Tag Archives: cakes

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

And the Winners Are…

Thank you to all who shared cakes, stories, and recipes at our Annual Meeting last night. While our judges selected winners in five categories, all participants received a BLUE RIBBON for sharing a cake, as well as much appreciation from all those who attended the meeting and were able to taste them! There was a big variety and remarkably, no two cakes were alike.

Special thanks also goes to our two judges, Susan Swagler and Pam Lolley for a difficult job selecting winners. Susan is a Food, Books & Lifestyle Writer and a founding member & past president of Les Dames d’Escoffier International Birmingham and you can follow her at Savor.blog. Pam is retired from twenty years in the Southern Living test kitchen, a free lance cook, and also a member of Les Dames D’Escoffier. Thank you, judges!

Clockwise from top left on full screen: Potato Caramel Cake (most unusual cake), Caramel Cake (most vintage cake), Napoleon (most beautiful cake), Grand Aunt Mrytle’s Lane Cake (best memory cake), Miss Tinsley’s Sour Cream Pound Cake (best overall cake)
  • Most Unusual Cake: Potato Caramel Cake (Alleen Cater) – secret ingredient, mashed potatoes! Pam Lolley said her 20 years in the Southern Living test kitchen, she’d never heard of using mashed potatoes in a cake and it was delicious!
  • Most Vintage Cake: Caramel Cake (Elizabeth Hester) – this brought back wonderful childhood memories for the judges and was considered a standard in most southern kitchens
  • Most Beautiful Cake: Napoleon (Vasilisa Strelnikova) – the judges appreciated the care with which this cake was decorated and said the baby’s breath was a beautiful addition
  • Best Overall Cake: Miss Tinsley’s Sour Cream Pound Cake (Wilson Green) – the judges agreed that you can’t beat a good pound cake and this was delicious. One BHS attendee stated that Myrtle Tinsley was one of her church members and friend, a former schoolteacher, and a dynamite cook!
  • Best Memory Statement: Grand Aunt Mrytle’s Lane Cake (Don Cosper) -the secret ingredient was a cup of whiskey, somewhat scandalous among these Baptist bakers! This original cake recipe is one of the oldest in Alabama and was immortalized in To Kill a Mockingbird.

All the cakes were accompanied by childhood stories and we hope that one day the Birmingham Historical Society can assemble these recipes and stories into a book!

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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.

Annual meeting, Birmingham Historical Society, Cake & Pie Contest, Favorite Pie & Cake Contest, Meetings, Membership, Trustees

Cake Walk is BACK!

This popular annual BHS event is finally back. Calling all Cakes! What’s your childhood favorite? 

Is it the Southern Living all time favorite, Hummingbird Cake? 7 Layer (difficult to assemble) Caramel Cake?  Maybe Lady Baltimore, Coca Cola, or even a 7-Up Bundt?  We KNOW you have a favorite—so it’s time to enter this year’s  Birmingham Historical Society Heritage Cake Contest!

Monday, February 27th at Birmingham Botanical Gardens Auditorium, 4PM

It’s another Cake Walk into the Past but this year, we’re featuring your favorite childhood cakes.

The rules are simple:

1. The Birmingham Historical Society annual meeting is Monday, February 27—it’s also Cake Contest Day.

2. Bake your Childhood Favorite Cake and bring it to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens’ Auditorium by 4 p.m. February 27 for judging

3. Be sure to fill out the form (see below) and bring it along.

4. Remember, bake ANY cake that’s your official childhood favorite!!

5. We’ll serve all the scrumptious cakes after our meeting and speaker

(and announce the winners too!)

Judging Categories

—Best Overall Cake

—Most Vintage Recipe

—Most Unusual Cake

—Most Beautiful Cake

—Best Memory Statement

(Click HERE or on form below to enlarge and print)

Annual meeting, Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Birmingham Historical Society, Book Signing, Cake & Pie Contest, family history, Favorite Pie & Cake Contest, Food History, lecture, Meetings, Research

Mark your Calendars for 2023

ANNUAL MEETING

The Birmingham Historical Society’s Annual Meeting for 2023  has been scheduled for February 27, 2023 at 7 p.m. at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. (Free and open to the public)

Our speaker will be Kari Frederickson, professor of Southern History at the University of Alabama, speaking on The Bankheads of Alabama and autographing her recently published book Deep South Dynasty: The Bankheads of Alabama.

“Deep South Dynasty: The Bankheads of Alabama is a deeply researched epic family biography that reflects the complicated and evolving world inhabited by three generations of the extremely accomplished—if problematic—Bankhead family of northwest Alabama. Kari Frederickson’s expertly crafted account traces the careers of five members of the family—John Hollis Bankhead; his sons, John Hollis Bankhead Jr. and William Brockman Bankhead; his daughter, Marie Bankhead Owen; and his granddaughter, Tallulah Brockman Bankhead.”

Note that the Heritage Cake & Pie Competition will happily return to the BHS annual meeting February 27 at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. More info to come in early ’23. If you’re not familiar with this popular annual event, please click HERE!

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And the Winner Is….

The annual BHS cake/pie competition was a huge success with eighteen entries and just one more cake than there were pies. Oh my! It was hard to choose! There were pound cakes, there were tea cakes, chocolate, caramel, and even a büche de noel. The stories behind them were as good as the cakes! But the clear winner was Don Sweeney’s “Friendship Cake” – a cake which takes 50 days to make – and which was first presented during the Civil Rights Era and over 200 times since then, personally baked by Don himself!

According to Carolanne,

“It was introduced to his family by Gertrude who had worked with the family for years before requesting “time off” to go participate in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham—she became known as the Rosa Parks of Rosedale for her mighty works. Don Sweeney’s dad had assured Gertrude that her job would await her and, in gratitude, she made this cake for the family. She must’ve also shared the recipe because Don has made it more than 200 times over the years since. It begins with a starter of fruits, sugar, and brandy which (I believe) must be tended to daily for about 3 weeks..then come other steps before the final baking. It was picture perfect in presentation—and wow’d the judge before he even knew about the process or the backstory.”

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Want to enter? You must be a member – but – You can join On the Spot!

Cake vrs Pie Competition celebrates baked memories of the past. Dust off that old recipe and bake that cherished and memorable pie or cake! Bring it to the meeting at 4PM at Birmingham Botanical Gardens. We’d love to share it with you, along with the memories! And HERE’S how to join…

Here’s the entry form below. Be sure to include it with your entry!