Betty Crocker

Betty Crocker
Betty Crocker is an icon that many of us have grown up with through the years. Betty Crocker is synonymous with cookbooks and cake mixes. Of course, this is not all! The name Betty Crocker has historical significance as well. The name “Betty Crocker” was developed to market products to homemakers, and created from combining the last name of a retired company executive, William Crocker, and a pleasant, comfortable female name, Betty. According to an online source, General Mills became inundated with requests for recipes and baking suggestions, and to make the responses more personal, the company responded with letters using the signature of a secretary who won an office contest. Betty Crocker now seemed even more credible and personable. This was in 1921 and this same signature is still used today. In 1924 the first Betty Crocker School of the Air, the nation’s first cooking show aired on the radio. It was so popular that it continued for another 24 years. In 1936 an artist combined the features of the women who worked in the company’s home department in the official likeness of “Betty Crocker”, which has changed throughout the years to keep up with the times.
Now we’re all clear on the fact that Betty Crocker was never a real person (she was voted the most popular woman in the country second to Eleanor Roosevelt!) let’s move on to all those great Betty Crocker recipes and products. The first Betty Crocker cook book was made available to homes throughout the nation in 1950. It was called the “Betty Crocker Picture Cook Book”. It has now been republished in all its original glory and is available online at www.amazon.com or at your local book store. This cook book is complete with black and white and color pictures and illustrations, and covers everything from the most basic of recipes to the most complex, including tips on food selection, presentation, and table settings. A very dated suggestion made to overworked cooks in the kitchen, was to lie on the kitchen floor for 3-5 minutes to rest. Crazy! Can you imagine doing that now? Most of us would probably choose the couch or recliner over our kitchen floor. My, how times have changed.
Betty Crocker products fill every kitchen in the country. The brownie and cake mixes are absolutely fantastic, and become easier and easier to make all the time. Our lifestyles have become so hectic that not many people have time to spend in the kitchen baking. Betty Crocker products have become more convenient so that we can still come home and bake something fresh in relatively little time, and it’s so easy, that even the kids can do it! That’s my kind of cooking – no fuss, no muss!! Betty Crocker will be there for our kids, just as she was for us, our parents, and their parents, in our pantries and our cupboards. Betty Crocker is an American icon!