Tag Archives: Annual meeting

Annual Gathering, Annual meeting, Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Birmingham Historical Society, BOOK, Book Sale, Book Signing, Cake Contest, Food History, Publications

Photo Highlights from the Annual Meeting

First the PROGRAM! Birmingham boosters Stewart Dansby and Tom Cosby had the audience enthusiastically participating in a “Birmingham IQ” quiz highlighting the many superlatives that make Birmingham a great place to live. Did you know…? WOW! The audience was impressed by stats and amenities that are often overlooked by Birmingham natives.

Birmingham Historical Society President Wayne Hester begins the annual meeting as the audience reviews multiple choice answers to the “Birmingham IQ” quiz by Tom Cosby and Stewart Dansby.

Stewart Dansby and Tom Cosby created a list of multiple choice answers to test Birmingham’s knowledge of their city.

Group of five individuals posing for a photo at an event, with one person holding a tote bag that says 'Monet to Matisse'.
Pictured left to right: Stewart Dansby, Maury Shevin, Jennifer Chandler (Vulcan Park & Museum), Graham Boettcher (Birmingham Museum of Art), and Tom Cosby. Maury Shevin was the winner of the Birmingham IQ test. Jennifer and Graham donated prizes along with prizes from Lyric Theater, Rickwood Field, and Birmingham Historical Society.

Next the BOOK!

Birmingham Historical Society members all received a copy of Birmingham by the Book: A Guide to the Magic City, a definitive guide of over 50 years of research by Marjorie White about her adopted city. Tasked with directing the organization as a newcomer, one of her first goals was to create a guide and many years and over 70 publications later, this is the not-to-be-missed result. A book signing by Marjorie White followed the meeting.

Available locally at Thank You Books, Shoppe, Birmingham Museum of Art, and at Birmingham Historical Society.

After the quiz, Birmingham Historical Society VP, Rick Sprague, reported on the progress of the society since a survey produced a strategic plan that was published in 2020. He noted that ALL goals have been achieved and in some cases surpassed!


Followed by the CAKES! In recognition of the guide book’s history, all of the cakes entered used recipes that were over 50 years old with some interesting stories to accompany them.

A round, frosted cake with a smooth white icing and small red flecks, placed on a decorative glass cake stand.

And finally many thanks to the JUDGES! Three members of Les Dames d’Escoffier Birmingham agreed to judge the cakes. Christiana Roussel, Sonthe Burge, and Charbett Cauthen. We were delighted to have their expertise and share in their enthusiasm for all things culinary!

Three women smiling together at a table with desserts, including cakes and a potted plant, at an event.
Two women engage in conversation at a table filled with various desserts and snacks during an event, with a large cake prominently displayed.
A decorated table featuring several cakes and desserts, with greenery accents and decorative place settings. Three women are engaged in conversation nearby.
A pecan meringue torte displayed on a glass plate, partially sliced to reveal its interior layers. The dessert is on a yellow serving platter alongside a knife and a rolled cloth napkin. A yellow award ribbon reads 'Best Visual Presentation.'
Judges left to right: Christiana Roussel, Sonthe Burge, and Charbett Cauthen. BHS Trustee and cake contest organizer, Carolanne Roberts, chats with Christiana.

Thank you to all who participated and especially to all who attended!

Annual Gathering, Annual meeting, Birmingham Historical Society, Cake & Pie Contest, Cake Contest, Food History

And The Winners Are…

Birmingham Historical Society’s Great Chocolate Cake Contest, February 24, 2025 at the 83rd Annual Meeting.

Thank you to all those who participated! Lots of hard choices every year, but lots of fun this year tasting all the chocolate creations! Thank you once again to Trustee Carolanne Roberts for organizing this popular event. And a special thank you to this year’s judges:

  • Susan Swagler – Food Writer
  • Pam Lolley – Former Southern Living Test Kitchen (and both members of the prestigious Les Dames d’Escoffier
  • 17-year old Robert White – aspiring chef and enthusiastic taste tester!

Award Winners

Aunt Irene’s Devil’s Food cake by Olivia Allison
Chocolate Ice Box Cake by Susan Haskell
Barefoot Contessa Cake by Marjorie Lee White


Flourless Orange Chocolate Cake by Lane Franklin
Jolly Roger Rum Cake by Patrici Sprague
Very Good Chocolate Cake by Anne Ledvina
Flourless Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Drizzle by Grace White
German Chocolate Cake by Elizabeth Hester
Czech Kefir Cake by Anne Ledvina
Thank you to our Judges! Susan Swagler – food journalist, Pam Lolley – former Southern Living Test Kitchen, and Robert White, 17 year old aspiring chef!

