Tag: award winning recipe

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.
Dubai Chocolate Coffee Cake Winner
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.
Dubai Chocolate Coffee Cake Winner
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.

Peaches & Cream Coffee Cake fresh out of the oven

In no time, you’ll be noshing on it.

Peaches & Cream Coffee Cake

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:

Unbaked Coffee Cake

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!

Individual coffee cake serving

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.

Pepperoni Pesto Bites

Looking for a crowd-pleasing after-school snack for the kiddos or an impressive brunch dish? This recipe for pepperoni pesto bites is another blue ribbon winning creation you can make at home. We did a trial run and they were a huge hit with our tasters. Seriously.

One bite into these savory pepperoni pesto bites and you will want to make these again and again.

Closeup of Pepperoni Pesto Bites

Put this in the “must make” file. They make great party appetizers and the recipe is easy to follow! You will love the ingredient combination and how great the dough tastes. Plus, they are super portable, making them great for eating on-the-go. Because of that, they are perfect for brunches and potluck gatherings.

These Pepperoni Pesto Bites originate from the 2013 Washington State Fair. Recipe credit goes to Kim, who won a Bisquick-sponsored state fair recipe contest.

If you’re a big fan of Bisquick, you are in the right spot. We ran a Bisquick-sponsored recipe way back when. Big tip off here: Do a search for “Bisquick” on our main blog page and you’ll find some absolutely delicious and creative recipes that are all award winning creations.  Go ahead. You go win in the kitchen too.

-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.

Classic cookie ingredients

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.

Chocolate Dipped Peanut Butter Cookies Olivia

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.

Chocolate Dipped Peanut Butter Cookies Step 2

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

Chocolate Dipped Peanut Butter Cookies Step 3

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.

Chocolate Dipped Peanut Butter Cookies Step 4

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 2

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.

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.

Individual slice, creative cream pie

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.

Sliced Blackberry Mojito Cream Pie

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.

Whole colorful pie: Blackberry Mojito Cream Pie

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

 

Best Sourdough Croissants (Cachitos)

Are you seeking the best sourdough croissants recipe? How about one that features chocolate and almond flavors? And one that has a great story behind them? Look no further. This best sourdough croissants recipe won our “best sourdough bread contest” at the 2022 Minnesota State Fair.

MN State Fair Winner Best Sourdough Croissants

They come from Guillermo Guardia, who tells us that in his home country of Peru, croissants are known as cachitos. Guillermo is a ceramics artist, art teacher and now, a blue ribbon winning sourdough baker.

By his own admission, Guillermo is not really into cooking but loved baking bread in a bread making machine. When it suddenly broke one day, with dough in it. He took it out and worked with the dough for the first time and loved the experience.

It was fascinating to see the dough change and rise. It was magical. Since then, baking has become a stimulating and rewarding activity.

At some point I was baking almost every weekend, especially Sundays. I even named my sourdough starter Dominga, a Spanish female name for Sunday.

Baking and ceramics are somehow similar. Both use raw materials/ingredients that are mixed together with water and shaped by hand into something that is transformed by heat into something new. Because of  my art clay training, kneading and shaping the dough came naturally to me.

Guillermo started with sourdough baguettes, because they were his father’s favorite. Soon he was ready to tackle croissants. He noted, “I could use my clay skills with every key step, from laminating and rolling the dough to cutting and shaping it for the oven.”

His efforts paid off. The deciding judge on contest day said his croissants were “unbelievably good, beautiful, and perfect in every way.”

Congratulations Guillermo!

*Check back on this post as we hope to catch up with Guillermo in-person at some point and add some helpful technique photos. In the meantime, if you’re a fan of sourdough bread baking, give this recipe a try!

 

1st Place Creative Cookie at Minnesota State Fair

These Crispy Creamy Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies are a 2022 blue ribbon winner, a 1st Place creative cookie at the Minnesota State Fair.

Betsy Faber created these for one of the new 2022 special contests. Here’s what hers looked like. Perfection!

1st Place Creative Cookie Crispy Creamy Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

Betsy won $100 in King Arthur Baking Company gift cards and lots of accolades.

