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
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.
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!
Some random tips we got from Michelle and learned along the way, are these:
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
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.
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!
If you’re curious about the winner selection process, here’s the judging criteria.
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.
You starting with whipping the egg and egg whites before adding cream of coconut, water, and extracts.
Next, you mix the dry ingredients: cake flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, garam masala, and turmeric.
Then you mix in the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, until mixture resembles coarse meal.
Once you slowly combine everything together…
…you divide the batter between your prepped 8-inch pans. It makes a nice thick batter. Spread it around.
While those bake and cool, get your filling ingredients together. Whip that up.
Do the same with your buttercream frosting.
Whip it good. It should form stiff peaks. Here’s a shot when it’s reaching perfection.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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
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:
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.
Grab a bag of lemons and make this winning recipe. You’ll marvel at its deliciousness.
-Cyndi
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:
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.
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:
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)
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
The homemade whipped cream melts in your mouth. You’ll love how it pairs with both the raspberries and lemon filling. Enjoy!
Cyndi
Blue Ribbon Group 
