In honor of Lincoln’s birthday on February 12th and Valentine’s Day today, I decided to kick off our Bicentennial Bakes series featuring historic recipes from our archives with Mary Todd Lincoln’s Courting Cake, the “best cake Abraham Lincoln had ever eaten,” according to Alex Prud’homme’s Dinner with the President!

This recipe comes from Hildene’s 1982 cookbook, Hildene Hospitality Then and Now. An alternate version of the recipe can be found at the National Parks website here, but the Hildene Hospitality recipe is transcribed below:

Mrs. Lincoln’s White Cake

Yield: 2 9-inch layers                                     

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

3 cups flour

1 cup milk

1 cup blanched and toasted almonds, chopped

3 teaspoons baking powder

6 egg whites

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon almond extract 

• Cream sugar and butter.
• Sift dry ingredients together. Add to butter and sugar mixture, alternating with milk.
• Stir in nuts and beat well.
• Fold in beaten egg whites and vanilla and almond extract.
• Bake in two greased layer pans for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.
• Frost as desired.

Interested in what I did? Check out my process under the cut!

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