You don’t have to be a patient at Kettering Medical Center to get this famed carrot cake. People have been talking about it for years:
“Here it is folks, the famous carrot cake making hospital stays bearable. There are no words to describe how delish this cake is!”
“Would you believe I faked a total knee replacement, in fact my second one, just to be able to eat a piece of carrot cake at one of Kettering Health’s hospitals? Beyond yummy!”
“Came here for some carrot cake and figured we might as well have a baby too.”
So we set out to find out more about this cake legend from Michael Leibold ,Executive Pastry Chef who’s run the bakery at Kettering Medical Center for over eighteen years. He was originally brought in to take the bakery more upscale after stints at The Cincinnatian Hotel and Truffles Cafe and Catering.
When he added the carrot cake to the patients menu. the demand for it just blew up. Last year they served over 60,000 slices to patients. Their bakery has 5 staff members and Leibold calls it “the biggest unknown baker in the Miami Valley.”
People from the community began ordering their carrot cakes. You can pickup a slice in the cafeteria for $4.50 or with 48 hours notice order an entire cake, which feeds 16 people for $26. To order call the main hospital number (937) 298-4331 and then ask for the bakery (extension 55121) to place your order. You’ll then pick it up from the cafeteria in the basement of the hospital on Southern Blvd in Kettering, or you can arrange to pick it up at one of their other facilities.
Chef Leibold shares that make about 42 cakes each day. When served in the hospital they are single layers with no nuts, but when sold through the bakery they are double layered 9 inch cakes decorated with cream cheese icing and ground pecans. Chef also suggests you check out their other treats, like pies, specialty breads, and cookies. They will even decorate cakes.
A life-long public speaker and supporter of the Miss America Pageant, Marion Bergeron still holds the crown as the youngest Miss America in history, winning at the age of 15 – 1/2.
Marion was a typical teenager from a typical family. Born and raised in West Haven, Connecticut, she attended a Catholic high school. Her father was a patrol man with the town police and her mother stayed home and took care of the house and kids and accompanied young Marion to the pageant as her chaperone.
While Marion was blessed with blonde bombshell looks, she was quite an accomplished singer by the age of twelve and after winning the title of Miss America, she went on to perform professionally with the “Miss America Orchestra” as well as famous musicians such as Ozzie Nelson, Guy Lombardo and Rudy Vallee who she once labelled “an octopus.”
Marion Bergeron was was born on May 3, 1918 in West Haven, Connecticut and died on October 22, 2002 in Dayton, Ohio at the age of 84 from complications of leukemia. She is located in Section 123 Lot 11.