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Do Presidents Eat?

(Not Lincoln.)

On this glorious day honoring US prezzes--well, Lincoln and Washington, technically--we refer you to a blog entry by writer and novelist Heather Lockman, posted February 12.

"It’s Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday. I baked an old-fashioned cake.

Believe me, I know that sounds geeky. But if a holiday is worth celebrating, surely it’s worth celebrating with food... 

For President Lincoln’s birthday each year, I make an election cake.

By all accounts, Abraham Lincoln didn’t care much about what he ate. He apparently liked his food simple (coffee, apples, cornmeal mush), rather than rich and fancy. Election cake would make sense, then. It’s listed as one of his favorites in the handsomeFirst Ladies Cookbook, an oversized all-color volume published in 1965 with recipes for each President and photos of pretty state china.

Martin Van Buren liked Huguenot torte; Jefferson liked plum pudding. Lincoln favored a country cake without too much fussiness in it, the kind that rural church women baked when polling day rolled around..."

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