Tag: Minnesota State Fair

2026 Minnesota State Fair Special Baking Contests

Be a Baking Champion: Compete at the Minnesota State Fair’s Annual Baking Competition

New in 2026: Land O’Lakes Shortbread Contest & More!

Minneapolis-St Paul, MN – June 23, 2026 – The Minnesota State Fair will be here before we know it. For many Minnesotans, that means it’s time to showcase their baking skills and compete for cash prizes and blue-ribbon bragging rights.

With more than 80 baking categories or “classes,” the Minnesota State Fair’s annual baking competition celebrates the best cookies, cakes, breads, pies, and more. Don’t miss the new Land O’Lakes “Best-Ever Shortbread” and Blue Ribbon “Savory Scone” special contests.

Registration is open now and closes Tue, Aug 4, 2026, 4:30pm CT. The event’s pre-Fair drop-off date/time is Sat, Aug 22, 2026, 9:30am to 1pm CT (Creative Activities Building, Minnesota State Fairgrounds), with winners announced Thu Aug 27, opening day of the Fair. In the same Creative Activities Building, display cases will showcase the best of the best all days of the Fair (Aug 27-Sep 7).

Land O’Lakes “Best-Ever Shortbread Contest”

From traditional to totally creative, all styles, flavors, and shapes of shortbread qualify for this contest. Just be sure to use the beloved Land O Lakes brand of butter. We want to see a huge variety of entries. Wow the judges with a standout flavor, buttery aroma, melt-in-your-mouth texture, and a beautiful presentation. A unique mix of shortbreads will win, with $350 in prizes split among top three winners ($200/1st, $100/2nd, $50 3rd), plus bonus prizes for all “best-in-class” cookie winners. Looking for inspiration? Check out these Millionaire Shortbread Bars and Raspberry Almond Shortbread Thumbprints, then brainstorm what you’ll bake for the contest.

Land O’Lakes Live Event: Thu Sep 3

Join us for a live baking event featuring Land O Lakes® Butter in the Cambria Kitchen on Thu, Sep 3, 2026. The day begins with a 10am meet/greet session featuring 2026 Land O’Lakes shortbread contest winners. Then, Jackie Thesing @SweetGirlTreatsMN showcases a to-die-for Browned Butter Toffee Pecan Cookie recipe with live demonstrations at 11am, 12pm, and 1pm. Enjoy complimentary tastings while supplies last.

Blue Ribbon Group “Savory Scone Contest”

It’s time to put the spotlight on savory scones, like tomato/basil, cheddar/chive, or prosciutto/gruyere. Bake your best outstanding scone (circular, square, or triangle) that looks, tastes, and smells fantastic. A unique mix of scones will win. Awards: $200 1st, $100 2nd, $50 3rd (gift cards), plus bonus prizes for quick bread “best in class” winners. As a warm-up, try these Cheddar Scallion Scones from King Arthur Baking Company, or these prize-winning Parmesan & Chive Scones.

Key Dates to Remember

Competitors Register by Tue Aug 4, 2026, 4:30pm
Drop-Off Day is Sat Aug 22, 2026, 9:30am to 1pm
Land O Lakes® Butter Demos, Cambria Kitchen, Thu Sep 3, 10am to 1:30pm
View Winner Displays Aug 27 to Sep 7 in Creative Activities Building

First Time Participant or Need a Refresher?

All registration goes through the Minnesota State Fair competition department. Registration is free! Once you’re signed up, there is no obligation if you later can’t participate. Here are some quick-start tips:

Go to the Competitions/Creative Activities/Baked Products section found here at MNStateFair.org to sign up.
To find all baking rules, regs, open classes, and any special contests, be sure to download the Creative Activities/Baked Goods Premium Book Section. Jump to pages 12-14 for the special contests.
For extra guidance and frequently asked questions, go here.
Ultimately, be sure your registration clears and you receive an email confirmation. Save that email, just in case you need it later.

2026 “Top 30 State Fairs” List

With the 2026 state fair season just around the corner, we’re publishing our 2026 “Top 30 State Fairs” list, now an annual tradition, four years running.

