Rebecca Woodard from Harp’s Food Stores in Lincoln, Ark.

I thought about drawing out the suspense a bit more, but figured you’d just scroll down to see who won first anyway. Tina Lofthus from Town & Country Markets in Poulsbo, Wash. placed second and Sara Vanderheyden finished third. Now that the competition is over, I guess I can reveal that I was secretly rooting for Sara and it was for purely non-decorating reasons. She’s from my home state and I spent several years in high school and college working for Hy-Vee. (I was one of the helpful smiles in every aisle. I’m not even sure the company uses that tagline anymore. I may have just dated myself.)

Anyway, back to the cakes. All three decorators can be very proud of the high caliber of cakes they created. Every year the competition seems to produce better and better cakes. I’m sure plenty of the attendees went home with new ideas to incorporate into their decorating line up.

I would describe some of Rebecca’s award-winning cakes, but like they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, and you can see them better than I could ever describe them. And, I’ve got a plane to catch!

Retailers I talked to at the IDDBA Dairy-Deli-Bake 2010 Seminar & Expo said they’d come this year to get merchandising ideas, and, of course, to see what’s new, and they said they hadn’t been disappointed. That may not be a surprise, but what’s significant is that more than one said he was looking for manufacturers to produce private label bakery products. That reflects what we’ve seen over the past couple of years – a growing number of retailers going to private label in perishables categories.

Looking for what’s new in bakery, officials from Nash Finch said they’d noted with interest an intriguing selection of new artisan breads. And Supervalu’s people said they were looking at new breakfast items like muffins, and ready-to-go breakfast sandwiches.

A rice cake-making machine caught the eye of many show attendees. It makes a big popping sound as low-cal rice cakes sort of fly out of the dispenser, fresh and ready to bag-up. “That would make great theater,” one retailer said.

Rouse’s officials told us the most outstanding – and they did call it out standing – was a new ingredient called Qimiq, imported and distributed by Atlanta Food International.

It’s a low-cal, shelf stable item that can be whipped up into a topping that tastes just like whipped cream, or it can be used to make an eggless mayonnaise. After talking to Rouse’s Scott Miller, I went to the AFI booth at which several retailers were gathered around, tasting products made with the new item. I tasted the tuna fish salad made with Qimiq as its binder. It was really good. I was told by an enthusiastic AFI rep that Qimiq also lengthens shelf life of such products made with it.

Some retailers I talked to said they were looking at combi ovens and also at flavored cheeses. One New York supermarket man said an organic camembert had caught his eye, and others said they were surprised by the plethora of flavored cheeses on display this year. Not just flavored cheddars, but flavored Goudas and soft cheeses. One Wisconsin farmstead cheese by Marieke Gouda, I thought packed a very memorable flavor punch. It was honey clover Gouda. It won a 2010 World Cheese Championship award. So did the company’s burning nettle mélange Gouda.

The growth of flavored cheeses – in all varieties — has boomed over the past three or four years, Marilyn Wilkinson, at WMMB’s booth, told me. “Consumers are more adventurous. They’re looking for bolder flavors.”

With consumers and retailers also still pressed for time, it looks like packaging manufacturers are coming to the rescue. At least that’s what I observed on the show floor at IDDBA’s Dairy-Deli-Bake 2010. Retailers and seminar speakers spoke of everybody’s quest for convenience, and exhibitors told me retailers are asking them to design packages that better shows off food, keeps it safe from tampering, and and above all that is easy for customers to use.

Clear Lam, Elk Grove Village, Ill., is designing see-through compartmentalized containers at the request of retailers. One interesting one, designed for Safeway, holds lettuce or other greens in a large shallow, round container, and has six separate, small compartments for toppings and dressing heat-sealed with film into the lid.

Another holds a whole meal, with the entrée and sides in separate compartments, keeping contents very visible, and decidedly separate from one another. Jeanne Skaggs, vice president of research and development for Clear Lam, told me retailers – unlike in the past when they just bought was available – are increasingly telling manufacturers exactly what they want and how they want to use packages.

