We couldn't let this year's fair end without talking about one of our favorite things -- the decorated cakes.

This year's entries are some of the most creative ever. A giant, spooky haunted house. An intricate Asian silk pattern. An overflowing toy box. 

There's even a cake designed to look exactly look a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. We understand there are actual donuts inside. We'll have to take the word of fair officials -- they won't let us get too close to the cakes. (Likely with good reason!)

Still, our favorite was the cake designed to look just like Duff and the gang from Charm City Cakes, as seen on the Food Network's "Ace of Cakes." Just ponder that for a second -- a specially designed cake that honors the real cake decorators who are featured on a reality TV show all about creating specially designed cakes. Kind of makes your head spin, huh?

Tommy Highsmith has been selling food at the State Fair since the 194Os - not for profit, but to support outreach programs at the Westover United Methodist Church in Raleigh.

“This has been a major fundraiser for us since the church was started in the 1940s,” said Highsmith, who grew up within sight of the fairgrounds. “That’s about the only thing that hasn’t changed.”

Today, church volunteers prepare ham biscuits, hot dogs, cheeseburgers and other foods on restaurant-sized griddles. Back in the early days, Highsmith recalled, “the women would bake pound cakes, brownies and other desserts at home and bring them here in baskets. They’d usually sell about half of what they had before they made it to our little cubicle with the flags flying on top.”

He remembers joining the large crowds at the railroad tracks on the Sunday night before the fair when the rides and exhibits would arrive. “The fair only lasted four and half days then,” he said. “When it closed midnight Saturday they’d take about two weeks to take everything down and clean up and then lock up the fairgrounds until the next year. Not like today where they have something going on everyday.”

As a child he loved the midget auto racing. When he got a little older, he would sneak a peak at the “hoochie-coochie shows they used to have here.”

These days he spends most of his time with the other church volunteers. The fair booth is their major fundraiser, usually clearing about $20,000 for outreach ministries, a rescue mission, programs for the handicapped and other charitable efforts.

“We’re a little down this year, maybe 8 percent,” Highsmith said. “But the mood is always good at the fair.”

As the food writer at The News & Observer, Andrea Weigl is asked to judge a lot of cooking contests. The State Fair is no different.

Today, Weigl judged the N.C. Pecan Association contest, which sought recipes for appetizer, main course or a dessert involving 1 cup of pecans. As you might imagine, she tasted a lot of sweet pecan desserts: Pecan Cupcakes with Apple Butter Cream Cheese Frosting, Harvest Honey Pecan Cakes, even Pecan Turtle Fudge Pie.

Andrea sent us the following dispatch from the judging room, explaining how things work:

"The judging is blind. The judges read the recipes but don't know who authored the recipe and entered the dish.

The judges were split into two groups. My group tasted 12 of the 24 entries. The other three judges tasted the other 12. Then each group collectively ranked our top four and tasted the other team's top four. Then each judge individually ranked their top four out of the top eight dishes.

I'm always surprised by what I learn about my palate during these contests: that cream cheese and grapes make a nice salad with brown sugar and pecans on top; that I can have a wildly different view on a pecan-glazed brie dish than another judge.

In the end, I believe sweetness fatigue contributed to my first choice, a wild rice strudel with pecans, which ultimately won the blue ribbon. Who would have guessed? The creator of that recipe turned out to be Felice Bogus, the competitive cook I wrote about last year as I followed her testing recipes for the State Fair's cooking contests.

Forget the fried Twinkies, candy bars and whatever else (battered Oreo sundaes? Has it come to this?) they are dropping into hot oil this year. The ever-expanding category of Things That Are Fried That Shouldn’t Be is a cynical marketing grab for attention.

No. Put down that slice of deep-fried pecan pie and step back, turn and walk to the Commercial Building in the southeast corner of the Fairgrounds. Hunt until you find the tiny MacLeod Farms booth. Then hand Martin Broggini $3.50, and he will give you a sack of pure spun Vermont.

Yes, it LOOKS like cotton candy, except for the color, a pale, almost gold shade of tan. That’s right, cotton candy made from pure maple sugar.

“There’s no fat!” Broggini boasts, neatly side-stepping a discussion of carbs and calories. Though it’s probably not bad compared with most of the foodstuffs for sale at the fair, because it’s only four or five tablespoons of maple sugar.

The business was started by Broggini’s father-in-law and has been coming to the fair for 34 years. The Brogginis also will sell you just about anything mapleish, from cookies to candies. They really know syrup, which they make themselves after tapping about 1,000 trees.

They’ll sell it to you by the gallon. But there couldn’t be a better merger of maple and fair than the cotton candy, which is sublime.

Thirty-four years? And no one told me?

Who brought fried dough to the N.C. State Fair? Bobbi Tellone says it was her.

Tellone and her family made a living on the fair circuit for three decades, but now limit their trips up from Fort Myers, Fla., to only one stop – the N.C. State Fair, where they've run a fried dough booth in the same location for 37 years.

"I introduced it to Raleigh," said Tellone, 62, whose counter features a display of her trademark deep-fried dough, slathered with the diner's choice of apple, hot fudge, Bavarian cream or cherry topping.

"People didn't know what it was – I free-sampled them to death."

Tellone said the delicacy stemmed from a grandmother's practice of making sweet things out of leftover dough on Saturday mornings. Fried dough, she said emphatically, should not be confused with funnel cakes, which use a wetter dough and absorb more cooking fat.

"Fried dough is like a Cadillac," she said. "Funnel cake is like a Chevrolet."

The biscuit wars are on in earnest.

The amplified voice at the Apex Lions Club booth proclaims their biscuits to be "like the ones Grandma made before she found out about that can."

With so many offerings, diners can shop for bargains. While other stands charged between $2 and $2.50, Westover United Methodist Church offers country ham biscuits for $1.50.

"From North Carolina's finest pigs!" proclaimed the Rev. Johnnie Wright, Westover's pastor, who's out front with a spiel designed to lure patrons inside. "We serve you with a smile."

The State Fair is full of bargains if you keep your eyes peeled. Over the next 10 days, we’ll highlight some of them in The News & Observer.

Here are just a couple that our reporters have found so far:

For a quarter, you can buy a honey stick at Bobbee’s Honey in the Kerr Scott Building. Bobbee’s has all sorts of flavors, including lemon, cherry, sour strawberry and clover.

Nearby, try the muscadine grape cider slushy from Lu Mil Vineyard of Duplin County. A cup of this non-alcoholic concoction costs $1.00.

It's one of the big questions fairgoers always have — what are vendors going to be deep frying this year?

Previous delicacies have ranged from Snickers bars and Oreos (pretty tasty!) to banana pudding (eh, not so much).

This year offers two new fried treats — pecan pie, and macaroni and cheese.

Our early verdict? Try the pie. It's sweet, to be sure. But the doughy breading mixes nicely with the nutty consistency of the pie. Drizzle a little powered sugar on top for extra flavor.

As for the mac and cheese? We found it way too heavy. It's equivalent to several very thick cheese sticks, served on a stick. It's really cheesy and really greasy. Not awful, but by no means a favorite.

The pie is also served on a stick, but vendors also give you a little bowl and fork. If you're like us, you'll quickly be ditching the stick and just using the fork.

One last warning — be sure and grab an extra napkin or two.