Under the smooth promotional hand of Pillsbury Mills, Inc., 100 top amateur U.S. cooks competed last week in Manhattan’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in a $70,-ooo prize baking contest. With 100 electric ranges set up on the ballroom floor, the cooks—97 women and three men—donned aprons and went to work. All day, under the watchful gaze of judges, the hopefuls produced such culinary delights as golden glow cake, black & white pie and glorified cherry upside-down cake.
When the time came to hand out the $50,000 first prize, it was won by a simple roll with the fanciest name of all—the “water-rising nut twist.” The winner: Mrs. Ralph E. Smafield, 32, wife of a Detroit electrical engineer. The recipe, as expected, was a family treasure, which Mrs. Smafield got from her mother who “got it 25 years ago from a friend in Wisconsin.” Pillsbury labeled it top secret, saved it for publication later.
Second prize of $10,000 went to Miss Laura Rott of Naperville, Ill. for her mint surprise cookies; third prize of $4,000 to Mrs. R. W. Sprague of San Marino, Calif, for her Carrie’s Creole chocolate cake.
The men won nothing.
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