Hummingbird Cake was first submitted to Southern Living magazine in 1978 by Mrs. L.H. Wiggins from Greensboro, North Carolina. According to Southern Living it is one of the most popular Southern cakes ever made.

The cake is truly amazing with the star ingredients of crushed pecans, mashed bananas and crushed pineapple – which makes it extra moist. Of course, topped off with cream cheese frosting (and more pecans!) which makes it extra delicious 😋

Hummingbird Cake

Cake Ingredients

2 cups chopped pecans

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 and 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 3 large bananas

One 8 oz can crushed pineapple (do not drain the juice)

3 large eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

3/4 cup packed light or dark brown sugar

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

16 oz cream cheese (2 bricks), softened to room temperature

4 cups Confectioners Sugar

1 + 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

A pinch of salt, if desired

Directions for the Cake

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease three 8-inch cake pans and line with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Whisk the dry ingredients. Set the bowl aside.

In a medium bowl, add the mashed bananas, crushed pineapple, eggs, vegetable oil, brown sugar, granulated sugar and vegetable extract.

Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.

Fold in 1 and 1/2 cups of the pecans into the batter. Set the rest of the pecans aside to use later to garnish the cake.

Spread the batter evenly into the
three prepared cake pans.

Bake for 26-29 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove cakes from the oven and allow to cool completely in the pans before removing. Place the cakes on a wire baking rack to cool completely before frosting.

Layer and top the cakes with the cream cheese frosting and garnish with the remaining pecans.

Directions for the Cream Cheese Frosting

In a large bowl, use a hand held mixer and beat the cream cheese and butter together on medium-high speed until smooth – about 2 minutes.

Add the confectioners sugar, vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt (if needed).

Mix for at least 3 minutes until completely combined and creamy.

Add more confectioners sugar if frosting is too thin or a little bit of milk if frosting is too thick.

I just love a good chocolate chip cookie 🍪 and these did not disappoint my taste buds.

Former First Lady Hillary Clinton submitted this wonderful cookie recipe to Family Circle Magazine in 1992 and 1996 for their First Lady Bake Off. For several years the potential First Ladies would submit a cookie recipe during the Presidential election season and the voters would pick which cookie was their favorite.

It was said that whoever won the cookie contest – their husband’s would win the Presidency.

In 1992, it was Hillary Clinton’s Chocolate Chip Cookies vs. Barbara Bush’s Chocolate Chip Cookies.

In 1996, Hillary Clinton submitted the her Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe once again and Elizabeth Dole submitted her recipe for Pecan Roll Cookies.

Hillary Clinton won both times and as we know…the rest is history 🇺🇸

Today in American history…former President Dwight D. Eisenhower was born on October 14, 1890 in Denison, Texas.

So we are celebrating by enjoying Apple Pie and used his own personal recipe 🇺🇸

One of former First Lady Lucy Hayes favorite recipes to make was homemade Crumpets. While doing some research, I came across her personal recipe from The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museum:

And here’s the modern recipe that I used today:

Homemade Crumpets

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups whole milk

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons granulated sugar

1 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

11/2 cups lukewarm water

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

Oil for the pan, cooking spray or melted butter

Directions

Warm the milk in a saucepan. Make sure that it is warm but not boiling. Otherwise, it will kill the yeast.

In a large bowl, add the warm milk, flour, sugar, and yeast in a large bowl and whisk together until all incorporated.

Once combined, add half (3/4 cup) of the water and beat into the batter.

Continue to add more water (3/4 cup) until the batter is thick and smooth. Add more water if needed. Stop adding water once it reaches the consistency of thick cream.

Cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm, draft-free place until the dough is doubled in size. This should take about 1 hour but can take up to 2 hours.

Once the dough has doubled in size, add in the salt and baking powder into the batter and whisk together.

Heat a large heavy-duty non-stick skillet over medium to medium-high heat until hot.

Moisten a paper towel with a little oil and grease the base of the pan and crumpet (or pastry) rings – use rings that are approximately 3 inches wide by 1/2 inch tall.

Place 1 ring on the heated pan and pour in enough batter to fill just below the top of the ring – about 1/4 cup of batter or a little more if needed.

Cook for at least 5 minutes until there are many tiny holes on the surface and the crumpet is setting around the edges.

Flip the crumpet over (in the ring) and cook until the crumpet is light brown and cooked through, about 3-4 minutes more.

Repeat with the remaining batter, greasing the pan and rings in between each batch.

Remove the crumpets and place on a wire rack until cooled completely.

Toast a crumpet and add butter and jam if desired.

Today in American History…former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was born on October 11, 1884 in New York City.

Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady during the era of The Great Depression. She was very mindful of this and The White House meals were often very frugal and she tried to implement a low-cost menu whenever possible.

Ernest Hemingway once dined with the Roosevelt’s at The White House and found the food to be not very spectacular. In a letter to his mother-in-law, Ernest Hemingway wrote of his dinner experience at The White House:

“…We had rainwater soup followed by rubber squab, a nice wilted salad and a cake some admirer had sent in by an enthusiastic but unskilled admirer.”

Eleanor Roosevelt did, however, indulge in her favorite dessert during these years – which was also a favorite of her Uncle Theodore Roosevelt’s as well.

Her favorite dessert was quite simple and was a delicious and simple Hasty Pudding.

Hasty Pudding was once referred to as Indian Pudding. The dessert most likely originated in Britain and the recipe brought over by the colonists. While the British recipe consisted of flour, the American colonists used cornmeal because of the abundance of corn in the colonies. As the recipe evolved, it incorporated the use of sugar or molasses, eggs and spices to the ingredients.

