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Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest

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Black and white photograph of the first Pillsbury Bake-Off in New York City at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, 1949.

The first Pillsbury Bake-Off in New York City at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, 1949.

In 1949, the Pillsbury Company in Minneapolis celebrated its eightieth anniversary. To promote Pillsbury’s Best Family Flour, it created the Grand National Recipe and Baking Contest, later named the Bake-Off, to discover the country’s best amateur bakers and recipes. The winning recipes were placed in Pillsbury flour bags as an incentive for consumers to purchase one of Pillsbury’s premier products.

In 1949, the contest offered entrants six entry categories: breads, cakes, pies, cookies, entrees, and desserts. Hopeful bakers completed entry forms and sent in their recipes. If they included a seal from a Pillsbury flour bag, their potential prizes were doubled.

Pillsbury home economists evaluated thousands of entries and selected one hundred finalists after baking and sampling the entries. The finalists’ prizes included a trip to New York City, a room at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel with breakfast in bed, and $100. They all also won a General Electric Stratoliner push-button range and a Hamilton Beach mixer. The grand prize of $25,000 was awarded after all of the finalists’ entries were prepared and judged. In the first contest year, there was only one division. In 1950, it was split into two divisions: junior (for ages twelve to eighteen years old) and senior (for those nineteen and older).

Arthur Godfrey and Art Linkletter, well-known radio and television personalities, hosted the contest in the early years. Eleanor Roosevelt, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Mamie Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and Margaret Truman were among the celebrities at early contests. Philip Pillsbury, company president and grandson of company co-founder Charles Pillsbury, led contestants to their stoves at the opening of each contest from 1949 until 1984.

Memorable recipes from the Bake-Off include Dilly Casserole Bread (1960), French Silk Chocolate Pie (1951), Tunnel of Fudge Cake (1966), Peanut Blossoms (1957), and Chocolate Praline Layer Cake (1988). Peanut Blossoms cookies, with a chocolate kiss in the center, are still found on many Christmas cookie trays, but the Tunnel of Fudge Cake is probably the most famous. Baked by Ella Helfrich from Texas, it won second prize and was so popular that it created a demand for the Nordic Ware bundt pan.

In 1969, Edna Walker from Minnesota won the grand prize with her winning recipe for Magic Marshmallow Crescent Puffs. The recipe was a milestone since it was the first winner to use a refrigerated dough product. Home bakers rushed to make the recipe. Grocery stores in the Twin Cities area soon ran out of cans of Pillsbury Refrigerated Crescent Dinner Rolls, the recipe’s key ingredient.

Perhaps to attract the judges’ eyes, many contestants were creative in naming their entries. Examples from 1954 include Watermelon Tea-Ettes, Pear-adise Chocolate Dessert, Cranberry Coconut Holidainty, and American Piece-A-Pie.

In 1949, there were three male contestants. In 1998, there were fourteen, which set a record. In 1996, Kurt Wait won the first million-dollar grand prize with his Macadamia Nut Fudge Torte. Twelve-year-old Richard Klecka won the junior division in 1962 with his Cheeseburger Casserole.

The contest evolved as Americans’ food tastes and interests changed. Time available to spend in the kitchen lessened and convenience foods became available. Pillsbury home economists shortened and adapted winning recipes to include Pillsbury products such as cake, frosting, and hot roll mixes and cans of refrigerated dinner rolls and biscuits. In 2013, contest rules required that recipes have fewer than eight ingredients and take no longer than thirty minutes to prepare, not including baking time.

From 1949–1956, the contest was held in New York City. After that, the location changed each year, but never in Pillsbury’s corporate home of Minneapolis. Each year, the hundred winning recipes were published in a cookbook that initially cost twenty-five cents.

The first contest, in 1949, was so successful that it was held annually until 1976 and then every two years until the 47th competition in 2014. By then, winner selection had evolved along with the recipes themselves. In that year, the public voted online, without tasting the entries, and picked Peanutty Pie Crust Clusters as the winner. The other competitors for top prize were Cuban-style Sandwich Pockets, Creamy Corn-filled Sweet Peppers, and Chocolate Doughnut Poppers. As of 2017, the future of the contest is undetermined.

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© Minnesota Historical Society
  • Bibliography

Burckhardt, Ann. A Cook’s Tour of Minnesota. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2004.

