Have you heard the tale of one of the South’s most special cakes– the Lane Cake?

If you’ve never ever had the honor of tasting a towering slice, here’s what you’re missing out on: Although there are lots of variations by a bevy of gifted bakers, a lot of Lane Cakes consist of 3 layers of white cake sandwiched with custard and fruit, doused with a generous glug of bourbon, and slathered in fluffy white icing.

Our newest performance of Lane Cake (shown listed below) includes a filling made from dried peaches and pecans, with a boiled frosting surged with peach schnapps. Standard? Perhaps not. Delicious? You wager!
Lane Cake was the brainchild of Emma Rylander Lane of Clayton, Alabama, who entered her creation in a baking competition at the county fair in Columbus, Georgia, more than 100 years ago. She named her dish “Prize Cake.” The judges bore in mind and awarded her first place.

Rylander’s recipe for Prize Cake appeared in a book she published in 1898, Some Good Things To Eat. Rylander’s variation called for raisins and a “boiled” frosting.” Another Alabamian, author Harper Lee, celebrated the Lane Cake in her 1960 work of art To Kill A Mockingbird, when her primary character, Scout, described a neighbor’s Lane Cake as “so packed with shinny it made me tight.”

Shortly after that book shot through the stratosphere of popularity, we published our first recipe for Lane Cake in Southern Living– in our second concern, in reality!

I believe it looks pretty darn excellent for 1966! (See the original photo above.).
A couple of decades later, in 1983, we published another variation of Lane Cake, this time with the icing, and more in keeping with Emma Rylander’s initial recipe. In this photo from our archives, the topping of that cake looks a little like fruitcake, however the interior was a light and fluffy reader favorite.

This Lane Cake from 1999 is partying like its namesake year! As the majority of you understand, we famously put a huge white cake on the cover every year; Lane Cake was the perfect prospect. And if you can believe it, this dish was made using a cake mix!

Lane Cake has a legion of fans all over the South, consisting of previous president Jimmy Carter! It doesn’t take a presidential statement to make a cake scrumptious– attempt a bite for yourself and you’ll agree.