After a three-year hiatus and very little information on its future, General Mills has announced the long-awaited return of the Pillsbury Bake-Off.
The 48th bake-off will be held in partnership with the Food Network. According to a company statement, “the prize will be an experience that money can’t buy.”
General Mills offered very few details, however, other than to note that the details, rules and prize package details will be shared in October. They gave no date on when the actual contest will be help.
The official Bake-Off contest page says that General Mills and the Food Network will “reimagine” the contest, but gave no indication what that means, other than this: “We are in search of the best made-at-home recipes, and the heartfelt, funny, crazy, family stories behind them.”
The Bake-Off started in 1949 as the Grand National Recipe and Baking Contest, held in honor of Pillsbury’s 80th anniversary and a promotion for its flour. Over the years, it evolved from a baking contest into a recipe contest with multiple categories and many General Mills-owned products allowed. Starting in 1996, the grand prize was raised to $1 million, but the contest was held less frequently.
It returned to an annual event for two years. It was canceled in 2016, but General Mills claimed at the time that the contest would eventually return. Numerous attempts to get information on the future of the contest, by both food journalists and contest fans, received no more information until last week.
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