These Crispy Creamy Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies are exceedingly delicious. The cookies themselves are candy-like and the filling is magical. They are said to blur the line between candy and cookie.

rispy Creamy Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies MN Best Cookie Winner

Recreate these award-winning cookies today! Be sure to follow the recipe because Betsy gives lots of tips and tricks. Here are a few we found to be extra important.

Using no oil peanut butter is key. You want a brand that is 100% peanuts. No sugar, oil or anything else added. Otherwise the oil makes them spread out to thinly. You want them thin and solid but definitely not brittle.

Crispy Creamy Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies - Best Cookie Winner 2022

Be sure not to overheat the “dough” part. It will harden once it’s heated by the time in the oven.

The dough really spreads out when in the oven so spread them out when baking.

Crispy Creamy Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies - Best Cookie Winner 2022

Admittedly, this cookie takes some finesse to make. We botched our first batch and had to chop them into chewy toffee cookie chunks. They ended up being a perfect mix-in for homemade ice cream.

Homemade Ice Cream - Blue Ribbon Group recipe

You are going to want to make these time and time again!

Enjoy!

-Cyndi

p.s. We updated this post with additional text and new photos after our testing activities.

Low Sugar Apple Coffee Cake

This Low Sugar Apple Coffee Cake comes from Billie Holterman-Schniepp, who won second place at the 2022 Minnesota State Fair, Splenda Magic Baker Contest. It is the perfect dessert for people living with diabetes.

Apple cakes abound this time of year but this one is special and it’s easy to make. In fact, you can easily change the recipe into mini coffee cakes aka cupcakes. That way, you get individual personal-sized desserts and don’t have to share =)

None of our tasters could tell this Low Sugar Apple Coffee Cake had no granulated sugar.

The cake itself has Honeycrisp apples but others will work also, including a personal favorite of mine, SweeTango apples, which come from the apple experts at the University of Minnesota.

You use Splenda Magic Baker (the ideal sugar alternative that measures and tastes just like sugar), apples, and applesauce to sweeten the batter. Buttermilk, spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom) and apple flavoring are also key ingredients. We loved using this boiled cider as an extract of sorts. The combo of of everything in this cake tastes amazing. The frosting is simple too. You just sweeten coconut shreds or flakes and mix in melted butter and cream.

You are going to love this easy and inspired cake! Give it a try today!

-Cyndi

 

This post was updated Oct. 8 ,2024. For more low sugar recipes, use the search bar at the top of the page here.

 

Minnesota State Fair Baking Competition Winners Announced

Minnesota State Fair 2022 Baking Competition Winners Announced

  • Blue Ribbon Group special contests celebrate the best in home baking & cooking

  • Find the complete Creative Activities Building winner list here

  • Take in daily live demos/tasting Events in the Cambria Kitchen, starting with Kowalski’s Markets opening day

 

Minneapolis-St Paul, August 25, 2022 – Please join the Blue Ribbon Group in congratulating all the talented and creative entrants in our Blue Ribbon Special Contest Series at the Minnesota State Fair.

 

Splenda Magic Baker “Low-To-No Sugar Showdown” Winners

1st Place – Gina Walker of Savage for “Gina’s Sugar-Free Gourmet Banana Bread”

2nd Place – Billie Holterman-Schniepp of Cottage Grove for “Low-Sugar Apple Coffee Cake”

3rd Place – Christina Bergstrom of Twin Lakes for “Peaches & Cream Coffee Cake”

 

Kowalski’s “Great Chocolate Cake Contest” Winners

1st Place – Michelle Seyward of Woodbury for “MN Black Out Cake”

2nd Place – Erin Dooley of St Paul for “Tribute to Mexican Hot Chocolate Cake”

3rd Place – Colleen Jensen of Woodbury for “Merry’s Chocolate Orange Cupcakes”

 

Kowalski’s Supreme Sourdough Contest Winners

1st Place – Guillermo Guardia of Minneapolis for “Peruvian Sourdough Croissants”

2nd Place – Karen Cope of Minneapolis for “Beer & Cheese Sourdough Bread Twist”

3rd Place – Molly Abbattista of Minneapolis for “Sourdough Focaccia Barese”

 

