Texas Pecan Cake; Bake-Off & Away We Go!

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BAKE-OFF:  The Pillsbury web site says it began in 1949 and was dubbed this almost immediately.  From the NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE, 12 December 1951, pg. 31, col. 1, "...her Starlight Double Delight Chocolate Cake that won the grand prize in the Pillsbury Mills third national bake-off contest..."

BEST-DRESSED LIST:  NYHT, 11 December 1951, pg. 26, col. 2, "In 1928 he (Emil Hartman, Fashion Academy founder--ed.) inaugurated his annual ritual of giving awards to the year's ten best-dressed American women who wore American clothes."

GETTING THERE IS HALF THE FUN!:  I've seen this in railroad ads.  From THIS WEEK, NYHT, 25 November 1951, pg. 27, it's in a full-page ad for Cunard ships.

"--AND AWAY WE GO!":  Jackie Gleason used this.  It's a cartoon caption in the NYHT, 28 October 1951, section 2, pg. 5, cols. 3-4.

WONDER WEAPONS:  Pre-Star Wars term.  "Concerning Wonder Weapons" is the the topic of Joseph Alsop's column in the NYHT, 21 September 1951, pg. 21, cols. 7-8.

THEY ALL CAME TO PLAY:  This horrible sports cliche is the breaker in Red Smith's column, NYHT, 11 October 1951, pg. 33, col. 5.

I'M DUBIOUS:  From a review of TWO-A-DAY VAUDEVILLE with Judy Garland, NYHT, 17 Octboer 1951, pg. 19, col. 5:
   Among the best known lines in the American theater are Smith & Dale's preamble to "Dr. Kronkheit":
   "I am the doctor."  Smith
   "I'm dubious."  Dale
   "Glad to meet you, Mr. Dubious," says Smith.

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TEXAS PECAN CAKE

   This continues "pecan" coverage, for DARE, Barnhardt, whomever.
   From the NYHT, 4 September 1951, pg. 22, col. 6:

_Canned Texas Pecan Cake Arrives This Week_
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_Colorful Creation of Woman_
   _Who's Made It a Career_
   _Is Ideal as Quick Dessert_
By Clementine Paddleford
   Texas pecan cake is due this week in New York CIty stores, a cake from Sherman, Tex., Eunice King's Kitchen, this cake her career.
   Miss King was a home demonstration agent in Grayson County during the early years of the war when quite unexpectedly she found herself catapulted into business.  One of the projects she had set up for her women was the preparation of foods for overseas shipment, and part of the demonstration was the canning of cake.  Immediately she received so many orders for pecan cakes in the can she decided to resign her job and bake cakes commercially.  It was in 1944 that she opened a shop in her own house preparing overseas foods.  Almost immediately the business expanded to a point where it couldn't be handled at home, so Miss King set up a kitchen just for cake baking.  Today the work requires two assistants and five in the rush periods.
   Texas pecan cake was one of Miss King's specialties during a three-year period when she operated a tea room.  She had taken a basic cake recipe and added good things, pecans, a variety of mixed fruits and made a delicious dessert loaf that could be used either as cake or heated and sauced as a pudding.  It's a pretty thing of rich ginger brown sparkling with color.  It has a homemade taste and should have, for it is mixed in small quantities for that very purpose and made of all fresh and the best materials.  It turns fromthe can in a neat roll to slice and pass with a frozen dessert salad or with ambrosia, a rich bite to enjoy with iced tea or coffee.  It's one of those "any time" cakes, a best bet for dessert for unexpected company.  Turn the cake from the tin to use as a pudding and top with whipped cream or ice cream.  Chill the tin before opening and the cake will slip out neat and easy and slice without crumbling, twelve slices usually from the one-pound roll.
   We met the cake first in Dallas three years ago, where it was selling in the grocery department of the Nieman-Marcus Company.  Later it was met on menus in diners of trains out of Chicago, St. Louis, Denver.  Now coming to sell at B. Altman's and Charles & Co., 340 Madison, and the Vendome Table Delicacies, 415 Madison, the retail price for the 1-pound 2-ounce tin $1,60 to $1.75.