This list is based exclusively on two factors: per day attendance numbers (total 2025 attendance divided by total days open) and their baking competitions (history of past Blue Ribbon Group special contests). Our other criteria? They have to take place the second half of the year, the Blue Ribbon Group official state fair season. In fact, the majority of the best state fairs happen in a three month window: August, September, and October.

Top 5: Minnesota, Iowa, Tulsa, Big E, and North Carolina State Fairs

The Minnesota State Fair lands in the #1 spot for the fourth year in a row. The Iowa State Fair comes in second. Three fairs leapt two spots each, to land at 3rd, 4th, and 5th, respectively: Tulsa State Fair, Big E, and North Carolina. With their daily average attendance number, the State Fair of Texas lands in the #6 spot. Wisconsin falls closely, behind Texas. Here is the complete list.

Since 2006, Blue Ribbon Group has managed special recipe contests at large state, county and regional fairs. Find a collection of winning recipes at BlueRibbonGroup.net and featured on BlueRibbonFoodies on Instagram and Facebook.

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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.

Best Dessert Pizza

This Best Dessert Pizza Winner from the Minnesota State Fair combines sliced pears, pecans and raspberry honey, with four cheeses: gorgonzola, provolone, mozzarella, and cream cheese. Place this perfectly balanced and winning ingredient combination on top of a superb home-baked crust, and you have a blue ribbon winner! It’s a favorite we recently pulled from our archives.

Lynda Decker entered this creation and won first place honors in a Fleischmann’s Yeast contest for Best Dessert Pizza, back in 2013! It was displayed in refrigerator cases at the fair for all to see.

Prepare to be wowed. This dessert pizza is a crowd pleaser, yet unique enough to win your foodie friends over.

Here’s Lynda when she delivered her masterpiece to the Minnesota State Fair:

The crust rivaled the best we have ever tried. You coat it with butter and brown sugar, which is a terrific twist. On top is a cream-cheese-brown-sugar layer, then comes pecans, sliced pear, onion, and bacon pieces, along with the multiple cheeses and a hint of honey.

Lynda said she used a flavored honey from her farmer’s market, but that plain honey works too.

Sign me up! This is the best dessert pizza for a potluck or your next dinner party’s dessert table. Trust me, you will want this one in regular rotation!

At winner selection, Minnesota State Fair Judge Mary Bartz shared her expert opinion about the pizza: a powerful combination…a savory and fruity sweet topping over a thin, tender, yet chewy crust…a dynamic result!

There were a wonderful array of pizzas entered, so the judges had a tough job.

If you like this pizza winner, be sure to try this one also. It is yet another impressive one, but from the Wisconsin State Fair.

-Cyndi

2025 “TOP 30 STATE FAIRS” LIST

2025 “Top 30 State Fairs” List

Just in time for this year’s state fair season, we’re publishing our 2025 “Top 30 State Fairs” list, now an annual tradition, three years running.

This list is based exclusively on two factors: per day attendance numbers (total 2024 attendance divided by total days open) and their baking competitions (history of past Blue Ribbon Group special contests). Our other criteria? They have to take place the second half of the year, the Blue Ribbon Group official state fair season. In fact, the majority of the best state fairs happen in a three month window: August, September, and October.

Top 5: Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Texas and Tulsa State Fairs

The Minnesota State Fair lands in the #1 spot for the third year in a row. The Iowa State Fair comes in second. The Wisconsin State Fair moves up two spots from #5 to #3, versus last year. The State Fair of Texas consistently has the highest total attendance. With their daily average attendance number, Texas lands in the #4 spot, followed closely by the Tulsa State Fair. (Texas wins the tiebreaker with Tulsa, given their higher total attendance). The North Carolina State Fair swapped rankings with the Big E Fair, landing in the #6 spot. Here is the complete list.

The other biggest changes with our list:

At the Tennessee State Fair, which officially combined with the Wilson County Fair in 2021, attendance leapt from 739K to 861K, a bump of 122,000 people.
Total attendance for the 30 top fairs grew again, for the third year in a row. The increases were from 22 million (2022), to 23.5 million (2023), and 24.1 million (2024).

