leftover peanut/wafer mixture. It can be frozen and used for other desserts. Bonus!

Here’s Olivia proudly displaying her hard work:

Thank you Loretta for a wonderful recipe!

-Crystal

Note: This was previously published on our former website, StateFairRecipes.com. Find another all-time favorite from our archives with this epic cookie here.

Pineapple Coconut Cream Pie

This Pineapple Coconut Cream Pie is a 1st place winning recipe from the State Fair of Texas. It’s an all-time favorite from our archives, from a 2016 pie contest. Bake like a blue ribbon winner with this recipe. You will wow your friends, family, and your taste buds.

If you have never made a pineapple coconut cream pie this is a terrific recipe to start with because it’s got a great crust recipe and straightforward instructions for the two layers.

We did a test run and absolutely loved its flavors and its texture. The crust ingredients come together nicely and nothing beats a homemade pie crust. This version uses butter flavored shortening. If you prefer a butter/lard crust, try this one here.

Tip: use a pre-made refrigerated pie crust if making your own sounds too intimidating. It’s okay if you need a time-saving shortcut.

The filling in this pineapple coconut cream pie is sweet, rich, fruity, thick, and lush. The meringue whips up in a easy breezy wonderful way. It is velvety and that’s a good thing. The toasted top gives it a picture-perfect finishing touch.

Sue Rainey: Queen of the Crust

This award-winning recipe comes from Sue Rainey, a long time baking contest participant at the State Fair of Texas. Sue’s friends call her the “queen of the crust.” Baking is an art and her talents are plentiful.

Her top tips for perfect, flaky crusts: handle the dough as little as possible and use the least amount of flour you can when rolling it out. Sue also favors the intensity of vanilla from Mexico. She goes through giant bottles of it during her busiest baking times of the year: the State Fair of Texas and the year-end holidays.

Sue originally titled her creation “Paradise in Texas Coconut Pineapple Pie.” One taste and you’ll be in paradise yourself.

Enjoy!

Cyndi

Best Cream Pie Winner: Blackberry Mojito Cream Pie

This Blackberry Mojito Cream Pie won our best cream pie contest at the 2022 Minnesota State Fair. The award-winning pie combines a luscious key lime filling with a blackberry mint purée you swirl on top.

There’s a classic graham cracker crust at the bottom and homemade whipped cream on top. You finish this beauty with fresh blackberries and fresh mint as your garnishes. It makes for a striking presentation.

Blackberry Mojito Cream Pie

“Exceptional” was how the deciding judge described this creative key lime pie. And each slice is gorgeous.

Melinda Chapel is the pie’s creator. She was bursting with pride upon learning she won.

Melinda says you can make the pie with fresh or frozen blackberries. We used fresh in our trial and loved the results. You’ll want to make the fruit purée in advance. You could also pre-make the graham cracker crust.

You muddle fresh mint leaves for the blackberry purée. Mint is also featured in the filling, which you make with fresh key lime juice steeped in mint leaves. Sweetened condensed milk and egg yolks do the magic of sweetening and setting the filling. The result is nothing short of perfection.

Run, don’t walk, to the grocery store for this winning recipe’s ingredients. And if you’re looking for more Minnesota State Fair winning creations, use the search option and enter “Minnesota,” from any page on our blog. The MN Blackout Cake has been especially popular.

-Cyndi

Great Chocolate Cake Contest Winner: MN Blackout Cake

The Kowalski’s Great Chocolate Cake Contest Winner at the 2022 Minnesota State Fair was this phenomenal “MN Blackout Cake.”

With its three layers, pudding filling, chocolate drip, and decoration, this cake is a chocolate lover’s dream come true. It’s intense color and flavor are going to wow you, just like it did us and the judges.

Replicating it as we did, takes time, but every bite makes it worth the effort.

Kudos to Michelle Seywerd who was the Great Chocolate Cake Contest Winner at the 2022 Minnesota State Fair with this inspired creation.

Michelle’s husband loves Guinness chocolate cake which was her first idea of what to enter. Then she recalled the notorious Brooklyn Blackout Cake. Michelle’s winning recipe is a twist on it. She used this recipe as her base and then adapted a Food Network pudding filling. She added the fun chocolate shards on top too. We were shocked to learn Michelle had barely baked a cookie before the pandemic but really got into it with her daughter, who was a toddler at the time. They started with basic baked goods, watched a lot of YouTube channels, and worked up to more challenging recipes. “It’s been quite a journey,” Michelle shared.

Decadently Dark Cake

In her own words, Michelle describes her MN Blackout Cake here:

A decadently dark cake perfect for the dark chocolate lover in your life! I created a twist on the classic Brooklyn Blackout Cake by featuring black cocoa. Black cocoa is used to give Oreos that distinct color and flavor. Here, I’ve featured chocolate in 4 ways – layers of moist cocoa cake, filled with black cocoa pudding filling, dripping with a semi sweet chocolate ganache, and topped with intense dark chocolate shards. The result – the boldest and richest chocolate flavor possible without use of food coloring. Enjoy with a nice glass of cold milk! Thank you!

Baking Tips: Great Chocolate Cake Contest Winner

Some random tips we got from Michelle and learned along the way, are these:

You’ll want to double the cake portion of the recipe if you want to recreate Michelle’s 3-layer version she won with at the fair. You’ll have an extra single layer that works great to taste and decorate separately. We did crushed salted peanuts on ours (4th unused layer) and loved it. You could also go for a 4 layer cake, but that’s mighty big.
If you opt to not double the cake and don’t want extra of the pudding filling, you’ll want to cut that recipe portion in half or do 2/3. The thick filling layer makes this cake a show stopper in our opinion. I would eat that pudding filling as a solo dessert. It’s that good.
We got our black cocoa from King Arthur and loved the results. Get yours here.
Using black cocoa over the buttered parchment helps the cake keep its intense color.

With chocolate drip, if you’re starting with a chocolate bar (versus chocolate chips), chop it into small pieces until they’re about the size of chocolate chips. You’ll get a smoother, more efficient melt.
If you can’t find 90% cacao chocolate, use 100% (2 ounces) and semi-sweet chocolate (1 ounce) as a substitute.
When we did the chocolate drip, we started with the edge. We worked by the spoonful for more control and to get the drizzle/drip look we wanted.
Michelle says this cake is not a fast one to make, but the payoff is totally worth it.

We invite you to re-create the magic of this MN Blackout Cake. Be sure to share on social media and tag @blueribbonfoodies. We want to see what you’re baking!

Enjoy!

-Cyndi