Tag Archives: Family Favorites Cake & Pie Contest

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!

Annual meeting, Birmingham Historical Society, Cake & Pie Contest

2020 Cake/Pie Contest with memories and recipes

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THE SWEETEST CONTEST TRADITION CONTINUES so…

LET US EAT CAKE..AND PIE TOO (if it’s your family fave, we’ll love it!)

What to Do:

  1. BAKE A CAKE, MAKE A PIE–either one or both if you can’t decide!
  2. FILL OUT THE ENTRY FORM (we savor your stories)
  3. DROP YOUR CREATION AT STRANGE AUDITORIUM, Birmingham Botanical Gardens for judging by 4 p.m.

CAKES VS. PIES–WHICH WILL TRIUMPH?!

  1. Pick a side. Cake? Pie?
  2. Prepare it just the way your mom/grandmother/best aunt did
  3. Fill out the backstory of your recipe–whose was it, your memories
  4. Include a copy of the recipe
  5.  Bring to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens by 4 p.m. February 24 (the day of the meeting)

We’ll do the rest–judge, slice, share after the speakers

Questions? Call Carolanne Roberts at 205-999-6582