First Lady Bake-Off

In response to questions about her career and the Whitewater controversy,[1] she stated that "I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession, which I entered before my husband was in public life".

[3][4] Seeking to capitalize on the controversy, the magazine Family Circle came up with the idea of a cooking contest between the wives of presidential candidates.

[5] The competition gave potential First Ladies the opportunity to publish cookie recipes in the magazine, which its subscribers would then bake and vote for their favorites.

"[8] Kelly Faircloth of Jezebel attributed the backlash towards Clinton's comments and the success of the contest to contemporary anxieties about the increasing number of career women.

[17][18] This marked the first time in the contest's history that the results differed from the presidential election, as John McCain lost to Barack Obama.

[20] The bake-off was canceled in 2020, after Family Circle went out of business in 2019,[22] meaning that Jill Biden and Melania Trump did not compete against each other during the 2020 US presidential election.