2025 Honorable Mention U.S. Fairs

The biggest fairs in the country are not all state fairs, so we now make an annual Honorable Mention List. This compilation recognizes the largest county and regional fairs we have worked with over the years, giving our list the best representation of the entire country. We have managed special recipe contest at each of these fair in the past. They are tried, true and extremely popular events, just like the official state fairs, but with a different label.

Daily average attendance numbers range from 94K to 10K per day, which is how they are ranked here.

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.

Blue Ribbon Foodies at the Minnesota State Fair

Blue Ribbon Foodies at the Minnesota State Fair: The Blue Ribbon Group took over the Creative Activities Building’s Cambria Kitchen at the Minnesota State Fair on August 25, 2024. As a result, we shared many tastings and great baking tips all day long. If you caught our demonstrations and complementary tastings and want the recipes, you are in the right place. Here is what we featured and the links to each recipe.

Nutty Honey & Seed Tarts

This is an all-time favorite we have many in many forms. It originally won “best pie” in one of our contests at the Wisconsin State Fair.

Hummingbird Cake

This is a specialty cake created by our fellow Blue Ribbon Foodie, Jackie Thesing @SweetGirlTreatsMN.

Salted Nut Roll Bars

This is an original creation for our baking friends everywhere, especially ones who like homemade versions of great candy bars.

Almond & Banana Snacking Cake

You can’t go wrong with any type of banana bread. This one is thick and thoroughly delightful. It comes from Ryan Ceresnak with @TheNerdyBakerMN.

Lemon Coconut Balls

The perfect citrus sweet treat you can make with or without macadamia nuts. Heather Pfeiffer won a blue ribbon for this cookie at last year’s Minnesota State Fair (2024).

Homemade Honey Nut Granola

Fun fact: this recipe earned a teenager his first food-related blue ribbon win! (Yay Lars!) You sweeten it with honey. As a result, it’s not overly sweet, which lets the nuts and oats shine. We served this on top of yoghurt for fairgoers and it was a total hit! You will want to make a double or triple batch of this!

Zucchini Bread Mini Muffins

Another winning creation, from another recipe shared by blue ribbon baker Heather Pfeiffer.

It was a fun scene and we hope you enjoyed all the deliciousness!

Please follow us social media: Blue Ribbon Foodies on Instagram and Facebook. And we hope to see you at next year’s Minnesota State Fair, which runs August 21 through Labor Day, September 1, 2025! Blue Ribbon Foodies at the Minnesota State Fair is bound to return in some way or another. Until then, keep on baking!

This post was updated Sept 4, 2024 with recipe images.

Zucchini Bread Mini Muffins

Zucchini Bread Mini Muffins: you make these delightful treats with classic quick bread ingredients. The zucchini and vegetable oil give the muffins a terrific texture, a quality also helped also by using both baking soda and baking powder. The hint of cinnamon is delicious, as are the walnuts. They give a delightful chewiness to the muffins. If you are not into nuts, simply leave them out!

These zucchini bread mini muffins are a delight to eat and make. You can make them into regular size muffins or a loaf, and with or without walnuts. Your choice! Whatever way you make this winning recipe, you will love it!

The recipe comes from Heather Pfeiffer, who used the recipe and placed second for zucchini bread at the 2023 Minnesota State Fair. It was featured in recipe demos and tastings at the 2024 Minnesota State Fair, hosted by the Blue Ribbon Group in the Creative Activities Building’s Cambria Kitchen. Heather’s main tip with the recipe is to drain but not squeeze the grated zucchini before mixing it in. Don’t miss Heather’s blue ribbon winning cookies, also on this site here. And if you love quick breads, this one is a must try too!

Enjoy!

-Cyndi

Lemon Coconut Balls

Lemon Coconut Balls: a blue ribbon winning recipe at the 2023 Minnesota State Fair.

These are another must bake cookie. Delightfully easy and deliciously perfect. You can make these lemon coconut balls with or without macadamia nuts.

Recipe contest goes to Heather Pfeiffer, pictured here with Blue Ribbon Group founder, Cyndi Harles.

Heather has won numerous ribbons at the fair. We invited her to showcase these cookies at our demo day event at the state fair. They were a huge hit!

Find all the recipes we featured in the Creative Activities Building, Cambria Kitchen, here.