Tag: Best Cake

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.

German Chocolate Cake

Are you looking for a cake that will wow a crowd? If so, this German Chocolate Cake is for you! Paula Buchanan won Best Cake at the 2015 Illinois State Fair with this recipe (adapted from Baker’s Chocolate). One taste and you will agree it’s a winner. The cake and homemade frosting are heavenly. I can’t wait to make this again for our next family holiday get together!

-Crystal

 

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.

Great Chocolate Cake Contest Winner MN Blackout Cake

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

 

Coconut Curry Mango Cake

At the 2021 Minnesota State Fair baking competition, no one could have predicted how tasty this Coconut Curry Mango Cake was going to be, including me. With surprising ingredients and a colorful exterior, the cake stood out for its perfectly balanced flavors, rich taste, and tender yet firm texture.

Recipe credit goes to Maggie MacIntosh. She used a Cooks Illustrated coconut cake recipe as a starting point and began experimenting.

Creative Cake

Garam masala, turmeric, mango nectar, and mango crystals are among the unique ingredients Maggie features in this award winning cake. Between that creativity, how well she combined all the ingredient amounts, and how perfectly she baked the cakes, this Coconut Curry Mango Cake really stood out. Plus Maggie nailed it with the coconut aroma, in both the cake itself and the frosting. The mango filling was a colorful element that added yet another dimension to the cake. Well done!

Maggie won 1st place in our Blue Ribbon Best Coconut Cake Contest with this cake. She wins $100 in King Arthur Baking Company gift cards. Here’s a shot of Maggie and her daughter, celebrating her win and all the fun the fair has to offer. Congratulations Maggie!

Judging Criteria

If you’re curious about the winner selection process, here’s the judging criteria.

  1. Unique, innovative, creative recipe……………………………………………25%
  2. Appearance, color, presentation………………………………………………..25%
  3. Texture, internal appearance…………………………………………………….25%
  4. Flavor, aroma…………………………………………………………………………. 25%

Coconut Curry Mango Cake – Step by Step

Want to re-create the magic of Maggie’s coconut curry cake and its mango filling? We walk you through it with a detailed overview, including photos.

Here’s everything that goes into the batter, from the cake flour and spices, to butter, sugar, and eggs.

Batter ingredients

You starting with whipping the egg and egg whites before adding cream of coconut, water, and extracts.

Coconut Curry Mango Cake Egg Whites

Next, you mix the dry ingredients: cake flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, garam masala, and turmeric.

Batter mixing stage 2

Then you mix in the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, until mixture resembles coarse meal.

Batter mixing stage 3

Once you slowly combine everything together…Batter mixing…you divide the batter between your prepped 8-inch pans. It makes a nice thick batter. Spread it around.

Batter in pans

While those bake and cool, get your filling ingredients together. Whip that up.

Coconut Curry Mango CakeDo the same with your buttercream frosting.

Coconut Curry Mango Cake

Whip it good. It should form stiff peaks. Here’s a shot when it’s reaching perfection.

Buttercream Frosting Stage 2

Last, you slice each cake in half to get 4 equal layers, then assemble everything together. A great tip from Maggie was to pipe the frosting on the edge of each layer to help hold in the filling.

Filling layer

We didn’t get shots of this, but applying a crumb coat–thinly frosting top and sides of cake before fully frosting the cake–prevents a messy look.

Finishing Touches

To finish, sprinkle toasted coconut on top and press into sides of cake. This will give the cake a classic look, like this.

Or you can opt to dye the toasted coconut in one or more colors and decorate in circular patterns on top (as winner did).

These resemble the colors Maggie used: yellow, orange, and red.

Dyed Coconut flakes

And this is her stencil she used decorating the top of her cake.

Feel free to reach out to us direct if you want help re-creating the multi-color decor Maggie used. We have additional notes from our test runs and Maggie we can share.

If you love this cake’s concept but want a faster, easier version of the recipe, stay tuned. We are working on a sheet cake version of this magical Coconut Curry Mango Cake we will share later.

In the meantime though, this cake makes a fun fall baking experience. Fun fact: some of our tasters thought the curry/turmeric combo was a tastier, gingery pumpkin spice. Give it a try and see what you taste.

Enjoy!

-Cyndi

 

Blue Ribbon Baking: Aspiring Bakers Make Creative Cakes, Cookies & More

Aspiring Bakers Win Accolades with Creative Cakes, Cookies, Breads & Pies

Minneapolis-St. Paul, August 26, 2021 – Baking competition winners fared well at the 2021 Minnesota State Fair with a variety of inspired recipes and perfectly prepared baked goods. The Blue Ribbon Group, the contest organizers behind this site and Blue Ribbon Foodies on Instagram and Facebook – sponsored a special baking contest series.  They called for creative coconut cakes, drop-style cookies, banana breads, and fruit pies, and also arranged for $25 bonus prizes for select 1st place winners. This is blue ribbon baking, at its best.

