(The following column was written under the influence of a fine cinnamon roll from The Bake Shoppe in Windsor Heights, Iowa.)

By CHUCK OFFENBURGER

DES MOINES, Iowa, Aug. 14, 2026 — Dee Dee Kennedy, Anita Van Gundy and Amy Fuson have been in my dreams the last couple weeks.

Oh, not the three women, actually, but their cinnamon rolls, which respectively in 2023, 2024 and 2025 won our “Great Iowa Cinnamon Roll Challenge” at the Iowa State Fair.

Those three grand champions and many other terrific roll bakers I’ve known over the years have come to mind as I prepare for the 2026 Cinnamon Roll Challenge to be held on Saturday, Aug. 22, at 2 p.m. in the Elwell Family Food Center on the fairgrounds.

Total prize money for the winners & placers has now reached $5,500, an all-time record high for any cinnamon roll contest ever held at the State Fair. The person whose roll is picked as this summer’s grand champion will win $2,000 of that total.

We’re especially honored to have Denny & Candy Elwell, the donors and developers of the Food Center, planning to drop-in on our contest.

Tom Vilsack and Jamie Buelt, at Zanzibar’s Coffee Adventure in Des Moines recently, training for the Great Iowa Cinnamon Roll Challenge at the Iowa State Fair. We were eating cinnamon rolls with an orange glaze on them.

But, oh my! Distracted by the cinnamon roll I’m eating while I write this, I have “buried the lede,” as we say in journalism.

We also have a “Celebrity Judge” who will be joining us — Tom Vilsack.

As nearly all know, he is now the CEO of the World Food Prize in Des Moines, after earlier serving two terms as Governor of Iowa and two terms as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.

He said while he likes eating cinnamon rolls now and then, he doesn’t bake them himself.

“I’m primarily a pancakes guy,” he said over coffee recently with Cinnamon Roll Challenge organizer Jamie Buelt and me. “I make them from scratch — not from any pancake mixes in a box. Every Sunday, I do breakfast for my family. Scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, pancakes. The grandkids refer to me as ‘Pancake Man’.”

(And another thing about Vilsack we haven’t known: “My real specialties are honey garlic chicken thighs, pork roast and steak.”)

Besides having him with us, and a visit from the Elwells, I’ve also asked both candidates in this year’s race for governor to stop by the Cinnamon Roll Challenge, too.

In my email invitation to Democrat Rob Sand, I wrote, “If you are going to be at the fair that Saturday, Aug. 22, or want to make a special trip out, we’d love to have you drop by and tell us about your favorite cinnamon roll from around Iowa. Knowing where you come from, we’ll let you brag about Decorah’s famous ‘Ronnie’s Roll,’ or whatever.”

To Republican Zach Lahn, I wrote, “…we’d love to have you drop by and tell us about your favorite cinnamon roll. We’re talking Iowa cinnamon rolls mostly, of course; however, if there IS one in Kansas we need to know about, tell us — we all travel, too.”

No word back from either of them yet.

The State Fair’s description of our contest notes that “the event celebrates Chuck Offenburger’s decades of experience and pursuit of the best cinnamon roll in Iowa.” The history of my search now stretches back 44 years. In my column writing years for the Des Moines Register, I would frequently rate the state’s top 10 rolls in what we called “The Roll Poll.”

Those had to be rolls publicly available in cafes, bakeries or cafeterias, with a place where customers could sit and have a cup of coffee with a roll.

That got popular enough in the 1980s that the State Fair noticed, invited me to start a cinnamon roll contest with them, with entries restricted to individuals baking in their home kitchens. We continue with that restriction today. On contest day, most of them are up as early as 4 a.m. at home, baking their rolls, then driving them to Des Moines in time for the competition.

For years, I was the solo judge of my contest. That included judging on Aug. 16, 1983, the hottest day in Iowa State Fair history, when the outdoor temperature at the fairgrounds was 108.

I’d eaten pieces of 76 cinnamon rolls early that afternoon. When I started a mile-long walk to my car in the far parking lot, believe me, I could feel the dough rising!

Things got a whole lot better four years ago when Jamie Buelt, a well-known PR executive in the Des Moines area who is also a major fan of the Iowa State Fair, decided she wanted to re-start a cinnamon roll contest with some significant prize money. She started calling me the “Sommelier of Cinnamon Rolls,” which I thought was nice once I looked up what a “sommelier” is.

So Buelt organized and named the “Great Iowa Cinnamon Roll Challenge.”

My recollection is she was the solo sponsor and donor of prize money in the 2023 contest. Now she continues contributing but also has as sponsors Doug & Amy Moore, Drs. Dan and Andy McGuire, one person who contributes only as “Anonymous,” and me.

Our primary judges — all with considerable baking experience and/or interest — will be Eileen Gannon, Lana Shope, Mike Richards Jr., Doug & Amy Moore, Dennis Reyman, and Pat Mullenbach.

My main role in the early rounds is emceeing, telling stories, chitchatting with the audience, and with Vilsack and other notables who will be visiting us.

When we get to the finals, then Vilsack, Buelt and I get to join the other judges and do some nibbling, too, as we determine the grand champion.

This year, we have three classes of competition — a new “Cinnamon Lollapalooza” category in addition to the “Traditional” and “Caramel” categories of past years. Winners receive cash awards in each of the three classes, as well as “Overall” cash prizes for the three rolls judged to be the best in the whole contest.

Special prizes are reserved for entrants who are 17 or younger and entrants who are entering the food contests at the Elwell Center for the first time this summer.

The roll I was eating Friday morning while writing this column. I picked it up at The Bake Shoppe in Windsor Heights.

Vilsack said he’ll come into the judging a little nervous.

“The last time I was a judge of anything, it was in the town of New London in southeast Iowa,” he said. “I was the only judge picking ‘Miss New London’ during the town’s annual celebration.

“There were five contestants,” he continued. “Four of the young ladies were quite attractive. One wasn’t as attractive, but when I was asking them questions during the judging, oh, did she love New London! She spoke very favorably about her home town. Her interest and passion for New London was infectious.

“I thought, well, this is not about beauty, really, it’s about community. So I voted for her.”

He paused at the memory.

“You know, I can still see the looks on the faces from the other four contestants and their parents,” Vilsack said. “I’m pretty sure when I ran for governor, there were votes from four households in New London that I did not get.”

And there are more stories like that one I’ll be trying to pull out of him next Saturday, Aug. 22. See you all at the fair.

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