Presidents and First Ladies Trivia

[L Verge]

I first read the recipe for this cake shortly after I got out of college. My mother had just purchased The Presidents' Cookbook by Poppy Cannon and Patricia Brooks. The authors/editors claim that there were verifiable reports that Lincoln thought this was the best cake he ever ate. They then went on to quote his sister-in-law, Mrs. Edwards, who found it high praise indeed since Lincoln "ate mechanically - I have seen him sit down at the table and never unless recalled to his senses would he think of food."

The cake was an invention of Monsieur Giron, a Lexington caterer, who created it in honor of Lafayette's 1825 visit to that city. The Todd family obtained the recipe and held onto it.

In the same cookbook is a recipe labeled Mary Todd's Courting Cake. It intrigued me because the recipe was almost identical to one that my mother called her Burnt Sugar Pound Cake -- just a little lighter in texture. Supposedly several Lincoln biographers mentioned this cake as being prepared by Miss Todd when Lincoln came courting. The recipe was traced back through the Todd family to Mary Hosford, a granddaughter of one of Mary's cousins, who included it in a cookbook that she published. Supposedly her father was proud of being related to Mary Lincoln and told many sad stories about her trials in life. Evidently this cake was one thing about Mary Lincoln that no one ever complained about.