Many people serve cherry pie for Presidents Day, taking a cue from the legend of first president George Washington chopping down a cherry tree and later admitting it by saying, “I cannot tell a lie.”
But I’ve also found another option that would be perfect for the occasion: Presidents Pie.
According to the trivia obsessives at Atlas Obscura, Presidents Pie, also known as Washington Pie, “has been around since at least 1850, when a jelly-filled version made an appearance in Mrs. Putnam’s Receipt Book,” which offered recipes and household hints for young homemakers.
At a time when women couldn’t vote, it was fairly common to prepare items in support of a preferred candidate or “honoring one of the Founding Fathers in cake form,” the site notes. (As an aside: The Food Timeline discusses a number of presidential dining habits and shares recipes, such as Mary Todd Lincoln’s Courting Cake.)
One version of Presidents Pie looks, truth be told, like a traditional Victoria sponge — the ubiquitous British tea time treat: two yellow cakes sandwiched together with raspberry jam. It’s called a “pie” because the layers are baked in multi-purpose pie pans.
Another option of Presidents Pie is more pie-like, but with a bread pudding, essentially, baked into the double crust; it uses up cake scraps by placing them in a custard filling.
This variation, according to the blog Researching Food History, was likely named for Washington, D.C. It fell out of favor during the Civil War, when “[some] bakers got to making it out of stale bread and the like,” due to a lack of better foodstuffs.
The cake-like pie seems to have faded from its moment in the spotlight much later, around the mid-20th century, for no discernible reason. Perhaps one might argue that it lost some of its symbolic usefulness as women became more involved in politics?
Atlas Obscura offers recipes for both types of Presidents Pie, but I’ve adapted and shared the one below because it’s more unusual. The site makes a brilliant suggestion, if you want to try both options: Make and eat half of the cake-like pie, then use leftovers to make the pudding-like version below.
Presidents Pie
Dough to make 3 or 4 pie crusts
Half of an 8-inch layer cake, cut into cubes
¼ cup raisins
¼ cup chopped walnuts or pecans
3 eggs
2 cups milk
Zest of 1 orange
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ginger
¼ cup sugar
Preheat the oven to 375F. Line an 8-inch loaf pan with three-quarters of the pie dough, rolled thin, going up and slightly over the sides of the loaf pan; refrigerate.
In a large bowl, mix together the cake, raisins, and nuts. In a medium bowl, mix together the remaining ingredients and pour over the cake; let soak for 10 minutes.
Pour the cake mixture into the prepared loaf pan, then roll out the remaining crust and place it over the top. Seal and crimp the edges, then cut a few steam vents into the top crust.
Bake for 45 to 50 minutes until the pie is golden.
First Published February 20, 2022, 3:00 p.m.
