Egg recipe contest finalists announced

The Virginia Egg Council used the American Egg Board’s 2025 campaign, “Meant to be Broken,” in this year’s search for the best egg recipes that would be appropriate for holiday entertaining, gifting or enjoying. Sixteen local fairs across Virginia hosted preliminary competitions throughout the summer/autumn fair season this year, searching for the best “Meant to be Broken, Egg-specially During the Holidays” recipes.

The Virginia Egg Council, sponsor of the competition, was looking for delicious recipes that folks might serve during the holidays, made even better with the addition of versatile and nutritious eggs.

Each local fair’s top winners were eligible to compete in the state level competition and 17 egg-cited competitors brought their entries to the state finals, held during the State Fair of Virginia. Their entries ran the gamut from appetizers to main dishes and of course shined with holiday desserts. Contestants showed up, knocking the socks off the judges and everyone who happened by, with their ingeniously presented entries – nearly every entry was worthy of a magazine cover.

The level of this competition has deemed this contest, the Super Bowl of Recipe Contests in Virginia. Both certified judges were given instructions that “flavor comes first” when making their decisions. Mary Rapoport, consumer affairs director with the Virginia Egg Council and contest organizer, mentioned, “We want the recipes to be worth the time, effort and calories – the winning recipes must taste delicious, first and foremost.”

Here are the judges’ decisions:

First place – Festive Italian Cream Cake by Lucy Moore (Chesterfield County Fair)

Second place – Yuletide Crumble Eggnog Poundcake by Mary Buchan (Caroline County Fair)

Third place – Mom’s Christmas Morning Buttermilk Pie by Crystal Johnson (Bedford County Fair)

The top recipe is shared below. We’ll be sharing the other two in future posts!

Festive Italian Cream Cake

Serves 16

Cake:

1 14 oz. pkg. sweetened flaked coconut

1 ½ cups pecan pieces

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. baking powder

1 cup. softened salted butter

1 ½ cups sugar

½ cup brown sugar, packed

2 T vegetable oil

5 eggs, room temp

4 tsp. vanilla extract

2 tsp. almond extract

1 cup whole buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350º F. Lay coconut on baking sheet and toast 5 minutes. Repeat with pecans. Blend the two then divide in half. Line three 8-inch round cake pans with parchment and butter sides of pans. Measure, then sift together flour, baking soda and baking powder; set aside.

In stand mixer bowl, beat butter and sugars together for five minutes. Beat in oil.

Add eggs, one at a time; beat one minute after each addition, scraping down bowl sides.

Blend in flavorings. On low speed blend in 1/3 flour mixture, half buttermilk; repeat; end with 1/3 flour.

Fold in half the coconut/pecan mixture. Pour into baking pans. Bake 30 – 35 minutes, just until tester comes out clean. Do not overbake. Cool in pans on rack for 5 minutes; remove cakes to rack to cool. Once mostly cool, place in plastic bags until frosted.

Frosting:

2 8 oz. pkgs. cream cheese, softened

1 cup butter, room temp

1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract

½ tsp. almond extract

¼ tsp. salt

8 cups powdered sugar

Remaining coconut and pecans

Beat cream cheese, butter, extracts, salt and powdered sugar on low speed in a stand mixer until well combined. Turn speed on high for 4 – 5 min., and whip until smooth, light and creamy. Reserve 1½ cups to decorate cake.

Reserve a small amount of coconut/pecan mixture for decorating and blend the rest into frosting.

Layer thick coats of frosting between first two layers, top with third cake layer and do a skim coat over sides and top. Chill. Then frost generously with remaining frosting.

Use the set-aside frosting to decorate top of cake and the remaining coconut/pecan mixture to pat onto the bottom of cake. Refrigerate cake. Remove 30 minutes before serving.