Edible art: Local woman makes prize-winning cookies for State Fair – ECM Publishers

Casey Lance, of Big Lake Township, pieced together about 40 cookies to make this entry for the decorated cookies category at the 2020 Minnesota State Fair. 
Photo courtesy of Casey Lance
Casey Lance’s 2021 decorated cookie entry featured the State Fair mascots. It won third place. 
Casey Lance worked on a cookie quilt square as she prepares for the Minnesota State Fair.
Photo by Joni Astrup
One of the many cookies made by Casey Lance.
Casey Lance, seated in her cookie-decorating workshop, held two of the cookies she has made.

Casey Lance, of Big Lake Township, pieced together about 40 cookies to make this entry for the decorated cookies category at the 2020 Minnesota State Fair. 
Photo courtesy of Casey Lance
Casey Lance’s 2021 decorated cookie entry featured the State Fair mascots. It won third place. 
Casey Lance worked on a cookie quilt square as she prepares for the Minnesota State Fair.
Photo by Joni Astrup
One of the many cookies made by Casey Lance.
Casey Lance, seated in her cookie-decorating workshop, held two of the cookies she has made.
Casey Lance makes elaborate cookies to enter in the State Fair, which opens Thursday, Aug. 25
by Joni Astrup
Associate Editor
Inside a neatly organized room dedicated to cookie decorating at her house in Big Lake Township, Casey Lance has been busy creating four special cookies that will be entered in the Minnesota State Fair, which opens Thursday, Aug. 25.
She plans to enter them in the decorated cookies category, which has a theme of quilts this year. Each one of her cookies will be designed to look like a quilt square and each will be different, featuring a loon, a monarch butterfly, a walleye and a ladyslipper.
Lance finished third in the decorated cookies category at the State Fair last year with her entry featuring Fairborne and Fairchild, the State Fair mascots.
But collecting a prize in the contest isn’t what motivates her to enter.
“I just think it’s so fun to make it and enter it,” she said. “I love to see everyone else’s cookies, too, because what everyone else comes up with is so different since there aren’t a lot of restraints on what you can do.”
She said she’s always loved the State Fair.
A native of New Brighton, Lance has a grandmother who lives near the fairgrounds. As soon as Lance was old enough, she and her best friend would walk from her grandmother’s house to the fair, where she came to love everything about it.
“I don’t think I’ve ever missed a fair,” she said.
She first started entering her decorated cookies in the State Fair in 2020, when the contest was virtual due to the pandemic. Lance’s entry that year was made up of about 40 cookies that together formed a scene featuring the State Fair grandstand. Contestants that year entered by submitting a photo of their entry.
Last year’s cookie contest had a presidential theme, which prompted Lance to design an entry with the State Fair mascot, Fairborne, holding a sign that said “Vote For Fairborne.” He and his sidekick — his uncle Fairchild — are by a banner that says, “Fairborne for President.”
Lance said the decorated cookie entries are judged on their appearance, construction and creativity. This year’s winners will be announced on Thursday, Aug. 25. Entries will be on display in the Creative Activities building throughout the fair, which runs Aug. 25 to Sept. 5.
Creativity runs deep
Lance has been a creative soul since she was a kid. She said her grandmother fostered that by providing her crafty items to work with when Lance was at her house. One of their outings involved trips to Axman Surplus, where there were all kinds of interesting things that were turned into craft projects back at her grandmother’s house.
After graduating from Irondale High School, Lance went to college at Bemidji State, where she majored in graphic design and minored in art. Today, she works as a graphic designer for Northern Wholesale in Hugo.
She has taken a number of cookie classes and started regularly making decorated cookies around 2019. People began to want to order cookies from her and she became a registered cottage food producer. She has made cookies for occasions like showers, weddings and birthdays.
She frosts all of her cookies in royal icing that she makes. She said royal icing works well for decorated cookies because it is soft when it is put on the cookie, but after about eight hours dries to a sturdy finish that lends itself well to decorating.
Lance posts photos of her creations on Instagram, @caseyraebakes.
Chocolate chip cookies, banana bread popular entries
The Minnesota State Fair reports that more than 3,000 baked products — cakes, cookies, breads, bars, pies and the like — are entered in the fair each year. There are a multitude of categories, and last year several local women, including Casey Lance and her decorated cookies, were prize winners in various baked products categories.
Some categories are more popular than others.
In 2021, the chocolate chip cookie without fruit or nuts category drew the most entries (128), followed by banana bread (117). Those categories with the smallest number of entries were apple coffee cake (8) and potato bread (9).
The State Fair noted that the most popular flavor of pies entered was apple.
If you go
Pre-fair discount admission tickets for the Minnesota State Fair are on sale now for $14.
• Buy the tickets online at https://www.etix.com/ticket/v/8597.
• Or, purchase pre-fair discount admission tickets, as well as discount ride and game tickets and Blue Ribbon Bargain Books, in person at participating Cub stores, including stores in Elk River and Rogers, through Aug. 24 (while supplies last).
• Visit mnstatefair.org for more information.
Source: Minnesota State Fair
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