Minnesotan shines spotlight on State Fair in popular television cooking competition

Nicole Aufderhar usually spends much of August in the kitchen, following a strict, self-imposed baking schedule to prepare for the Minnesota State Fair’s Creative Activities competitions.

Last August was different. The Walker, Minn., artist was still baking, just from a tent outside of London as one of eight contestants on “The Great American Baking Show,” a spin on the popular “The Great British Baking Show.”

Aufderhar is the first Minnesotan to step into the iconic tent, home to the genteel but tense competition featuring judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith. And she brought a special ingredient with her across the pond: a love for Minnesota and the State Fair, which included a cake designed to look like the fairgrounds’ Ag-Hort Building.

“That’s been kind of a fun experience, and I’m hoping that by watching the show, people realize it doesn’t have to just be people from the coasts that can do it,” she said. “It takes a little bit more work, but we’re capable.”

The process, from application to filming, took roughly five months, and included multiple rounds of interviews, screen tests, baking quizzes and an intense monthlong at-home baking boot camp, where Aufderhar perfected the original recipes she would bake on the show.

You’ll see signs of her personality and north woods surroundings in those recipes, many of which are on her website, tenthousandbakes.com: berries and nuts reflect her love of foraging, while honey is a nod to her beekeeper mom.

“My baking is so much of an extension of who I am and influences from my family,” she said. “Since I’m a creative professionally, baking is the creative outlet that doesn’t have that pressure. It allows me to show who I am in a different way. For fun.”

We caught up with Aufderhar as she was preparing for this year’s fair competitions; she signed up to enter 10 categories between Creative Activities and Bee and Honey. But her plans were upended with the sudden death of her grandfather, to whom she was very close.

“I know he would want me to do my best as he was always my biggest cheerleader, but it feels a bit impossible to do anything at the moment,” she said this week. “This year may not be a ribbon-winning year ... but hopefully I can still make him and everyone who has discovered my baking journey in recent months proud.”

We talked to Aufderhar about that baking journey, her favorite State Fair activities and why in the midst of it all she had to postpone her wedding. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

What made you apply to the “The Great American Baking Show?”

This was actually my second time applying. I had applied in 2022 and made it all the way to the round right before they cast people, and so when it came up again last year, I thought, OK, let’s give it one more go.

When did you find out you were cast?

In June [2023], I was sitting at the farmers market in town where I sell my leather goods, and I got the email and found out that I had been cast, which is super exciting. But you can’t tell anybody, so I’m sitting there secretly celebrating. So I walked over to my friend who sells flowers, bought myself a bouquet, and just sat there looking at it, being excited for myself.

You were away for almost a month. That’s a long time to be away from your people.

It is, and because the time difference and people’s work schedules, I didn’t talk to them nearly as much as I thought I would. You really just rely on the other contestants to become your family while you’re there. If you made it to the final, you could have family come out and join you, but otherwise you were kind of on your own.

Did you really postpone your wedding to be on the show?

I decided to propose to my fiancé about a year before. In the spring of 2022 our plan was, well, we’ll get married in August of 2023. We hadn’t officially sent out invitations or anything, but that was our plan. And then once it became apparent that I might do well enough to make it on the show, I was like, “Is it OK if we push it back?”

Do you have a date set now?

No. Honestly, since the show it’s been so chaotic. We’ve talked about next year, but it’s really been, at this point now, a year and a half of just baking chaos.

What was an unforgettable memory from the show?

Oh, man. One of THE moments is when Paul Hollywood told me that I’m a natural baker, which is such a simple comment, but coming from him just meant the world to me because I feel like I worked really hard and didn’t know if I measured up. It’s something I’ve heard him say on the British show to some of the best bakers, in my mind. So to hear him say it to me, that’s something I’ll hold onto forever — that apparently I have this natural ability that I hadn’t recognized in myself, really, till he said that.

Did the experience make you a more confident baker/person?

My gut reaction is to say, no. I’m so bad with that. But maybe, in some ways, because I’m doing things that I never would have had the confidence to do before doing the show, like this kind of interview, or entering things in the State Fair that I never would have dreamed of doing before. So even if I’m not confident I’m going to be able to pull it off, I at least have the confidence to try.

Speaking of the fair, are you a longtime fan?

Yeah, I’ve been going since I was a baby. Like most Minnesotans, we’d go every year. And then my grandpa and step-grandma worked in the 4-H building, so they would bring all 12 grandkids to the fair and just kind of let us loose, from gate open to gate closed. He was a brave man for bringing us all. What I do and what I enjoy have evolved over the years, but I just love it.

When you did you start entering Creative Activities competitions?

It was 2014, and I entered three things, and all three things ribboned.

Do you enter the same categories or do you like to shake things up?

I like to mix it up. There’s a few things that I’ll do for a couple years in a row, and then I move on. But I always try to do a few different things each year, just kind of expand and try some new things.

What’s the favorite thing you’ve entered?

In 2016, I entered the cookie-on-a-stick contest. It was your favorite fair food, so I did a 3-D bucket of the Fresh French Fries, that red and yellow striped stand. I thought it was pretty good, and then when I handed it in for intake, the girl couldn’t believe it, and started showing other people. I thought, “Oh, I might actually do OK.” And I got a blue ribbon with that.

Why do you like the fair competitions? Are you competitive by nature?

It kind of seems like I would be, doesn’t it? I’m really not a competitive person — against myself I am. You know, I’m one of those where I push myself and as long as I’m doing the best I can, I’m happy. If I win, great. If I don’t, I’m going to celebrate whoever beat me. That’s what I like about it. The people I’ve met through this experience. It’s just such a fun community to be a part of, and I think that’s what keeps me coming back.

Some people are hardcore competitors, though.

I know! My first year I showed up with like, three little things, just kind of carrying them in a bag. And there’s this woman who pulled up in a big SUV, and she had a whole entourage with her, and she had a laundry basket full of stuff and a wagon full of stuff. I was both terrified and impressed.

What else do you like to do at the fair?

I’m kind of an exhibit person, more than a food person, which probably makes me a pretty sad fairgoer. I like looking at all the exhibits, the farm animals. I love watching the judging of goats and cows. I love the vegetables because I love to garden, the Education Building, and the kids’ art — it’s so fun to look at.

After all your baking successes, what still vexes you?

Lots of things! I still say that cake is my nemesis, which makes it really ironic that I signed up for the [State Fair] decorated cake contest this year. But cake will always be the thing that I fight with the most in the kitchen. I don’t know why. I think it’s just because it’s intimidating to me, a giant cake. You can handle a bunch of cookies, but one big cake is something else.

Any baking advice?

Just not being afraid to try things. Before I even thought about applying for this show, there were so many things I’d never even thought of making, and I had failure after failure, and I would cry. You have to have the ability to learn from the failures and not be afraid to try it again, because baking really is one of those things that you learn by doing it. The more you do it, the more you learn, and the better you get at it.

“The Great American Baking Show” premiered in June and is available to stream for free on the Roku Channel.