Blue Ribbon Baking: Coconut Curry Mango Cake (Winner)

This coconut cake with garam masala and tumeric was among the first place winners (pictured above). One winning cookie featured Chambourd liqueur and another had ginger, molasses and 100% pure cricket powder in it. Yes, cricket powder. A perfectly-baked pie combining strawberries and rhubarb won top honors also. Another stand-out was this Elvis-inspired Peanut Butter Bacon Banana Bread.

Blue Ribbon Baking: Peanut Butter Bacon Banana Bread (Winner)

Here’s a list of all first, second, and third place winners in all four Blue Ribbon Baking contests. For a complete list of winners across all Creative Activities general baking classes and categories, click here. Also, stay tuned as we’ll share a sampling of winning recipes and how-to stories in the coming weeks. You can follow along by liking Blue Ribbon Foodies on Instagram and Facebook.

 

Best Coconut Cake Winners:

1st Place: Maggie MacIntosh of Minneapolis for Coconut Curry Cake with Mango Filling

2nd Place: Renee Janas-Johnson of Brooklyn Park for Coconut Orange Cake

3rd Place: Mallory Leitinger of Aitkin for Coconut Raspberry Zinger Cake

 

Best Drop-Style Cookie:

1st Place: Rachael Hood of St. Louis Park for Rachie’s Razzies (Chewy Raspberry Chocolate Chunk Cookies)

2nd Place: Kurt Zinda of Braham for Dark Smoked Candied Pecan Chocolate Chip Drop Cookies

3rd Place: Gwen Benson of Minnetonka for Susan McNamara’s Sugar Cashew Cookies

 

Best Banana Bread Winners:

1st Place: Karen Cope of Minneapolis for Elvis on a Stick (Peanut Butter Bacon Banana Bread)

2nd Place: Catherine Young of Minnetonka for Peanut Butter & Chocolate Swirl Banana Bread

3rd Place: Kent Kaiser of St. Paul for Alpha Sigma Banana Bread

 

Best Fruit Pie Winners:

1st Place: Kathleen McCarron of Roseville for Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

2nd Place: Fay Peterson of Apple Valley for A Fruit Special Pie (Blueberry Rhubarb Strawberry Pie)

3rd Place: Randy Ferguson of Minneapolis for Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

 

A special thank you to our Prize Partner, King Arthur Baking Company:

King Arthur Baking Company

 

Lemon Loaf Pound Cake

This luscious Lemon Loaf Pound Cake is a citrus lover’s dream. That’s especially true if said citrus lover also loves moist, flavorful cakes that are easy to make. The amazing aroma of this cake comes from combining vanilla extract, lemon extract, fresh-squeezed lemon juice, and lemon zest.

 

The recipe – which is based on this Minnesota State Fair blue ribbon winning cake – also calls for butter, whole milk, eggs, and sifted flour among its classic ingredients.

Bitten Lemon Loaf Pound Cake

Grab a bag of lemons and make this winning recipe. You’ll marvel at its deliciousness.

-Cyndi

Bake Your Best for the 2021 Minnesota State Fair

Calling all Blue Ribbon Foodies & Minnesota State Fair Lovers!!

Hit the kitchen and let’s bake together for the Great Minnesota Get-Back-Together! To celebrate the official return of our hometown Minnesota State Fair in 2021, the Blue Ribbon Group is sponsoring four special baking contests at the Minnesota State Fair including:

  • Best Banana Bread
  • Best Fruit Pie
  • Best Drop Cookie
  • Best Coconut Cake

Cash Prizes & Kudos

For this “Blue Ribbon Baking Day” at the fair, we’ve organized $175 in prizes for each competition, plus there will be special recognition for blue ribbon winners across several broader baking categories: Cookies, Cakes, Pies, and Breads. Don’t miss this treasured tradition that hundreds of Minnesotans take part in every year. You’ll rub elbows with like-minded home cooks and hobby bakers on “baking drop-off day” and once the fair opens see what wins in display cases throughout the Creative Activities Building. The experience is also a wonderful warm-up for the upcoming holiday baking season.

Special Thanks to our prize partner, King Arthur Baking Company. 

King Arthur Baking Company

Blue Ribbon Baking Contest Series: Sat, Aug 21, 2021, 9:30am – 1pm (Competitors: Sign Up by Aug 10, 4:30pm)

All registration goes through the Minnesota State Fair competition department. Registration is free! There’s also no obligation if you later can’t participate. Go to the Competitions/Creative Activities/Baked Products section at MNStateFair.org to sign up (under the Participants tab). Three quick-start tips:

  • Create your online account here
  • For step-by-step guidance, go here.
  • Sign up for the Competition Department email list here and be sure to choose “Creative Activities” as your email list.

