Lady Baltimore cake
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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 |
A Lady Baltimore cake is an American white layer cake with fluffy frosting and a fruit and nut filling. The cake is believed to have been created in the Southern 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, a Southern belle, baked and served the cake to novelist Owen Wister in Charleston, 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 in Lady Baltimore:
- "I should like a slice, if you please, of Lady Baltimore," I said, with extreme formality ... I returned to the table and I had my first felicitous meeting with Lady Baltimore. Oh, my goodness! Did you ever taste it? It's all soft, and it's in layers, and it has nuts—but I can't write any more about it; my mouth waters too much.
- Delighted surprise caused me once more to speak aloud and with my mouth full. "But, dear me, this is delicious!"[7]
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 common Queen 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 at Christmastime.[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]
