Pillsbury Bake-Off is back
After three years, the granddaddy of cooking contests, the Pillsbury Bake-Off, is coming back.
According to the official contest page, the 48th Bake-Off, sponsored by General Mills, will be in partnership with Food Network to “reimagine” the contest.
The page also says: “We are in search of the best made-at-home recipes, and the heartfelt, funny, crazy, family stories behind them.”
Entries will officially open next month, with a winner to be announced in February. And the prize package will be “an experience that money can’t buy.”
No more details will be announced until Oct. 1.
Meanwhile, comments on the Pillsbury site give clues as to what consumers are hoping for in the contest — or guessing it will be like. A couple of them asked that the contest return to its original emphasis on fromscratch cooking, instead of requiring that recipes use a string of canned and boxed products.
Others guessed that the new contest will be similar to “The Great British Baking Show” or that it will be a strictly online contest, instead of the three-day extravaganza it’s historically been. Another declared a belief that the $1 million top prize was “literally history.”
The first Bake-Off was held in 1949 in New York City. After 1976 it was held every other year. In 1996 the top prize increased from $50,000 to $1 million. The winner of that first million-dollar prize was also the first man to win the contest.
Wisconsin has had a number of finalists over the years, including some category winners, but just one grand prize winner: Susan Porubcan from Jefferson, who won in 1984 for her Country Apple Coffee Cake.