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| Type | Cake |
|---|---|
| Course | Dessert |
| Place of origin | United States |
| Region or state | American South |
| Main ingredients | Sponge cake,meringue,raisins,figs,cherries,walnuts,pecans |
| Variations | Lord Baltimore cake |
ALady Baltimore cake is an American whitelayer cake with fluffyfrosting and a fruit and nut filling. The cake is believed to have been created in theSouthern United States in the early 20th century, but its exact origins are disputed.[1][2][3]
The most popular legend of the Lady Baltimore is that Alicia Rhett Mayberry, aSouthern belle, baked and served the cake to novelistOwen Wister inCharleston, South Carolina. Wister was said to have been so enamored with the cake that he used it as the namesake of his novel,Lady Baltimore.[4][5][6]
Wister included a description of the cake inLady Baltimore:
According to food historians, the cake may have actually originated with Florence and Nina Ottolengui, the longtime managers of Charleston's Lady Baltimore Tea Room, who developed the cake based on a version of the commonQueen cake from the late nineteenth century. The Ottolenguis are said to have annually baked and shipped a cake to Owen Wister as a "thanks" for making their creation famous, and were known to ship hundreds of cakes around the country atChristmastime.[3][4] The cake is currently made by Charleston's Sugar Bakeshop.[8]
The first recorded mentions of a cake with the name of "Lady Baltimore" began appearing in 1906, with several newspaper articles referring to it as the "famous" or "original" cake.[2]
The first printings of the recipe were copied in several newspapers, includingHarrisburg, Pennsylvania'sDaily Gazette and Bulletin,The Columbus Journal, andThe Washington Times, in 1906:[2][9]
Beat the whites of six eggs. Take a cup and a half of granulated sugar, a cup of milk, nearly a cup of butter, three cups of flour and two teaspoonfuls of good baking powder. Sift the flour and baking powder together into the other ingredients, adding the eggs last of all. Bake in two buttered pans for fifteen or twenty minutes.
For the frosting: Two cups of granulated sugar and a cup and a half of water, boil until stringy, about five minutes usually does it. Beat the whites of two eggs very light, and pour the boiling sugar slowly into it, mixing well. Take out of this enough for the top and sides of the cake, and stir into the remainder for the filling between the two layers, one cup of finely chopped raisins and a cup of chopped nuts. This is delicious when properly baked.
Modern versions of the recipe may call for a meringue, boiled, or seven-minute frosting, and may include rum orliqueurs in the filling. The cake itself may be white or yellow. There is also a version known as the "Lord Baltimore cake" made with the leftover egg yolks instead of whites.[10][11][12][13]
