The Len Foote Hike Inn

Last week for our anniversary, Glenn & I traveled to The Len Foote Hike Inn in the North Georgia mountains.  I believe that it is the only “back country” inn in Georgia and you actually have to prove that you want to be there and will appreciate being there by hiking 5 miles to get to the inn.  As you might imagine, It was beautiful and peaceful and we actually learned something about being green and conservation…and trees! We met new and interesting people.  Scott who I imagine makes a new best friend everywhere he goes and his lovely wife Debra.  And Jack who we found lived in Satesboro, GA when we lived in Statesboro.  

The Dining Room

We had a great time!  And, as usual, a large chunk of the fun for me was seeing what kind of food they serve up at a place like this.  The cook, we think he name was Will but please correct us if we are not right about that, and he served up top notch home cooked meals.  But what really caught my attention and left my mind buzzing was the “plantation cake”-a cake made with vanilla wafers.  It had such an interesting taste and with cream cheese frosting on top-it was just delish!

Will??? A great cook!

 I came home and began researching plantation cake and most of the recipes I found had molasses and coconut but no vanilla wafers.  So then I started looking for vanilla wafer cake recipes and boom-tons!  So I began to develop what I am going to call my “Len Foote” Inspired Banana Pudding cake.  (Just cannot think of vanilla wafers without banana pudding!-Must be a Southern thing…)   Vanilla wafer bundt cake and cream cheese frosting on the outside and banana cream on the inside.  This was a labor of love because I made (and give the recipe for) banana custard from scratch so if you look at this recipe and say to yourself there is no way in HE double hockey sticks that I have time to make this cake.  It’s okay- I understand-you can use instant pudding on the inside if you want and also if the “digging the tunnel” for the custard is more than you can handle, that’s okay too.  You can always crumble that cake up and make a lovely parfait!

Vanilla wafer cake and banana pudding parfait