“They want packaging that’s convenient for them and for their customer, but they make it clear they want the contents to be highly visible, Skaggs said.

“I think the salad package with the toppings in the same package, but separate from the greens, does that well,” Skaggs said.

She went on to point out that the packaging is 90% plant-based and compostible.

I saw other exhibitors showing off compartmentalized, heat-proof, containers that showed food off well.

Convenience is being created not just for theconsumer, but for retailers themselves. That’s evident in a new Cryovac package I saw for bulk deli meats. It has an easy-to-grab-and-tear top that, when pulled, neatly splits the package right down the middle. No fiddling with a knife, no damage to the product. Time saved. Butterball, who is using the new packaging on turkey breast, demonstrated it to me at their booth.

Talk about portion control! Here’s a new product that caused some buzz on the show floor – a cake lollipop. Ticklebelly Desserts developed cake pops in a multitude of flavors and textures, and even has a special clamshell to merchandise them in.

The truffle-like creations are made of batter mixed with icing. The result is a dense cake that holds well on a stick. A special station was set up at the company’s booth chef Geoff Suk whipped up all sorts of different pops: S’mores, red velvet, vanilla lemon and old-fashioned double chocolate, to name a few. They were iced, coated, sprinkled and candied and put out to sample.

The packaging is a patented, clear container that is self-standing, and holds the stick up at an angle… although I though they looked more impressive when they were merchandised on a tree.

It’s all about wedding cakes–Texas-style. Sara, Tina and Rebecca had to decorate a three-tier wedding cake today and their designs are vastly different, but each offers good ideas for other decorators. And each features trends that are proving popular across the country.

Rebecca’s cake features white fondant with silver hearts embossed on all three tiers. She also separated her top tier with silver pillars. From my talks with decorators around the country, pillars seem to be making a comeback. Brides are looking to create larger cakes without adding more tiers. Metallic colors, which she also featured prominently, also are proving very popular.

Sara’s stacked cake featured black decorations on white fondant with red flowers to add pops of color. Brides wanting a dramatic cake are leaning towards the black and white decorations. She also alternated between sections featuring edible glitter and matte sections. She added more bling by stringing diamonds around the top of the cake board.

Tina’s cake truly portrayed the heart of Texas with a moulded armadillo bride and groom cake topper. She also separated her layers but covered the columns with braided fondant rope. This cake is perfect any wranglers out there.

For tomorrow, Sara, Tina and Rebecca will have to decorate one cake from each of three categories: special occasion, theme/event and decorator’s choice.

Come back tomorrow after 1 p.m. to find out which of the three wins the trophy.

The mainstream media mantra with regards to food during the recent recession has been that consumers tend to eat out less and cook their own food more, but according to harry balzer, chief industry analyst and vice president of the NPD Group, the numbers don’t bear that out.

“People say they are going out to eat less, say they no longer go out to lunch and carry their own lunch instead, but it isn’t true,” he says.

One example of this is the sandwich. The number one component of the typical bag lunch was included in 74 percent of lunches in 1974. The figure is 40 percent today. The reason? It takes too long for people to make a sandwich. Sure, by and large, bag lunches still include sandwiches, but Balzer notes that more lunches feature sandwiches made elsewhere, such as your supermarket. In fact, 98 percent of bag lunch sandwiches were made by hand in 1974. That has dropped to 90 percent of the already comparatively low number of bag lunches today.

“You’ll never go wrong betting the over on people’s laziness,” Balzer quipped.

What about freshness? Consumers polled often say they don’t make their own food because they can’t guarantee everything sitting in their refirgerator sill be fresh, and they can’t get to the store every day. But that isn’t entirely accurate either. Today, 47 percent of people consider freshness to be extremely important. But 70 percent thought so in 1974. And in 1984, 9 percent of meals were frozen. That figure is 16 percent today. Consumer trends are relegating freshness to the back of the line in terms of buying motivations, regardless what people are saying.

The common news stories about people getting more creative with their cooking during a tough times don’t paint an accurate picture. But fine dining establishments are hurting, and the restaurant industry is hurting-so what gives?