Best Drop Cookies Blue Ribbon Cake Blue Ribbon Pie: Blueberry Rhubarb Strawberry Pie Best Banana Bread

 

Sign Up!   *********************Registration is Closed; Stay Tuned for Follow-Up Posts **************************************

  • Registration is open now. It closes August 10 at 4:30pm. No late registrations are allowed so don’t miss the deadline
  • Registration is FREE
  • You drop off your entry the Saturday before the fair opens, so it’s easy in, easy out. Drop off is 9:30am to 1pm on Saturday, August 21. You can even have a friend drop it off if you can’t make it
  • Open to Minnesota residents only

If you are on social media, be sure to follow BLUE RIBBBON FOODIES on Instagram or Facebook (or both =). Help us grow. Like and comment on what you see there. Save and share your favorite posts. Also, stay tuned here for inspiration and award-winning recipes from Minnesota and across the country.

Want to see all the official rules? Download them here.

Good luck. We’ll be cheering for you all!

Cyndi & Crystal (aka The Blue Ribbon Group & Blue Ribbon Foodies)

Double Chocolate Bacon Cake

For all the bacon lovers out there, this Double Chocolate Bacon Cake is for you. It is an easy cake to make that’s indulgent and ridiculously delicious. The batter is made chocolatey with cocoa powder, while the use of coconut oil and Greek yoghurt in place of butter gives the cake a texture that is tender, dense, and rich, all at the same time. It reminds me of pound cake, but without the butter. The frosting is just two ingredients: chocolate chips and heated whipping cream that you whip fast into fluffiness.

Easy Bake Cake

To make this Double Chocolate Bacon Cake, you first bake brown-sugar -coated-bacon to a crisp in the oven. You crumble the bacon and mix it into a thick luscious batter. You end up also putting bacon crumbles on top as a finishing step. You can whip up the batter in minutes, then split it among three 9-inch round layer cake pans, which bake in about 20 minutes. It is a deceivingly simple recipe.

This is also the recipe that confirmed I should keep oven-baking my bacon instead of frying it on the stovetop. The technique of folded aluminum foil “tented” underneath works great. The bacon comes out firm and crisp—just as it should—without losing any flavor.

This cake’s taste and texture make it a show-stopper. It is also a conversation starter. I’m guessing people will either love it or leave it be. Admittedly, this cake won’t be everyone’s cup of tea but if you’re curious, give it a try. It’s a delight! All my taste testers where ecstatic about it. With a creamy and intensely chocolate frosting, along with bacon bits on top, one look at this cake had everyone drooling. This is seriously one of the best cakes I have ever tasted. It’s up there with the chocolate/coconut cake we also previously baked/shared. And for those out there who don’t eat meat, this cake tastes great even without the bacon.

Double Chocolate Bacon Cake-Overhead

Inspiration

I can still remember the first time I had chocolate-dipped bacon. It was of course at my local fair, the Minnesota State Fair, where many fantastic food trends are always on display. Between that tasty treat—which was on a stick of course–and the “Showgirl” menu item menu at Glam Doll Donuts (in Minneapolis), I knew I would like this cake also. I didn’t expect to love it! Yay!

Acknowledgement goes to Kevin Clower for this recipe. His “Miss Piggy’s Surprise Chocolate Cake” which won at the San Diego County Fair 10 years ago (2011), was what inspired my Double Chocolate Bacon Cake. Kevin placed 2nd in a King Arthur Flour cake contest with his creative cake. The main change I made from Kevin’s recipe: I used coconut oil versus butter and added Greek yoghurt. I also changed up some methods and directions.

I hope you make this cake! It’s a winner!

-Cyndi

 

Lemon Raspberry Chiffon Cake

Sticking with my nostalgia kick, I did a deep dive for another best-ever archived recipe and pulled up this one, for a luscious Lemon Raspberry Chiffon Cake.

Lemon Raspberry Chiffon Cake - Sliced

Blue Ribbon Baking at its Best

This best cake winner originates at the New York State Fair (1999). Luana Impellizzeri won 1st place with it, The cake is one of many major wins for this longtime home baker.

Making this lemon raspberry chiffon cake is easier than it first looks. And it tastes out of this world. The lemon curd cooks up beautifully and adds richness to an already decadent cake. It’s also colorful, lush, and full of flavor.

 

Slice of Lemon Raspberry Chiffon Cake

The homemade whipped cream melts in your mouth. You’ll love how it pairs with both the raspberries and lemon filling. Enjoy!

Cyndi