Blue Ribbon “Best Peanut Butter Cookie” Contest Winners

1st Place – Betsy Faber of St. Paul for “Crispy Creamy Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies”

2nd Place – Emily York of Hopkins for “Peanut Butter & Chocolate Macarons”

3rd Place – Sheila Mullen of Woodbury for “Salted Caramel Nougat-Filled Peanut Butter Cookies”

 

Blue Ribbon “Best Cream Pie” Contest Winners

1st Place – Melinda Chapel of Rosemount for “Blueberry Mojito Pie”

2nd Place – Randy Ferguson of Randolph for “The Pie-phrodisiac” (Chocolate Almond Coconut Pie)

3rd Place – Rachael Hood of St. Louis Park for “Blackberry Smash Cream Pie”

 

Blue Ribbon “Salad Bowl Tournament” Winners

1st Place – Amy Ellenberger of St Paul for “Lemony Summer Kale Salad”

2nd Place – Mia Bremer of Minneapolis for “Herby Tortellini Harvest Salad”

3rd Place – Ellen Joseph of Minneapolis for “Peppery Greens with Shrimp, Soba Noodles & Crunch Herbs”

 

3 Cricketeers “Energy Bars & Power Balls” Recipe Contest

1st Place – Amy Ellenberger of St. Paul for “Magic Chai Power Balls”

2nd Place – Tiffany Mainella of Rochester for “Apple Pie Energy Balls”

3rd Place – Eamon Whiteaker of St. Paul for “Cherry Chocolate Almond Energy Balls”

 

Find the Minnesota State Fair’s complete Creative Activities Building winner list here. During the fair, visit the Creative Activities Building to view entries across all baking classes and categories. To get involved:

  • Sign up for Creative Activities Mailing list (Under Participant tab at MNSTATEFAIR.org)
  • Follow Blue Ribbon Foodies on Instagram or Facebook

 

Thank you to the brands that made this Minnesota blue ribbon contest line-up possible:

@splenda

@kowalskis_markets

@kingarthurbaking

@3cricketeers

@thesaladgirl

 

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Best Banana Cream Pie Recipe

This winning “Best Banana Cream Pie Recipe” is a banana lover’s dream come true. You use 5 bananas to make it, including an early step of making a “banana milk.” You use that banana milk to create a custard thickened with egg yolks and cornstarch.  This amps up the flavor, as does using both vanilla extract and vanilla bean seeds. Also, using both heavy whipping cream and whole milk gives the pie the richness it deserves.

Whipped Cream Topping

This creation is adapted from a best cream pie winning recipe at the Iowa State Fair. Jessica Denner won 3rd place for her banana cream pie back in 2015. She split her filling into multiple layers and used a different crust. I simplified the layering, reduced the chill times needed and swapped out the winner’s dough crust recipe for a graham cracker version.  I like the texture a cookie-like crust adds, especially when you crumble some crunchiness on top.

Closeup

Baking Tips

Save the smashed bananas used for making your “banana milk” and put them into smoothies, banana bread or muffins.

The winner’s tip of doing a quick lemon juice soak with the banana slices is genius.

Bananas

With that step, plus a quick rinse and a pat dry, your fruit will hold its bright color and avoid turning brown. Doing such a step, helps this “Best Banana Cream Pie Recipe” have a winning presentation.

Best Banana Cream Pie Recipe Overhead ShotThe filling resembles a thick pudding. It comes together easily. Be sure to cook the custard until it thickens. As a result, the pie will set up properly and not be runny. Avoid overcooking it as well. Hint: the filling should thickly coat the back of a spoon and stay separate if you run your finger down the center of the spoon.

You also want your whipped cream on top to be thick, almost firm. Whip it until moderately stiff peaks form and it can hold its shape. This is the consistence you want.

Moderately stiff peaksCrazy for Crust? If you prefer a dough crust instead of a graham cracker crust, use the winner’s butter-lard pie crust found here. Our tasters loved that version as well. Plus, we had fun with the whipped cream presentation.

Best Banana Cream Pie - Decorated

A Pie in the Sky: keep an eye out for even more cream pies as we’ve been testing and tasting loads of them. We’ll share more soon!

-Cyndi