Happy Archives Month!

Readers, one more reason to love October (as if you needed another one): It's American Archives Month in the USA! This means that it's appropriate to visit, support, or otherwise promote your own favorite local archival institution. Kentucky has decided to expand its Archives Week into a full, month-long celebration to coincide, and this year's theme is especially exciting: the Lincoln bicentennial! Check out that poster!

Kentucky has a (somewhat tenuous) Lincoln connection which we tend to exaggerate--er, focus on--he was born here, and though he only spent a few years of his early boyhood in the state before his family moved to Indiana, we get to claim those great legendary Honest Abe, log cabin, teaching himself to read on a dirt floor stories. Plus, an added Lincoln bonus for the state: his wife Mary Todd was born and raised in well-to-do Lexington society (a distant relation, Charles Todd, was the very first Kentucky Colonel). So, yeah, Kentucky's Lincoln fixation may be a bit much sometimes--yet another bid for fame and relevance--but in a lot of ways it's legit.

Anyway, it's October 1st and you all have 30 more days to figure out how you will celebrate American Archives Month. I recommend making that visit to your local archives that you've been putting off--research your family in a genealogical collection, ask to see some awesome primary resource, or even just subscribe to a mailing list so you'll be informed of things like interesting lectures, publications, and new collections in your area. Support your local archives--read a book, make a donation, and/or buy an archivist a drink--you'll be doing your part.

The Lincoln Birthday Cake

Since my recent diatribe against the offensive mediocrity of birthday sheet cakes, my inbox has been inundated with suggestions, encouragement, support and opposition (apparently there are representatives of the Duncan Hines persuasion out there who feel I was out of bounds). In answer to this outpouring (outcry?) of interest, I would like to report on the results of my epicurean time travel (and also assure the descendents of Betty Crocker and their legal representatives that I meant no disrespect to the memory of their fine matriarch; indeed it was in the spirit of her memory that I was inspired to do just what she dedicated her life to: celebrate a loved one through quality baked goods).

You'll recall that I had resolved to use an old-time recipe that I had uncovered from the Mary Todd Lincoln archive for her own white cake. It was, like most recipes from the 1800's, laden with a shocking amount of butter and sugar, as well as containing archaic cooking instructions (uh, ..."CREAM TOGETHER the butter and sugar..."? huh?). Nevertheless, in the interest of historical accuracy (and birthday immediacy) I trudged onward and ended up making a lovely, if crazy-sweet, coffee style cake. It has a nice almond flavor and fluffy consistency. I did not, however, have a "tube pan," as the recipe specifies, so I think I ended up putting too much batter into too little pan. The loaf expanded alarmingly upwards, but luckily did not overflow. This resulted in some uneven baking: the bottom was done well before the top, so I had to keep it in the oven at a low temperature for about twice as long as what was called for. The consequence seemed to be only that I spent more time on this project than I had originally anticipated, but I guess I can just write that off to birthday love.

"Mary's white cake is the best I've ever eaten."

-Abraham Lincoln

Betty Crocker Is No Mary Todd Lincoln

I attended a family BBQ this afternoon in honor of my dear husband's impending 32nd birthday, and, like so many other birthday parties in so many other places today and through the ages, there was a sheet cake baked for the occassion. Everyone gathers around these mundane requirements, candles are lit, an awkward song is sung awkwardly (especially when the honoree is a fully grown 32 year old man), and then everyone gets a piece (trust me, a host is acutely annoyed if you try to refuse--afterall: who wants leftover sheet cake hanging around their house?). I think we can all agree that these cakes, made from adding an egg and some water to the contents of a little box and then slathering with waxy-tasting icing, are pretty disappointing. I mean, why not bake a real cake, from a real recipe, using real ingredients? Its not really that hard or time consuming, comparatively. I say if you're going to go to the trouble of gathering around it, lighting it ablaze and singing over it, all in honor of a so-called loved one, you should put some effort into it: make it something notable!

In that spirit, and the spirit of my current Mary Todd Lincoln obsession, I am posting the following recipe from MTL's actual home cook book: a recipe she actually used, for a cake that Abraham Lincoln regularly ate! My husband's actual birthday is this Wednesday, and I am planning on trying it out for the occassion: a real cake for a real man! just like the 16th president of the United States used to eat! W-O-W!

