MARY TODD LINCOLN'S WHITE ALMOND CAKE RECIPE

Mary Todd Lincoln's White Cake

Hello.

As we toured the Lincoln Home, the Ranger told us that a copy of Mary's recipe could be picked up from the Visitor Center.  I know that Mary did not have a food processor back in the day so this diffidently is adapted from someone else.

I will add almond flavor extract to mine.  I like the idea of using a bundt pan, so I will do that.

I wonder what type of tea Mary used?

Blessings,

d👵

Another source is author Anne Byrn.

Mary Todd Lincoln was raised in a wealthy Lexington, Kentucky, family and partial to the finer things in life, like this white almond cake. The Todd family requested the recipe from the Lexington caterer who first made it, and it is said that Mary baked the cake for Abraham Lincoln when they courted, after they were married, and when she was First Lady. The recipe is a part of the culinary history of Kentucky and has been printed in Godey’s Lady’s Book, newspapers, and cookbooks. 

An avid baker, Mary was said to have purchased 13 pounds of sugar for baking in 1 week of 1849. Unlike Mary, Abe Lincoln was from log-cabin Kentucky frontier roots. A successful and skilled courtroom attorney, Lincoln helped bring an end to slavery and the Civil War. His assassination on April 14, 1865, as he was barely in his second term, shocked the country. This almond cake became a symbol of Lincoln afterward and was found on inaugural and military banquet menus in the 1870s. This recipe is adapted from the book A Culinary History of Kentucky. —Anne Byrn