People are still eating out, their tastes and habits are too entrenched to start creative, fresh, at-home cooking programs to save money. What they are doing is eating out at the grocery store. They are going to the supermarket for their meals, but with convenience and cost being the ultimate two purchasing motivators, they are looking for ready-to-go, finished products.

“If you didn’t think your retail operation was a foodservice operation,” Balzer says, “Well, it is.”

The general assembly ballroom at IDDBA’s Dairy-Deli-Bake 2010 Seminar and Expo was jam-packed this morning, as attendees gathered to hear IDDBA Executive Director Carol Christison’s annual talk on fads, trends and game changers. It could be argued that the size of the crowd had something to do with the fact that ex-President George W. Bush was scheduled to speak next in the same room, but that would be wrong. It could be true, but not necessarily, because every year Christison draws a huge crowd. People skip breakfast, saying they wouldn’t miss her presentation for anything. They appreciate it that she always injects her sense of humor in her presentation of sometimes surprising facts and figures. And she’s known for adding to our vocabulary, too.

This morning, the new word that stood out was “splurchase.” That’s a purchase, she said, made by a price-conscious consumer who’s allowing himself or herself a one-time splurge.

Among some of the trends Christison spoke of are location-based advertising. For example, she said cited McDonald’s hooking up with Facebook to let users “check-in” and share menu ideas. McDonald’s, she said, also offers free Wi-Fi and coupons if they share with a friend the location at which they’re eating.

“Their customers are doing their advertising for them,” she said.

Another new thing — maybe a budding trend — she described was meat stores holding classes in butchering for consumers. The mentioned one in New York’s Hudson Valley that has a week-long course for consumers, but also others that offer less intensive lessons lasting a few hours. Christison suggested that supermarket meat departments could possibly do something like that.

“It certainly would bring loyalty and good talk about you, and who knows, you might be training a future employee.”

Convenience still rates high on consumers’ prioroity lists, Christison said, and she sees more drive-throughs at supermarkets looming in the future even though some have been tried in the past and failed. Their time may just not have been there yet.

Dr. Rosita Thomas, Thomas Opinion Research, first on the roster of speakers on opening day of IDDBA’s Dairy-Deli-Bake 2010, got the day off to to a positive start with some stats that show the recession might be letting up a little, or at least that food shoppers feel they have more money to spend. There’s no guarantee though that that money will be spent at supermarkets so supermarket deli and bakery operators had better take heed, Thomas said. She offered advice on how to stay ahead of ever-growing competition from other venues. More advice in the same vein came later in the morning from another speaker, TV personality and self-defined conversationalist Rachael Ray. Both women advised retailers to tell their customers more about their products and how to use them.

Thomas’s research, conducted this spring on behalf of IDDBA, showed 82% of deli consumers believe supermarket deli purchases are fresher than packaged goods, and she strongly suggested supermarket retailers take advantage of that. “Simply make a big point of how fresh the products are,” Thomas said. A full 44% of respondents said they’d buy more from the supermarket deli if they knew how long the products had been in the deli case. More than 30% said a they’d buy more if they knew how long the products would last. Some said they’d bought products that spoiled to quickly and 31% of those said they would not recommend their deli to friends or family. Freshness was paramount in consumers’ minds.

In fact, for the first time since she’s been conducting deli/bakery consumer research for IDDBA, fresh rivaled convenience for customers’ top priority when buying deli and bakery products, Thomas said.

While 31% of respondents said they had more money to spend than they did two years ago compared to only 17% who said that in 2009, customers had numerous complaints about supermarket delis. A remarkable 70% said they’d had at least one big, bad experience with their supermarket deli and smaller percentages had complaints about freshness, long waits for service, and limited healthy choices available. What is not surprising is that 85% of respondents said they did not tell store personnel about their negative experiences. They did, however, tell their friends and relatives. In fact, only 34% said they’d recommend their supermarket deli to friends or family. Meanwhile, competition is not going away.

