What is the Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest?:
The Pillsbury Bake-Off is a bi-annual recipe contest that allows regular cooks across America to submit their favorite recipes for the chance to win big prizes. The contest showcases Pillsbury products, and requires that recipes contain ingredients from a pre-specified list.
What are Typical Prizes for the Pillsbury Bake-Off?:
Since 1996, the grand prize in the Pillsbury Bake-Off has been a million dollars cash. The winner also receives additional prizes like kitchen appliances.
There are also prize winners in each category as well as special awards like the America's Favorite Recipe Award, which recognizes the recipe with the most consumer votes, the GE Imagination At Work Award which recognizes the most innovative recipe, and the Jif Peanut Butter Award which goes to the best recipe that uses peanut butter. Each of these winners receive cash and prizes.
How Are the Bake-Off Finalists Chosen?:
Each recipe is reviewed by a panel of judges from an independent agency on the basis of taste, appearance, creativity , and consumer appeal. The best recipes were selected for screening by the Pillsbury Bake-Off Test Kitchens. The recipes chosen for advancement by the test kitchens were prepared according to the directions and vetted to ensure that they had not been previously published. The top 100 from those recipes were selected as the finalists.
Bake-Off Contest History:
The Bake-Off contest was originally conceived as a way for Pillsbury to celebrate their 80th birthday. The contest was officially called the Grand National Recipe and Baking Contest, but the media seized on the name, Bake-Off. It fit so well that Pillsbury adopted the name for later contests.
The very first prize winner was Theodora Smafield and her No-Knead Water-Rising Twists. Theodora took home $50,000 for her win.
Originally, the Bake-Off was held every year, but today entries are accepted bi-annually, in odd-numbered years. The winners are announced in even-numbered years.
Trivia about the Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest:
You might not realize it, but the Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest has affected how you live. For example, the winner of the 1966 Bake-Off used a little-known cooking tool in her Tunnel of Fudge Cake recipe: a Bundt pan. The recipe was so popular that demand for the Bundt pan soared. It quickly became the number-one selling pan, and Pillsbury joined up with NordicWare, the creators of the ring-shaped pans, to put out a line of special Bundt pan cake mixes.
If you have a Bundt pan in your kitchen, you could owe it to the Pillsbury Bake Off.
Pillsbury Bake-Off Cookbooks:
Pillsbury gathers the best Bake-Off recipes, and produces them in various cook books. Not only are these great recipes to have around your home, but they can also inspire your own cooking to help you come up with prize-winning recipes. Some of the current Bake-Off cookbooks include:
- Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off Cookbook: Recipes From America's Favorite Cooking Contest Updated Edition With A Newquick & Easy Main Meals Chapter (compare prices)
- Pillsbury Bake-Off Winners: 100 Best Recipes from the 42nd Bake-Off Contest (compare prices)
- Pilllsbury Best of the Bake-Off Cookies and Bars (compare prices)