Hasty pudding is not a very elegant dessert and is often referred to as mush because well…it’s kind of mushy.

This didn’t stop Eleanor Roosevelt from serving it at The White House for dessert at a Thanksgiving Dinner meal one year. Instead of the traditional pumpkin pie, she served Hasty Pudding.

She also made sure to top it with vanilla ice cream.

Here’s a wonderful recipe for Hasty Pud-ding. It’s very easy to make and how wonderful it is to be able to taste and enjoy something Eleanor (and Teddy!) Roosevelt enjoyed so very much during their lifetime.

Hasty Pudding

Ingredients

2 cups whole milk

1 cup heavy cream

½ cup molasses

¼ cup brown sugar

1/3 cup cornmeal

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon salt

Optional: Vanilla Ice Cream or Whipped Cream for a topping

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a medium saucepan, bring the milk, heavy cream, molasses and brown sugar almost to a simmer over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, ginger, cinnamon and salt.

Add the cornmeal mixture to the milk mixture and whisk together. Bring to a simmer and keep whisking.

Pour the mixture into an 8-by-8-inch baking dish. The batter will be thin.

Bake the pudding in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and stir well and then return the pudding to the oven and continue cooking for another 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven.

The pudding will still be quite wobbly but will set as it cools. Let it cool for 20 minutes and serve warm.

For extra deliciousness, serve the pudding topped with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

In honor of former President Jimmy Carter’s birthday today (his 100th!) I made Peanut Butter Cookies and used his grandmother’s recipe.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup peanut butter

1 egg

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together all ingredients. Form into walnut sized balls.

Put on ungreased cookie sheet, then mash down slightly with a fork in a criss-cross pattern.

Bake for 8 – 10 minutes until golden brown.

Today in American history…our 39th U.S. President, Jimmy Carter, was born on October 1, 1924 in Plains, Georgia. (Interesting fact: He was the first President to be born in a hospital)

Some of his lifetime accomplishments were:

🇺🇸 Served in the U.S. Navy from 1946-1953 (and then in the U.S. Naval Reserves on inactive duty from 1953-1961)
🇺🇸 Member of the Georgia Senate (14th District) from 1963-1967
🇺🇸 Governor of Georgia from 1971-1975
🇺🇸President of the United States from 1977-1981
🇺🇸Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for co-founding The Carter Center

“Earlier in my life I thought the things that mattered were the things that you could see, like your car, your house, your wealth, your property, your office. But as I’ve grown older I’ve become convinced that the things that matter most are the things that you can’t see — the love you share with others, your inner purpose, your comfort with who you are.” Jimmy Carter

Fall is probably my most favorite time of the year for baking because I love all things with pumpkin and apple in the ingredients.

In the kitchen today I made delicious pumpkin apple muffins – so needless to say…I’m a happy girl today. It’s a perfect Fall day to enjoy a pumpkin apple muffin and enjoy a cup of coffee because after all…it’s National Coffee Day!

I hope you all are enjoying the cooler temps and have a wonderful Sunday.

Pumpkin Apple Muffins

Muffin Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoons ground nutmeg

2 eggs

1 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup grated apple (about 2 medium sized apples)

Crumb Topping Ingredients

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 Tablespoons melted butter

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, add the flour, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, baking soda and salt together and whisk the ingredients together. Set aside.

In a separate medium bowl, add the eggs, pumpkin and vegetable oil and mix well.

Add the pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture.

Add the grated apples and gently fold into the batter until combined.

Scoop the mixture into well greased muffin tins – you can also line with paper or silicone liners too.

Time to make the crumb topping!

In a small bowl, add the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and melted butter together and mix until all of the flour is incorporated.

Sprinkle the crumb topping directly on top of the muffin batter.

Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes until completely done (do the “toothpick check” to make sure!)

Remove from the oven. Allow the muffins to cool slightly before removing from pan.

Enjoy! 🎃 🍎

Buttermilk Pie is one of my favorite desserts of all time. I love custard pies so much and this is truly mouth-watering delicious.

Southern Buttermilk Pie

Ingredients

1½ cups sugar

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3 large eggs, whisked

1 cup buttermilk

½ cup butter, melted

1 tablespoon loosely packed lemon zest

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Store bought refrigerated Pie Crust (or you can make your own homemade pie crust…I used the store bought refrigerated pie crust)

Garnishes: fresh berries, whipped cream, fresh mint

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk together the flour and sugar in a large bowl.

Add in the whisked eggs, buttermilk, melted butter, lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla.

Pour into the prepared pie crust.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 45 minutes or until almost set, shielding edges with aluminum foil after 15 minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack and cool for 1 hour before serving.

I piped homemade whipped cream along the edges just for some extra deliciousness 😋

We’re coming upon the time of year again to where we’ll be making a lot of delicious soup and chili. What goes best with soup and chili? Cornmeal Muffins of course 😋

Cornmeal Muffins

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup yellow cornmeal

2 TBSP granulated sugar

1 TBSP baking powder

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1 1/2 cup buttermilk

6 TBSP salted butter, melted

2 TBSP honey

2 large eggs

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray or line the cups with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, add the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt and whisk together until combined.

In a separate medium bowl, add the buttermilk, butter, honey, and eggs and whisk until well combined.

Pour the buttermilk mixture into the cornmeal mixture and mix all of the ingredients together.

Fill each muffin cup until nearly full.

Bake for 17 to 22 minutes until the tops are a golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Cool the muffins in the tin for 5 minutes before you remove the muffins to a wire cooling rack.

Serve with lots of butter 😋