1972's Bake-Off was high point in winner's life, daughter recalls

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has had but one grand prize winner in Pillsbury Bake-Off history. In 1972 — for the first time — two $25,000 grand prizes were up for grabs at the event, held in Houston.

Rose Pietro DeDominicis of Penn Hills, the daughter of Sicilian immigrants, won one of them for her Streusel Spice Cake.

"That was the most important thing that happened to my mom," says DeDominicis' daughter Eleanor Giarnelli of Penn Hills. "She never had flown in an airplane before. My younger sister, who was in college at the time, went with her."

DeDominicis, a homemaker and mother of two daughters, never had entered any kind of contest nor had won anything in her life, Giarnelli says. She was talked into competing in the Bake-Off by her husband, Carl. L. DeDominicis.

"My dad told her to do it," Giarnelli says. "He said, 'This is great. You will win.'"

DeDominicis died in late 1995; her husband passed away within the next six months. But her family recalls her Bake-Off glory vividly, and the winning recipe is at the top of her daughters' kitchen repertoires.

Giarnelli remembers typing the recipe on the entry form. DeDominicis wasn't used to writing out exact cups and tablespoons, she adds.

"She never cooked by measurements. She just threw things in. But she always was a great cook." Her mother excelled in Italian cuisine — ravioli was one of Giarnelli's favorites — but "she could just cook anything."

When DeDominicis won the prize, she was overwhelmed, Giarnelli says, "but my dad said all along she would (win)."

DeDominicis' brother-in-law, John J. DeDominicis of Upper St. Clair, secretly taped her excitement-filled voice as she got off the plane from Houston. The feat earned another airplane trip — to California, where her mother appeared on Dinah Shore's television show, Giarnelli says.

"She never thought of herself as an educated woman, and she didn't drive until she was in her 40s, so this was a very exciting thing for her world," Giarnelli adds. DeDominicis had worked early in her marriage, but once her second child — Carole Schwab, now a school principal in Pittsford, N.Y. — was born, she became a full-time homemaker.

Giarnelli still makes the Bundt cake her mother created, except she sometimes uses a packaged cinnamon streusel coffeecake mix instead of the yellow cake mix listed in the original recipe. "I don't add the nuts and chocolate and coconut," she says — her son cannot eat nuts.

After their mother died, Giarnelli and Schwab gathered her old cookbooks — held together by a rubber band and including recipes from the company that made Rumsford baking powder — and divided them. But Giarnelli has since gone several steps further to preserve her mother's legacy.

"What cookbooks didn't get, I've bought from the Internet and book sales."

Here is the recipe from Pennsylvania's only grand prize Pillsbury Bake-Off winner — so far.

For the cake:
• 1 (18.25-ounce) package moist supreme yellow cake mix
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) margarine or butter, softened
• 5 eggs
• 1/4 cup coconut
• 1/4 cup nuts, chopped
• 1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, melted

  For the filling:

• 1/2 cup coconut
• 1/2 cup nuts, chopped
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose or unbleached flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

  For the glaze:

• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 tablespoon margarine or butter, softened
• 2 to 3 tablespoons milk

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube or a 12-cup Bundt pan.

In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, 3/4 cup milk, 1/2 cup margarine and the eggs. Beat at low speed until moistened. Beat 2 minutes at high speed.

Stir in 1/4 cup coconut and 1/4 cup nuts. Using a spoon, marble the chocolate through the batter. Pour half of the batter (about 2 cups) into the prepared pan.

In a small bowl, combine all of the filling ingredients. Reserve 1/2 cup filling. Sprinkle the remaining filling over the batter in the pan. Cover with the remaining batter and sprinkle with the reserved filling.

Bake for 55 to 70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool upright in the pan for 30 minutes. Remove from the pan; cool 1 hour or until completely cooled.

In a small bowl, blend all of the glaze ingredients until smooth, adding enough milk for the desired drizzling consistency. Drizzle over the cake. Makes 16 servings.

Nutrition information per serving: 350 calories (150 from fat), 17 grams fat (5 grams saturated), 65 milligrams cholesterol, 5 grams protein, 45 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram dietary fiber, 330 milligrams sodium. Dietary exchanges: 1 1/2 starch, 1 1/2 fruit, 3 fat or 3 carbohydrate, 3 fat.