Celebrated recipe: 50 years ago Iris Hall won the grand prize in an Expo-themed culinary contest

In 1974, Iris Hill and her husband, Rod, bought season passes to Expo ’74.

Rod owned a service station on the corner of Division and Mission, and the couple could walk to Riverfront Park from his business. They would plunk their 1-year-old daughter in a stroller and enjoy the exotic foods, sights and sounds of the World’s Fair.

“We went almost every day,” Iris recalled. “I loved the Persian pavilion. The rugs were so beautiful.”

Her husband nodded.

“They had nightly fireworks, and we saw Liberace,” he said.

Iris read about the Expo ’74 recipe contest and, on a whim, decided to enter.

“My mom and grandma taught me how to cook and bake,” she said. “Mom was a great cook, and Grandma made biscuits and everything from scratch.”

As she pondered which recipe she wanted to enter, she eyed her Harvest Gold Bundt pan. She can’t remember where she acquired it, but in the early ’70s, the fluted pans had become a kitchen staple.

Bundt pans were invented by H. David Dalquist in 1950, but demand for the distinctly shaped pans grew slowly. Then, in 1966, a Bundt cake placed second in the 17th annual Pillsbury Bake-Off. That Tunnel of Fudge cake prompted women across the nation to buy Bundt pans.

“I don’t think I’d ever entered a recipe contest before,” said Iris. “But I liked baking. I’d learned to make wedding cakes.”

The 24-year-old decided to adapt her cousin’s poppy seed bread recipe for the Expo competition.

“It was the first Bundt recipe I’d made,” she said. “I added orange and lemon peel to my cousin’s recipe.”

She remembered buying orange and lemon peel in jars in the spice section of the grocery store.

After tasting the results, Iris said, “I liked the texture and the citrus.”

So, she sent the recipe to the newspaper’s Dorothy Dean kitchen and promptly forgot about it.

When someone from The Spokesman-Review called and said they would like to send a photographer out, she assumed they were taking photos of everyone who had submitted recipes.

She posed in her kitchen, wearing a brightly printed floral house dress, and her trusty Bundt pan sat on the table with a few other baking items. On June 9, 1974, she opened The Spokesman-Review and saw her Poppy Seed Citrus Bread on the cover of the Sunday magazine.

“I said, ‘My gosh! That’s my bread on the cover!’ ” she recalled.

Indeed, her bread was front and center, the Chinese Junk boat behind it, and the United States Pavilion looming in the background.

“That’s when it still had a cover,” said Rod.

Flabbergasted, she turned the pages to find her photo and an article declaring her recipe had won the Grand Prize. The photo identified her as “young Spokane homemaker, Mrs. Rod Hill.”

Runners-up included Hubby’s Molded Shrimp Salad and Coconut Malt Bars.

Her phone rang off the hook with congratulations from family and friends.

In addition to the grand prize ribbon, Hill received a signed Dorothy Dean cookbook and a check for $100.

“We bought a picnic table set with it,” Rod recalled.

That wasn’t the only time her recipe garnered cash.

“Two years ago, it went for $525 at the Suncrest Worship Center pie auction,” he said.

The auction raised money for missions.

Though she doesn’t bake the bread often, she still has her original Bundt pan and said the dense citrusy bread with the poppy seed crunch is great to serve at Easter.

All the hoopla surrounding the 50th anniversary of the World’s Fair reminded her of her moment in the Expo ’74 spotlight.

“I think about how many people saw that story and wrote to me,” said Iris. “It was a big deal, and 50 years later, it’s fun to celebrate it again!”

Poppy Seed Citrus Bread

4 eggs

1 cup salad oil

1⅔ cups evaporated milk

3 cups sifted flour

2 cups sugar

1½ teaspoons baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons grated orange rind

2 teaspoons grated lemon rind

⅓ cup poppy seed, about 2 ounces

Beat eggs; blend in salad oil and evaporated milk. Sift flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. Add to egg mixture, blending well. Stir in rinds and poppy seed. Turn into greased and floured 3-quart Bundt pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1¼ hours or until bread tests done. Cool in pan on rack for 15 minutes. Remove from pan and complete cooling on rack.

Contact Cindy Hval at dchval@juno.com.