Best Visual Presentation: Aunt Irene’s Devil’s Food Cake by Olivia Allison.

Judges’ comment: “Beautiful presentation: hearts and flowers.”

Best Flavor Profile: Chocolate Ice Box Cake by Susan Haskell

Judges’ comment:“ “Loved the combination of lady fingers with the airy light icing.”

Baker’s comment: “It was served for special occasions when I was growing up. The recipe was my grandmother’s. I do not make it often.“

Most Pleasing Texture: Barefoot Contessa’s Chocolate Cake by Marjorie Lee White

Judges’ comment: “Lovely texture and very professional looking”

Most Chocolatey Cake Creation: Flourless Orange Chocolate Cake  by Lane Franklin

Judges’ comment: “Very rich with deep chocolate flavor and a hint of orange.”

Baker’s comment: “This elegant flourless chocolate cake is topped with a Grand Marnier whipped cream. Hints of citrus and clove-perfect for the holidays with family and friends! Recipe from Tricia Stuedman. I make it often for the holidays.”

Best Memory Statement:  Jolly Roger Rum Cake by Patricia Sprague

Judges’ comment:“ “Loved the mix of pirates and church ladies, made us laugh.”

Baker’s comment: “It is a favorite of Caribbean Pirates and Southern Church Ladies., Just the thing for a little morning nip with tea” The recipe is Ann Best’s. I make it as often as needed.”

Best Overall Cake: Very Good Chocolate Cake by Anne  Ledvina

Judges’ comment: “Definitely lived up to its name. wonderful!!!”

Baker’s comment: “This is a recipe from Edna Lewis and James Peacock, two Southern cooks. I make it often.”

Kudos to The Flourless Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Drizzle by Grace White

Baker’s comment: “My grandmother used to make it all the time when I was younger. It has been one of my favorites for years. It is my grandmother’s recipe. I do not make it as much as I would like to.”

Kudos to the German Chocolate Cake by Elizabeth Hester 

Baker’s comment: “This cake was made by my mother every year for my birthday as a child. It’s still one of my favorite cakes although I rarely make it. Recipe from the New York Times. I do not make it often; it takes too long to make!’

Other cakes presented: 

Czech Kefir Cake by Annie Ledvina.

Baker’s comment: “This is a classic chocolate cake of the Czech people. All Czechs cook it for birthdays and other occasions. It is my father’s recipe. Yes! I make it often.”

Mimi’s Chocolate Cake with Aunt Cam’s Frosting by Carolanne Roberts

Baker’s comment: “We ate it at every function, but I’d never tried making it until yesterday. A challenge! Both women died in the 1960s — hope they’d be proud of me! The recipe is by Eleanor Bishop and Cam Bishop.”

Chocolate Applesauce Cake, Chocolate Apple Cake, and Mint Chocolate Ice Box Cake (made with Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies) , the latter cakes iced with a Ganache by Marjorie White.

Baker’s comment: “Profiled on Instagram, these cakes sounded good and were said to be quick to make and bake. They were neither quick nor easy to make and bake, but three loads of the full dishwasher later, they were quite tasty.” 

Czech Kefir Cake by Anne Ledvina
Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Drizzle by Grace White
Flourless Orange Chocolate Cake by Lane Franklin
German Chocolate Cake by Elizabeth Hester
Mint Chocolate Icebox Cake by Marjorie White
Barefoot Contessa Cake by Marjorie Lee White
Chocolate Chip Pound Cake by Carolanne Roberts
Very Good Chocolate Cake by Anne Ledvina
Annual Gathering, Annual meeting, Birmingham Historical Society, Cake & Pie Contest, Cake Contest, Favorite Pie & Cake Contest, Food History

All About Chocolate!

A much anticipated part of Birmingham Historical Society’s annual meeting is the cake and/or pie contest featuring members’ historic recipes. Cakes are judged and prizes are awarded each year based on creativity, taste, memories, and presentation.

