Cake designers from Nebraska and Iowa put their skill and creativity to the test Thursday in Council Bluffs.

Hy-Vee cake decorators participated in the eighth annual Hy-Vee Cake Decorating Challenge at Mall of the Bluffs. The 25 contestants each decorated a dozen cookies, two-sheet cakes, 24 cupcakes and a feature cake.

“It’s become very popular,” said Hy-Vee’s Rick Mace. “We're doing this to showcase the talents of our decorators. We do it at this time of year right before graduation to kind of give us a kick-start into graduation.”

This was the last of six regional contests to determine who will be the Ace of Cakes for 2013. Thursday’s winner, Katie O'Connor, and the second and third-place finishers move on to Hy-Vee's Cake Designer Challenge on March 27th in West Des Moines, Iowa.

O'Connor made cakes that resembled a bag of flour and another that looked like a stack of books.