Campbell, Allison. “The 50th Anniversary Pillsbury Bake-Off. After the Doughboy. A Look at What Happens After Winning the Grand Prize.” St. Paul Pioneer Press, February 25, 2000.

Classic Pillsbury Cookbooks: Bake-Off® Grand Prize Winners. Minneapolis: The Pillsbury Company,
1995.

General Mills, History of Innovation, The Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest.
www.generalmills.com/~/media/Files/history/hist_bakeoff.ashx

Nelson, Rick. “Bake-Off Winner Announced.” Minneapolis Star Tribune, November 14, 2013.

Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest.
https://www.pillsbury.com/our-makers/bake-off-contest

Powell, William J. Pillsbury's Best: A Company History from 1869. Minneapolis: The Pillsbury Company, 1985.

Sicherman, Al. “Just Desserts—Pillsbury's State Honorees take the Cake. Originations of Chocolate Layer Cake and Magic Marshmallow Crescent Puffs are Honored.” Minneapolis Star Tribune, May 27, 1999.

Simonick, Millie. “Mrs. Luella Maki is Pillsbury Bake-Off Winner.” Ely Echo, March 5, 1975. http://www.ely.stparchive.com/Archive/ELY/ELY03051975P01.php

Taste of General Mills.
http://www.blog.generalmills.com/?s=pillsbury+bake-off

Taste of General Mills. A Million Reasons to Love this Recipe.
http://www.blog.generalmills.com/2014/12/a-million-reasons-to-love-this-recipe/

Webb, Tom. “New Recipe for the $1M Bake-Off Winner: Quick and Easy.” St. Paul Pioneer Press, April 12, 2013.

Related Images

Black and white photograph of the first Pillsbury Bake-Off in New York City at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, 1949.
Black and white photograph of the first Pillsbury Bake-Off in New York City at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, 1949.
Black and white photograph of Grand Prize Bake-Off Winner, Theodora Smafield, 1949.
Black and white photograph of Grand Prize Bake-Off Winner, Theodora Smafield, 1949.
Bake-Off Entry Form, 1949
Bake-Off Entry Form, 1949
Black and white photograph of Philip Pillsbury, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Art Linkletter sampling Theodora Smafield’s winning recipe, 1949.
Black and white photograph of Philip Pillsbury, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Art Linkletter sampling Theodora Smafield’s winning recipe, 1949.
Black and white photograph from the Grand National Bake-Off at the Waldorf Astoria, New York, 1950. Left to right: Art Linkletter, contestant, Duchess of Windsor (the former Wallis Simpson), Philip Pillsbury.
Black and white photograph from the Grand National Bake-Off at the Waldorf Astoria, New York, 1950. Left to right: Art Linkletter, contestant, Duchess of Windsor (the former Wallis Simpson), Philip Pillsbury.
Black and white photograph of the Duchess of Windsor, the former Wallis Simpson, and Philip Pillsbury sample the grand prize winning orange kiss-me-cake cake, 1951.
Black and white photograph of the Duchess of Windsor, the former Wallis Simpson, and Philip Pillsbury sample the grand prize winning orange kiss-me-cake cake, 1951.
Black and white photograph of a breakfast for Pillsbury Bake-Off contestants, Los Angeles, 1957.
Black and white photograph of a breakfast for Pillsbury Bake-Off contestants, Los Angeles, 1957.
Black and white photograph of Beatrice Ojakangas from Duluth, MN and Ronald Reagan at the Bake-Off in Los Angeles, 1957.
Black and white photograph of Beatrice Ojakangas from Duluth, MN and Ronald Reagan at the Bake-Off in Los Angeles, 1957.
Color image of Peanut Blossom Cookies, Senior Winning Grand National Recipe, 1957.
Color image of Peanut Blossom Cookies, Senior Winning Grand National Recipe, 1957.
Color image of a Tunnel of Fudge Cake, Second Prize Winning Recipe, 1966.
Color image of a Tunnel of Fudge Cake, Second Prize Winning Recipe, 1966.
Black and white photograph of Barbara Thornton and Art Linkletter at Pillsbury Bake-Off, Dallas, Texas, 1968.
Black and white photograph of Barbara Thornton and Art Linkletter at Pillsbury Bake-Off, Dallas, Texas, 1968.
Color image of ontestants forming the number “21” in San Diego to commemorate the 21st Bake-Off contest, 1970.
Color image of ontestants forming the number “21” in San Diego to commemorate the 21st Bake-Off contest, 1970.
Black and white photograph of contestants in the Junior Division of the Bake-Off Contest in San Antonio, TX, 1982.
Black and white photograph of contestants in the Junior Division of the Bake-Off Contest in San Antonio, TX, 1982.
Black and white photograph of Bake-Off Grand Prize Winner Julie Konecne (Bemidji, MN) tasting her chocolate pecan praline layer cake, 1988.
Black and white photograph of Bake-Off Grand Prize Winner Julie Konecne (Bemidji, MN) tasting her chocolate pecan praline layer cake, 1988.
Color image of Bake-Off Winner Kurt Wait (Redwood City, CA) baking macadamia fudge torte. He was the first and only male grand prize winner, 1996.
Color image of Bake-Off Winner Kurt Wait (Redwood City, CA) baking macadamia fudge torte. He was the first and only male grand prize winner, 1996.
Color image of a sign, Pillsbury's Best Flour, Pillsbury Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota, ca. 1950.
Color image of a sign, Pillsbury's Best Flour, Pillsbury Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota, ca. 1950.
Color image of a Pillsbury Bake-off Apron, Pillsbury's Best Flour, Pillsbury Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota, ca. 1950.
Color image of a Pillsbury Bake-off Apron, Pillsbury's Best Flour, Pillsbury Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota, ca. 1950.

