By CHUCK OFFENBURGER
DES MOINES, Iowa, Aug. 10, 2025 — Good bakers of Iowa, your cinnamon rolls are calling out to me once again. I can smell them from here!
I know and appreciate that you’re making practice pans of rolls right now. You’re getting ready for “The Great Cinnamon Roll Challenge of 2025,” to be held at 2 p.m. next Saturday, Aug. 16, in the air-conditioned Elwell Family Food Center at the Iowa State Fair.
As the “Cinnamon Roll Sommelier” of Iowa — a title given me last year and which I embraced after I looked up “sommelier” — I now summon you to the contest that has the richest payout of all those in the foods division of this year’s state fair.
The champion cinnamon rolls of a year ago, baked by Anita Van Gundy of Des Moines.
The overall champion at next Saturday’s Cinnamon Roll Challenge will likely go home with a check for $2,000.
Total prize money for all placers in our contest’s two classes and then in the overall judging is $5,000. The sponsors contributing that prize money are our Challenge coordinator Jamie Buelt, of Ankeny; entrepreneur Doug Moore, of Ames; physician Dr. Dan McGuire, of Des Moines; another donor who asks to remain anonymous, and me.
As Buelt puts it, “It is Chuck’s decades long search for Iowa’s best cinnamon roll that inspired the resurgence of this competition,” three years ago.
It was in 1982 when Iowa State University journalism student Jim Larson, who was a summer intern with us at the Des Moines Register, told me about a great cinnamon roll he’d found at a tiny restaurant in Alleman, Iowa. “You know, every restaurant in Iowa has these things,” Larson told me. “You ought to rate them, just like the sports guys rate basketball teams.”
And thus began my “Roll Poll,” in which, three or four times per year for the next four years, I’d rate the Top Ten cinnamon rolls in Iowa, along with some making “Honorollable Mention.” The rolls had to be homemade and served in places where you could also get a cup of coffee, sit down with a roll you purchased, and enjoy the experience — so, generally, in cafes or bakeries.
The popularity of that among Register readers prompted Iowa State Fair officials to ask me to become the judge in a cinnamon roll contest they started, for Iowans who bake at home and generally aren’t selling their rolls to the public.
I’ll never forget judging at the state fair on Aug. 16, 1983. I judged solo and ate substantial pieces of more than 75 cinnamon rolls. Then I had to walk clear across the fairgrounds to get to my car in the parking lot. The temperature was 108 – still the hottest day on record at the Iowa State Fair – and I mean to tell you, the dough was rising!
After four or five years, I gave it all up. The Ankeny-based company Tone’s Spices took over the contest, and did a wonderful job with it for years.
Jamie Buelt, of Ankeny, is sponsor and coordinator of The Great Cinnamon Roll Challenge of 2025 at the Iowa State Fair. She also sponsors “Tribute to Bessie: Scrumptious Berry Pies,” which this year was held Saturday, Aug. 9. That contest honors her late grandmother Bessie Beggs Heiliger. She ran the bus depot and café in Bloomfield in southeast Iowa and was also president of the Chamber of Commerce there before her death in 2001. “My grandmother was especially famous for her pies, so this contest is for the best multi-berry pie,” Buelt said.
Jamie Buelt decided to bring it back in 2023, and it’s become bigger and better than ever the past three years. At last year’s fair, there were 89 entries, and while our judging was going on, more than 200 people watched at one time or another.
She is the owner of a well-known public relations agency, “en Q strategies,” and over her long career she has been involved in several big projects across the state.
So why does she take time to organize some food contests at the state fair? “Because I love baking,” she always says. She often enters her own specialties in state fair food contests that she has no role in operating. Her family and close friends often speculate she probably would have loved a career as food contests superintendent of the Iowa State Fair, but more profitable work with major Iowa companies lured her away.
My duties in The Great Cinnamon Roll Challenges have evolved now from judging to emceeing. I’m happy to focus on stirring up stories and conversations among the contestants, the judges and the audience.
The judges of the rolls this year will be two of the sponsors, cinnamon roll lovers Dr. Dan McGuire and Doug Moore, along with Eileen Gannon, of Des Moines, a veteran baker with multiple state fair championships & a star of a 2024 national baking competition on Netflix; baking company owner Lana Shope of Norwalk; Iowa District Court Judge & trained chef Amy Moore of Ames; farm manager & cinnamon roll lover Dennis Reyman; chef George Formaro of Des Moines; and financial officer & home baker Pat Mullenbach of Grimes.
Some details you should know:
—The two classes of the contest are “traditional frosted” and “special” cinnamon rolls.
—For the “traditional frosted” entries, the rules are that “rolls must be made from scratch and include flour, butter, yeast, sugar and most important, cinnamon. Mashed potatoes may be used (in the dough) in these class, but not mashed sweet potatoes.”
—For “special” entries, “this class is for non-traditional rolls and includes caramel rolls with or without nuts. You may use fruit, meat, nuts, sweet potatoes, vegetables, compotes and other additions. Keep in mind, this is a cinnamon roll contest, and all rolls must feature cinnamon.”
—Placings in each class are $500 for first, $300 for second, $200 for third and $100 for fourth.
—The overall championship “will be judged from the place winners in each class.” The payoff in the overall championship judging is $1,500 for first, $500 for second and $300 for third.
— New this year, we’ll have a “trivia contest” while the judges are working, with prizes being awarded for correct answers in three categories — Iowa State Fair, cinnamon rolls & baking, and media personalities involved at the state fair.
— There will also be prizes for “first-time contestants”and those under 17 years old.”
See you at the fair!
Anita Van Gundy, of Des Moines, overall champion of The Great Cinnamon Roll Challenge of 2024 with this plate of rolls, which were also judged the best “traditional frosted” rolls. So you’re looking at $2,000 worth of cinnamon rolls right there!
Marianne Carlson, of Jefferson, was the winner of the “special” class of cinnamon rolls in last year’s contest with these, which she called “Smoky Bacon Caramel Pecan Rolls.” They were also runner-up in the overall judging. Marianne, one of Iowa’s most widely-known bakers from all her success in the Iowa State Fair and Clay County Fair over the years, may have to miss the 2025 state fair. “After a miserable summer with kidney stone pain, I finally had surgery last Thursday,” she told me on Saturday, Aug. 9. “They blasted stones in both kidneys, and now I’m recovering. It is pretty uncomfortable, as I have stents in both ureters. I am in no shape to get to go to the fair and compete, which makes me very sad. I keep hoping that maybe by next Saturday, I could do the cinnamon roll contest. I will just have to wait and see how I am feeling by then. Please greet all of my competitors, and tell them (if she can’t be at the fair) I miss seeing them all.”
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You can comment on this column below or write the columnist directly by email at chuck@offenburger.com.
