This is my entry for the Minedeas 2 contest. My idea is automatic crafting tables. The way the automatic crafting table would work is:
First you would place a hopper leading into a crafting table, and another hopper leading out of the crafting table.



When you open the crafting table, you would use the recipe book feature to select a recipe, like usual, but the recipe you select would be stored as the goal recipe in tile entity data. The goal recipe would stay the same until you select another goal recipe.



Then, the crafting table lets items flow into it from the incoming hopper, if:

1. The item is part of the recipe, and
   
2. there is room for the item in its slot or one of its slots in the crafting grid.
   

Items can stack in the crafting grid if they are stackable, but the crafting table prioritizes crafting before stacking, and therefore spreads items into each of their slots in the crafting grid before resorting to stacking them.



Once every slot is filled with its item, the crafting table crafts the goal item and lets it flow into the outgoing hopper. If there is no outgoing hopper, the crafted items will stack in the output slot, unless they are non-stackable, the same way furnaces work.



If any items are left over from crafting, such as the buckets left over after crafting cake, they would flow into the outgoing hopper after the goal recipe is crafted, If there is no outgoing hopper for the leftover items, they would stay in their places in the crafting grid, preventing anything else from being auto-crafted.



If you open the crafting table again, you would be able to see the slots fill, and manually take items out, put items in, or change the goal recipe, similarly to furnaces.



I hope you like my idea!
Mincerafter42