Betty Crocker was born in 1921. From her earliest days she was the voice of Gold Medal brand flour and she wrote letters to their customers – mostly homemakers – who were hungry for baking advice which she was all-too happy to provide them with.
Eventually Betty Crocker wrote recipe books which were published by General Mills, of course. Her name soon became synonymous with wholesome American sweets.
Over the years, Betty Crocker hasn’t changed very much at all. In fact, she hasn’t aged a day.
That’s because she isn’t a real person.
Betty Crocker, like Ronald McDonald and Mr.Clean, only exists because someone invented her to sell products.
She was named after William Crocker, the director of the Washburn Crosby company, which later grew up to be the food conglomerate known as General Mills. The name “Betty” was selected because it “was viewed as a cheery, all-American name”, per Wikipedia.
Eventually, Betty Crocker gained a voice of her own when Washburn Crosby, her parent company, purchased a radio station in 1924. One of their first radio shows was the “Betty Crocker Cooking School”, hosted by (who else?) Betty Crocker.
Of course, none of the listeners knew that the voice they were hearing wasn’t actually the real Betty Crocker.
In an exceptionally brilliant move, the Washburn Company decided to meet radio station demands for their show by sending scripts to other radio markets. Using local voice talent, the radio stations in Boston, Chicago, Atlanta and Los Angeles all hired women who had accents which were native to their markets. This made Betty Crocker sound like someone who was from their hometown and further endeared listeners to accept her advice and welcome her into their kitchens as someone who could have been born in their neighborhood.
There’s one final deception that Betty Crocker foisted upon the American public: Her cake mix didn’t really require any eggs.
Since the 1930’s cake mixes have included a dehydrated flour mixture which also contained powdered eggs. That means that all anyone really needed to do to bake a Betty Crocker cake was to open the bag of cake mix, add water, stir and pour into the cake pan to bake.
So, why did Betty Crocker start telling people to add an egg to the process in 1950? It’s simple really: It made women feel like they were actually better at baking.
According to Betty Crocker’s own website:
Research conducted by psychologist Ernest Dichler proved that being able to add an egg to a cake mix..took away the guilt of convenient baking and affirmed the woman’s role as provider.
Does all of this make you feel a little sad?
Maybe you’ll feel better if you bake yourself a box of Betty Crocker brownies. (Egg optional).
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