Lane cake
Encyclopedia
A Lane Cake, also known as a 'Prize Cake' or an 'Alabama Lane Cake' is a bourbon-laden baked cake
traditional in the American South. According to food scholar Neil Ravenna, the inventor was Mrs. Emma Rylander Lane, of Clayton, Alabama, who won first prize with it at the county fair in Columbus, Georgia. She called it Prize Cake when she self-published a cookbook, "Some Good Things To Eat" in 1898. Her published recipe included raisins, pecans, and coconut, and called for the layers to be baked in pie tins lined with ungreased brown paper rather than in cake pans.
The Lane Cake is sometimes confused with the Lady Baltimore cake, which also is a liquor-laden fruit-filled cake, but of different pedigree.
Many variations of the Lane Cake now exist, with as many as thirteen layers of white sponge cake, separated by a filling that typically includes candied fruit soaked in a generous amount of bourbon
or sometimes brandy
. It may be frosted on the top, on the sides, or both.
Krystina Castella and Terry Lee Stone include a recipe for Lane Cake in their cookbook Booze Cakes: Confections Spiked With Spirits, Wine, and Beer which uses 2 tablespoons of bourbon in the cake, 1 cup in the filling, and a buttercream frosting made from 1 cup unsalted butter, 1/4 cup half-and-half, 3 cups confectioner's sugar, 1/4 cup bourbon, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.
's To Kill a Mockingbird
, a Lane Cake is given as a welcome gift to Aunt Alexandra by Miss Maudie Atkinson. The narrator in the story is the young daughter, Scout, of Atticus Finch. Scout reports "Miss Maudie baked a Lane cake so loaded with shinny it made me tight." Shinny is a slang term for liquor.
In Jimmy Carter
's memoir, "Christmas in Plains", he notes that I guess it would be more accurate to say that Mama never liked to cook, and welcomed my father into the kitchen whenever he was willing. He was always the one who prepared battercakes or waffles for breakfast, and he would even make a couple of Lane cakes for Christmas. Since this cake recipe required a strong dose of bourbon, it was just for the adult relatives, doctors, nurses, and other friends who would be invited to our house for eggnog."
Cake
Cake is a form of bread or bread-like food. In its modern forms, it is typically a sweet and enriched baked dessert. In its oldest forms, cakes were normally fried breads or cheesecakes, and normally had a disk shape...
traditional in the American South. According to food scholar Neil Ravenna, the inventor was Mrs. Emma Rylander Lane, of Clayton, Alabama, who won first prize with it at the county fair in Columbus, Georgia. She called it Prize Cake when she self-published a cookbook, "Some Good Things To Eat" in 1898. Her published recipe included raisins, pecans, and coconut, and called for the layers to be baked in pie tins lined with ungreased brown paper rather than in cake pans.
The Lane Cake is sometimes confused with the Lady Baltimore cake, which also is a liquor-laden fruit-filled cake, but of different pedigree.
Many variations of the Lane Cake now exist, with as many as thirteen layers of white sponge cake, separated by a filling that typically includes candied fruit soaked in a generous amount of bourbon
Bourbon whiskey
Bourbon is a type of American whiskey – a barrel-aged distilled spirit made primarily from corn. The name of the spirit derives from its historical association with an area known as Old Bourbon, around what is now Bourbon County, Kentucky . It has been produced since the 18th century...
or sometimes brandy
Brandy
Brandy is a spirit produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35%–60% alcohol by volume and is typically taken as an after-dinner drink...
. It may be frosted on the top, on the sides, or both.
Not A Difficult Recipe
Although the cake has a reputation as being difficult to make, this is no longer true. When the recipe originated, there were no stand mixers, nor electric hand mixers, and even hand-crank eggbeaters were not universally available, which meant a lot of hard labor beating egg whites to frothy soft peaks. The wood-fired ovens of the time had no thermostats, making it difficult to produce a white cake. Modern refrigeration also makes it easier to produce a stiff filling, allowing one to build an orderly multi-layer cake, rather than a sticky, lopsided dessert.Krystina Castella and Terry Lee Stone include a recipe for Lane Cake in their cookbook Booze Cakes: Confections Spiked With Spirits, Wine, and Beer which uses 2 tablespoons of bourbon in the cake, 1 cup in the filling, and a buttercream frosting made from 1 cup unsalted butter, 1/4 cup half-and-half, 3 cups confectioner's sugar, 1/4 cup bourbon, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.
Lane Cakes in American Culture
In Harper LeeHarper Lee
Nelle Harper Lee is an American author known for her 1960 Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird, which deals with the issues of racism that were observed by the author as a child in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama...
's To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. It was instantly successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and has become a classic of modern American literature...
, a Lane Cake is given as a welcome gift to Aunt Alexandra by Miss Maudie Atkinson. The narrator in the story is the young daughter, Scout, of Atticus Finch. Scout reports "Miss Maudie baked a Lane cake so loaded with shinny it made me tight." Shinny is a slang term for liquor.
In Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
's memoir, "Christmas in Plains", he notes that I guess it would be more accurate to say that Mama never liked to cook, and welcomed my father into the kitchen whenever he was willing. He was always the one who prepared battercakes or waffles for breakfast, and he would even make a couple of Lane cakes for Christmas. Since this cake recipe required a strong dose of bourbon, it was just for the adult relatives, doctors, nurses, and other friends who would be invited to our house for eggnog."