The International Dairy Deli Bakery Association (IDDBA) conducted its second annual Cake’d Challenge, open to retail cake decorators who work for one of IDDBA’s member companies. Cake’d provides an opportunity for retail cake decorators to showcase their abilities at the IDDBA show.

Live from the IDDBA 2024 show floor in Houston on June 9-10, finalists were asked to decorate and create cakes based on provided guidelines and participate in a mystery box challenge.

“This is the second annual Cake’d Challenge where we invite cake decorators from all of our retail members to submit portfolios, and we had a lot of portfolios. These portfolios were scored by a panel of judges, and the top four finalists received an opportunity to compete. So, we’ve got the best of the best here this weekend,” says David Haaf, IDDBA president.

The first round challenged the decorators to create a three-tiered birthday or anniversary cake commemorating the IDDBA's 60th anniversary. They were tasked with incorporating three mystery ingredients provided by the What's in Store Live sponsors. In the second round, a seasonal showdown, each decorator was randomly assigned three holidays or seasons. At the show, they selected one option and decorated three 5-inch cakes accordingly.

Katie Jewell from Safeway won the Fan Favorite award, chosen by attendees through voting via the IDDBA app. “For the last 24 years baking has been a striving passion of mine. In 2015 I took the step to start decorating. I love coming up with new and creative ideas. My goal is to bring art to decorating." Jewell said in her bio.

Meanwhile, Katie Storr from Hy-Vee emerged as the Grand Champion, receiving the highest score from our expert panel of judges representing the WISL sponsors.

“I’ve been a designer at Hy-Vee for 12 years. I enjoy having humor with my cakes and love incorporating puns into my designs,” Storr said. “I aim to make my customers happy with whatever cake ideas they bring to the Storr."