Turning Point

In 1978, Chick-N-Broccoli Pot Pies included Green Giant frozen broccoli as an ingredient, marking the first time frozen vegetables appeared in a grand-prize-winning recipe.

Chronology

1949

Theodora Smalfield of Michigan wins the first baking contest with her recipe for No-Knead Water Rising Twists. The prize doubles to $50,000 since she submitted the seal from a Pillsbury Best Flour bag with her entry.

1949

Only 99 of the winning entries appear in a Life magazine photograph after someone eats the 100th item.

1950

The contest adds a junior division for those contestants twelve to eighteen years old. Ruth Derousseau from Wisconsin wins $5,000 for her recipe for Cherry Winks.

1954

Mrs. Bernard (Dorothy) Koteen from Washington, D.C. wins the grand prize with her entry Open Sesame Pie. She plans to use her prize money to buy a home. Grocery stores in the country experience a shortage of sesame seeds as cooks rush to make the pie.

1957

Mrs. Richard. W. (Beatrice) Ojakangas of Duluth, Minnesota wins $5,000 and the second grand prize for Chunk o’ Cheese Bread. She becomes a well-known national cookbook author specializing in Finnish and Scandinavian foods.

1958

Gregory Patent wins the $1,000 second prize in the junior division with his recipe for Apricot Dessert Bars. He plans to use the money for his medical school education.

1961

Mrs. Vernon (Alice) Reese from Minneapolis wins the grand prize with her recipe for Candy Bar Cookies. The cookie is topped with caramel filling and chocolate icing.

1966

The Tunnel of Fudge Cake, baked by Ella Helfrich from Houston, Texas, wins second prize, and the recipe becomes a national phenomenon. Pillsbury later discontinues the frosting mix used in the recipe, to the dismay of bakers.

1972

Isabelle Collins from Elk River, Minnesota wins the grand prize with her recipe for Quick ‘n Chewy Crescent Bars. Coconut and pecans are among the seven recipe ingredients.

1974

Francis I. Jerzak from Porter, Minnesota wins the grand prize with her recipe for Chocolate Cherry Bars. She purchases a car for her family and a tractor for their farm with her prize money.

1975

After entering the contest eleven times without becoming a finalist, Luella Maki from Ely, Minnesota wins the grand prize with her recipe for Sour Cream Apple Squares.

1988

Julie Bengtson from Bemidji, Minnesota wins the grand prize with her recipe for Chocolate Praline Layer Cake. Chocolate curls decorate the cake’s whipped cream topping.

1995

Prizes, cash, and trips awarded to contestants since 1949 total more than $6 million. Other benefits include traveling to a major U.S. city, staying in a luxury hotel with breakfast in bed, and appearing on television.

2013

Three men and ninety-seven women finalists create recipes that require a total of 192 eggs, fifty-four pounds of frozen vegetables, and ninety-five pounds of Pillsbury flour.

2014

The categories in the forty-seventh Bake-Off are Simply Sweet Treats, Savory Snacks and Sides, Weekend Breakfast Wows, and Amazing Doable Dinners.