Mary Todd Lincoln's White Cake

• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 cup chopped blanched almonds
• 6 egg whites
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Cream butter & sugar until light and fluffy.Sift together flour and baking powder; remove 2 tablespoons & set aside. Add sifted ingredients, alternating with milk, to creamed mixture. Stir in vanilla and almond extract. Combine almonds w/reserved flour & add to batter.

Beat egg whites until stiff; add salt. Fold into batter. Pour into greased and floured tube pan. Bake at 375 degrees until a cake tester comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Cool 5 to 10 minutes; remove from pan & finish cooling on rack.

Happy birthday!

From the Kitchen of Mrs. Lincoln

Like many of you out there in Americaland this year, I have been reading up on our 16th president lately. History was never really my thing (I've never referred to myself as a "buff" of anything), but my recent trip to Washington D.C. and the bicentennial of the birth of The Great Emancipator (or The Railsplitter, as some of his contemporaries called him) has inspired me to do some research on the subject.

Being a good little knee-jerk feminist, I decided to circumnavigate the rather overwhelming mountain of what modern historians call "Lincoln Scholarship" and read about Mary Todd Lincoln (the first wife of a US president to be called the "First Lady"). The much ignored, much maligned Mary Todd is nothing if not a vilified headstrong female, often portrayed as:

1. wildly emotional (Lincoln's White House secretaries nicknamed her The Hellcat, and not in a jovial, friendly kind of way: "hellcat" seems to be the 17th C. version of "crazy bitch"),

2. wack-o (ala her penchant for indulging in public temper tantrums and the infamous post-assassination insanity trial), and

3. selfish (her out of control spending habits and zeal for accumulating massive amounts of material goods—many of which she didn’t need and never used—are legendary).

From what I've read, it seems like all of these assessments are generally true. Having been a personal witness to the perils and symptoms of mental illness, I have to agree that she was indeed suffering from some sort of (probably inherited) psychological condition. Several of Mary’s close relations are known to have suffered severe bouts of mental illness—probably bipolar disorder, according to modern psychologists—and spent significant time in asylums. Add to that the pressure and intense scrutiny of life as the wife of the president of the United States (during a time of intense strife and upheaval), the estrangement of her family (the aristocratic Todd family looked down their noses at Lincoln: the Jeb Clampett of Illinois lawyers, not to mention most Todds sided with the Confederacy), plus the early death of 3 of her 4 children, and it seems amazing that Mary was able to hold it together as well as she did.

Mary is a pretty fascinating woman, and I’ve enjoyed reading about her. Surprisingly, I’ve managed to keep a fairly level head as far as taking sides goes; while I think she has been unfairly treated by most historians (as well as the Washington society and press she tried--and failed--to woo), that doesn’t mean she was some wrongly accused martyr…she was unreasonable, vain, stuck up and, frankly, girlfriend had issues.

And about that cold-hearted Washington society that ended up shunning Mary: would we, the Little People, have much patience for some uppity, hard-to-deal-with, ego-maniacle, blue blood politician's heiress wife with a sense of entitlement these days? We tend to scoff at the Old Money purebreds, swift-boating them all the way back to their elitist Ketchup empires. And if someone gets hurt feelings or shows a little vulnerability, they get shouted down by those who say that this is the life that they have chosen and they should get used to the fact that they are going to be under a microscope. Public figures--and their families--will, and always have been scrutinized for faults. Imagine what that kind of stress would do to someone with bipolar disorder, or even you or I over the long haul.

Anyone wanting to read up on the first First Lady would do well to read Jason Emerson’s The Madness of Mary Lincoln, which examines new documents discovered during the years of Mary’s confinement at Bellevue Place Sanitarium. Catherine Clinton’s recent bio Mrs. Lincoln: A Life is worth reading, but focuses more on Mary’s youth and the White House years, and tends towards the sentimental. I can’t wait for Emerson’s Robert Lincoln bio, due out next year: Giant in the Shadows.