“The number of supercenters/discount shopping venues has increased dramatically,” Thomas said. “And a greater percentage of consumers are using the internet for commerce.”

Thomas suggested retailers give specific information about their deli products. For example, when they they were made, how long their shelf life is, etc., how to store them. The increasing number of health-conscious consumers particularly said labels help them a lot when buying healthy products. But there are so many ways to dispense information, both women said.

Ray, in her presentation, suggested a supermarket’s website is an ideal place to offer valuable information to customers and to find out what they like and don’t like.

“What we [retailers] can offer is a voice, a space where they can blog. Ask them what they like. Ask if their kids like it,” Ray said. “Make it really interactive.”

Getting associates involved, too, is important, she said. Ray, who hails from upstate New York, cited Wegmans [Rochester, N.Y.] as a good example of a retailer who is successful at educating associates and actually getting them interested in the products they’re selling.

Asked if she were an activist when it comes to food, Ray said, “No, I consider myself a conversationalist. I believe we need to help consumers. I want to get them excited about food.”

This year is the 15th annual Cake Decorating Challenge. And like every year, three in-store bakery decorators are competing for top honors. This year, the competitors are: Tina Lofthus, Town & Country Markets Inc., Poulsbo, Wash.; Sara Vanderheyden, Hy-Vee Inc., Nevada, Iowa; and Rebecca Woodard, Harp’s Food Stores Inc., Lincoln, Ark.–a good cross representation of the country.

And again, like other years, the talent on display is amazing. Today’s task was for each decorator to decorate enough cakes to fill one three-tiered, 8-ft. bakery case. As of 3 o’clock today, they were well on their way to filling the cases with dessert cakes, such as Tina’s Oreo cake that featured Oreos half dipped in white chocolate and used to top the cake; and decorated cakes. Cupcakes and cupcake pull-apart cake remain a popular selection to fill the cases. Sara decorated a variety of cupcakes, including ones topped with miniature lady bugs and flowers made from nuts and cherries.

I’m sure they will have not problem filling their cases in the remaining hours of the show. Tomorrow, they will decorate a wedding cake and come back after 1 p.m. on Tuesday to find out if Tina, Sara or Rebecca is crowned the champion for the 15th Annual Cake Decorating Challenge.

The first few hours of the 2010 Dairy-Deli-Bake expo in Houston are in the book, and an initial impression is the arrival of the smart phone as officially ubiquitous. Navigating the show floor requires deft feet, as attendees wander around the busy aisles with their heads craned downwards toward hand held devices to check emails, tweets, or who knows what else.

There has been a slow trend in this direction for years, starting with the Blackberry and really gathering steam with the iPhone and recent Droid. People now can be seen exchanging information by touching iPhones together. Others take pictures of products and ideas on the expo floor, to be quickly e-mailed to co-workers back home or sent as a media message. The Show and Sell center, the heart of the IDDBA show floor, is a mass of attendees holding smart phones and hand helds in the air.

I suppose this stands out to me because I’ve finally joined the ranks of the smart phone owners myself. Or maybe this impressed me because, in order to type this, I had to pass several power outlets, already occupied by people charging their hand held devices. Regardless, people here are on their phones. And they are using them both to record information that’s here or access information that’s elsewhere.

Exhibitors are competing for attendees’ attention, and observers would be wise to note that the ubiquity of hand held devices extends in to their store aisles and in-store bakeries. How accessible are you on consumers smart phones? By now you likely have a website, but is it readable in a small screen format? And as Facebook and Twitter were on people’s lips at last year’s IDDBA show in Atlanta, this year’s buzz is surrounding the “app.”

So dawns the age of apps (applications) allowing customers to find you, find each other, and interact in ways that were unimaginable only a decade ago. One app even has the capacity to locate where a customer physically is, and allows retailers to send them coupons or special offers simply by nature of their being in the neighborhood. The sky really seems to be the limit for marketing and merchandising possibilities, if it’s done correctly.

A line is currently forming behind me to use my power outlet, so the phones are here–just as they are in your stores and in-store bakeries. The infrastructure is there, the trick is making sure you’re using it properly.