This year’s contest was all about chocolate! Conceived each year by BHS Trustee Carolanne Roberts, this year’s theme was “The Great Chocolate Cake Contest” – the richer and more decadent, the better! Lots of participants meant that there were not enough prizes so new awards were invented to properly acknowledge all the hard work of this year’s bakers!

A tasting followed this year’s speaker, Gerald Watkins, Director of Friends of Rickwood, who gave an enthusiastic history of Birmingham’s own Field of Dreams!

Annual Gathering, Annual meeting, Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Birmingham Historical Society, Cake Contest, Favorite Pie & Cake Contest, lecture, Meetings, Membership

The Great Chocolate Cake Contest

The 83rd Annual Meeting of the Birmingham Historical Society is at 7PM on Monday, February 24th at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens and will feature guest speaker Gerald Watkins, Director of the Friends of Rickwood Field.

CALLING ALL CAKES

For The Great Chocolate Cake Contest

THE RULES: Bake your cake and bring the form above,

along with the recipe, and your cake for judging, to the

Birmingham Botanical Gardens Auditorium

between 3:30 and 4:00 p.m. on February 24.

JUDGING CATEGORIES: Most Chocolatey Cake Creation + Best

Overall Cake + Best Visual Presentation + Best Flavor Profile +

Most Pleasing Texture + Best Memory Statement

Annual Gathering, Annual meeting, BOOK, Book Sale, Cake & Pie Contest, Cake Contest, family history, Favorite Pie & Cake Contest, Food History

Fruity Wonders on Display!

The 82nd Annual Meeting of the Birmingham Historical Society featured an array of ‘Fruity Wonders‘ cakes from participants as young as 14, as well as entries by four different members of the same family who love to bake. Yum! Thank you to all who participated. Winners in multiple categories were announced at the meeting.

Always a popular annual event, this year’s entries included one cake which gave a nod to the speaker’s topic on Ancient Life in Alabama and was crawling with dinosaurs instead of fruit. The young baker explained that the dinosaurs were eating the fruit layer because it came into being during the age of dinosaurs! A special thanks to Trustee Carolanne Roberts who organized this event.

photo by Louise McPhillips
Annual Gathering, Annual meeting, Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Birmingham Historical Society, BOOK, Book Sale, Book Signing, Cake & Pie Contest, Favorite Pie & Cake Contest, Meetings, Membership, Publications, Trustees

500 Million Years of Alabama History at our 82nd Annual Meeting

Please join us on Monday, February 26 at 7 p.m. in the Auditorium of the Birmingham Botanical Gardens for the 82nd Annual Meeting of the Birmingham Historical Society. President Wayne Hester will preside. 

Recorded history is said to have begun with the drafting of the Sumerian cuneiform tablets, approximately 5,000 years ago. Beginning in the 19th century, the study of fossils has evolved to tell a significantly longer span of earth’s history:  500 million years, i.e. “Deep Time.” Per our speaker Bill Deutsch: “Alabama has been part of this unfolding story  since the modern science of Paleontology began, and fossil richness will keep it center stage.”

 Deutsch will take us on a mesmerizing “Walk Through Deep Time”, unfurling Alabama’s rich fossil legacy and its connections to our history, geology, and world-class biodiversity.  (Add to your FB calendar HERE)

Following Dr. Deutsch’s talk, Carolanne Roberts will announce the winners of the Fruity Wonders Cake Competition, praising our members’ creations and sharing comments from our esteemed judges.

Then, we invite you to get a copy of Ancient Life in Alabama, to chat with Bill Deutsch,  sample  cake, and pay 2024 Society dues. Copies of Deutsch’s book will be available for sale for $30 cash, check, or charge.

About the Author

Dr. William (“Bill”) Deutsch is a Research Fellow Emeritus in the Auburn University School of Fisheries, Agriculture, and Aquatic Sciences. The New York native holds degrees in Biology, Anthropology and Zoology, and Aquatic Ecology, the later a PhD from Auburn. During his 26 years as an aquatic ecologist in Alabama, With a longstanding interest in fossils, Deutsch participated in fossils hunting expeditions across the nation He has taught, lectured, and written widely about the natural wonders of our state, especially its rivers and its fossilsand what they can tell us about the present and times long past.

