This Majestic Southern Cake Was One among Jimmy Carter’s Favourite Desserts

The late president Jimmy Carter, who was famously happy with his Southern roots, had a passion for Alabama Lane cake—an impressive white cake layered with a bourbon-spiked custard speckled with dried fruit and nuts. Writing for The Bitter Southerner in 2024, journalist and cookbook writer Anne Byrn notes that the cake was a vital a part of Carter’s Christmas celebration annually from his childhood proper via to his days within the White Home.

In his 2001 e book Christmas in Plains, Carter recollects how his father baked not one, however a number of Lane desserts through the holidays when he was rising up: “Since this cake recipe required a powerful dose of bourbon, it was only for the grownup family, medical doctors, nurses, and different associates who can be invited to our home for eggnog.” When he grew to become president in 1977, the dessert accompanied him to the White Home. It was his mother-in-law Francesca “Allie” Smith who taught the White Home pastry cooks how you can make the beloved Southern cake, based on Byrn.

Carter will be the most well-known fan of the cake, however he’s not the one one: In 2016, the cake was chosen because the state dessert of Alabama. Like Carter and the state of Alabama, I am keen on Lane cake. However in New York, the place I stay, the dessert is extraordinarily troublesome (if not unattainable) to search out. Fortunately for me, our Birmingham, Alabama-based take a look at kitchen colleague Nicole Hopper not too long ago shared her recipe for the confection, which suggests I could make it each time I would like. Within the South, the cake is fashionable for holidays, together with Christmas and Easter, however this lovely layered cake can be welcome at any celebration.

After baking quite a few desserts, Nicole landed on a bakery-worthy model that happy our different Alabamian colleagues, lots of whom grew up consuming the cake and had heat, nostalgic reminiscences of the dessert. Nicole’s model consists of three layers of tender white cake and a bourbon-laced custard full of coconut, pecans, and dried fruit, all encased in a silky Swiss meringue buttercream. Right here’s how you can make a Lane cake like a real Alabamian.

The way to Make the Very Greatest Alabama Lane Cake

Put together the cake batter utilizing the reverse creaming methodology. Many recipes have you ever start by creaming butter and sugar collectively (which helps aerate a cake), then incorporate the eggs separately earlier than including the dry components. Nicole’s recipe takes a totally totally different method with a way referred to as reverse creaming. Popularized by Rose Levy Beranbaum in her 1988 cookbook The Cake Bible, reverse creaming entails paddling the dry components—flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt—with room temperature butter, then including the moist components.

In The Cake Bible, Beranbaum notes that this methodology is “sooner, simpler, and nearly eliminates any chance of toughening the cake by overbeating,” which may develop an excessive amount of gluten, leading to an unpleasantly chewy cake. Paddling the dry components with butter helps evenly coat the flour particles in fats; this makes it harder for the gluten proteins glutenin and gliadin to bond with each other—limiting these bonds in flip leads to a young cake.

Gently fold in whipped egg whites. Lane cake is made with a white cake, which accommodates no egg yolks. (Don’t fret—you will use all these yolks within the custard.) With the standard creaming methodology, the egg whites are included into the cake batter after the butter and sugar are crushed, and earlier than the dry components are added. In her exams, Nicole discovered {that a} white cake made this manner produced an unpleasantly chewy cake. She discovered a better strategy to incorporate the egg whites with out giving the cake a rubbery texture: She whips the egg whites till they’re stiff, then gently folds them into the batter for a light-weight, fluffy cake that’s nonetheless sturdy sufficient for the custard filling. 

Cook dinner the custard filling to 170°F (77°C)—and whisk continuously. To make the cake’s signature boozy filling, Nicole cooks egg yolks, sugar, and butter till the combination turns into thick and easy. Egg proteins start to coagulate at round 165°F (75°C), and cooking the yolk combination till 170°F (77°C) ensures that it units right into a velvety custard that’s simply thick sufficient to cradle the pecans, coconut, raisins, and cherries. Simply make sure to whisk continuously, in any other case you’ll find yourself with candy scrambled eggs.

Frost the cake with a Swiss meringue buttercream. Historically, Lane cake is frosted with a boiled white icing, which is also called a seven minute frosting: You whisk a mix of egg whites and sugar in a bowl set over a scorching water bathtub till it’s thick and shiny. It’s basically a Swiss meringue. Although the frosting alone is scrumptious, it makes for an uncomfortably saccharine dessert when paired with already candy Lane cake. To chop via a number of the sweetness of the cake, Nicole determined to take the Swiss meringue one step additional by including butter and turning it right into a buttercream. Wealthy, creamy, and silky easy, the buttercream enhances the sharp, spiced notes of the bourbon and the nuttiness of the pecans and coconut. 

It’s a dessert match for an important day—however anybody who’s ever had the pleasure of having fun with Lane cake is aware of that having a slice is an event in itself.

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