The outcome of Gerry Frank's 57th chocolate cake contest

The 57th annual Chocolate Layer Cake contest, the purported longest running cake contest, was held at the State Fair on Sunday, Sept. 4.
Gerry Frank, from Gerry Frank’s Konditorei, has been the sole judge since the contest’s beginning in 1959. He tasted 54 cakes, and as per tradition, takes one bite from both the inside and outside of each dessert. The contest lasted roughly 90 minutes, and attracted as large a crowd as always.

Before each contest Frank, an admitted chocoholic, cuts down on his chocolate intake, and the day of, takes what he calls a “Pepto-Bismol sandwich.” Before each bite, and after, he takes a swig of the candy-colored liquid. Using this technique, it allows him to eat 100 to 200 forkfuls of cake within a few hours.
This year’s winner was Connie Stanton from Salem. First place prize is a $250 gift card to Macy’s and a party for six at Konditorei.
“I didn’t place,” Vivien Rose-Phillips, a contestant, said. “But I lost to a cake that was basically a giant Ferrero Rocher, so that’s fair.”

The contest was open to bakers as young as nine, and the sixth place winner was a gluten free cake. There was a two-way tie for seventh place and a four-way tie for fourth. Stanton has won the contest five times, and says the last time she entered was in the 1980s. A full list of winners can be found on Statesman Journal.
Frank gave his advice to a good chocolate cake at the end of the presentation: a dense, moist cake [preferably dark chocolate], any size. The restaurant owner and World War II veteran claims he got his love of chocolate from his father. During the war, he only increased the craving due to his meal schedule on certain days consisting entirely of chocolate.