“Since moving to Alabama nearly 40 years ago, I’ve learned about its rich variety of fossils. Rock outcrops are fanned out in a relatively discernible pattern, with bands of fossils representing each geological era. The story of more than 500 million years of life is here, just under our feet. Tropical seas teemed with sharks, mosasaurs, and reef life. Coal-forming swamps ringed coastlines with huge dragonflies and millipedes, slithering amphibians, and towering horsetail plants. Dinosaurs of several types were here along with toothed birds, legged whales, rhinoceroses, mastodons, and giant sloths—the highest fossil diversity of any state east of the Mississippi River! In Alabama? Who knew? How and when did this happen?”

–-Bill Deutsch, “Preface,” Ancient Life in Alabama : The Fossils, The Finders & Why It Matters, July 2022.

“Fruit came with the flowering plants in the Mesozoic age [145 to  66 million years ago]. Late dinosaurs probably imbibed.” Bill Deutsch. 

CALLING ALL CAKES

For the Fruity Wonders Cake Contest

THE RULES: Bake your cake and bring the form and your cake for judging to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens Auditorium between 3:30 and 4:00 p.m. on February 26. 

JUDGING CATEGORIES: Most Colorful + Best Creative Use of Fruit + Best Visual Presentation +Best Flavor Profiles + Best Memory Statement + Best Overall

Annual Gathering, Annual meeting, Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Birmingham Historical Society, Cake & Pie Contest, Favorite Pie & Cake Contest, Food History

Fruity Wonders Cake Contest

The annual Birmingham Historical Society meeting next year will be February 26th, 2024, at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. As always, it will include a popular cake contest (and tasting!) after the featured speaker. Judges select multiple winners with 2024 categories listed below. Memorable family recipes are always a big hit with the judges! The meeting is FREE and open to the public. So start thinking of your best recipes that are filled with fruit! Need inspiration? Lots of ideas below…

Annual Gathering, Architecture, Birmingham Historical Society, Heritage Society, Historic Preservation, Membership

Reminder: Heritage Society Gathering

Heritage Society members, thank you for your support! Don’t forget that this Sunday, May 7th at 5:00 PM is the annual gathering. You should have received an invitation via USPS and this is an RSVP event. Any last minute responses should be directed to BHS Director Marjorie White.

Drawing for invitation by BHS Heritage Society member, Louise McPhillips

Missed this event but want to join for next year? More information is available HERE. See you Sunday!

Annual meeting, Birmingham Civil Rights, Birmingham Historical Society, Cake & Pie Contest, CakeWalk, civil rights, Favorite Pie & Cake Contest, Food History, Meetings, Membership, Research

History of the Cake Walk

While most of us know a cake walk to be a joyful celebration where the best bakers have an opportunity to show off their skills, it wasn’t always that way! In fact, the cake walk had its origins in Afro-American history:

The cakewalk was a pre-Civil War dance originally performed by slaves on plantation grounds. The uniquely American dance was first known as the “prize walk”; the prize was an elaborately decorated cake. Hence, “prize walk” is the original source for the phrases “takes the cake” and “cakewalk.”

From NPR: The Extraordinary Story of Why a Cakewalk Wasn’t Always Easy

The dance soon became a ragtime favorite, with many musical versions available including the sheet music below. So when you circle that cake table at Birmingham Historical Society’s annual meeting on February 27th, consider its origins!

Webster’s Dictionary defines it as “a black American entertainment having a cake as prize for the most accomplished steps and figures in walking; a stage dance developed from walking steps and figures typically involving a high prance with backward tilt; an easy task.” 

The Cakewalk seems to have begun in the days of slavery, when black folks strutted along in a fanciful manner in imitation of formal white dancing. Supposedly the name comes from the custom of the master awarding a cake to the couple who put on the best performance. The dance came back around in the twentieth century when white folks started to imitate the black version.

From Mary Miley’s Roaring Twenties, “Just What is a Cake Walk”?

Join us for the BHS cakewalk on February 27th. And bring your favorite childhood cake. More information on when and where HERE.

Annual meeting, Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Birmingham Historical Society, BOOK, Book Sale, Book Signing, Cake & Pie Contest, Deep South Dynasty, family history, Favorite Pie & Cake Contest, lecture, Meetings, Membership, Research, University of Alabama

Annual Meeting featuring The Bankheads of Alabama

Everyone is welcome at the Annual Meeting of the Birmingham Historical Society on February 27th at 7:00PM at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Copies of the book, “Deep South Dynasty” published by University of Alabama Press will be available for sale and signed by Professor of History, Kari Frederickson. A popular annual cake walk follows the meeting.