"Mrs. Lincoln's Favorite Things" Evening Tour

[LincolnToddFan]

(01-17-2015 10:50 AM)Donna McCreary Wrote:  

(01-17-2015 12:23 AM)LincolnToddFan Wrote:  The story is that the almond cake was served to Abraham Lincoln during his courtship of Mary Todd, and that it was his favorite.

That tour sounds like heaven!

The key word here is "story." Katherine Helm's book tells the story of Mary serving a piece of cake to Lincoln while they were courting, but she made no mention as to what type of cake it was - nor did she say it was his favorite.
In a 1921 magazine article about Kentucky cooking, the "favorite cake" was identified as the Pecan Cake. It was in the 1950's that a historian said it was the Almond cake -- and the story has been the Almond Cake ever since. I still believe that Lincoln was a gracious cake eater and his favorite cake was the last piece he had been served. We also know he enjoyed a good piece of Lemon cake and was very fond of gingerbread cake.

Lemon cake, oh yummy!

So that well told story about him commenting that "Mary's almond cake is the best I've ever tasted" is definitely apocryphal?