{"id":103925,"date":"2025-02-22T19:37:36","date_gmt":"2025-02-22T19:37:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/recipes\/category-a-b\/baking-category-a-b\/lane-cake-layer-cakes\/"},"modified":"2025-02-22T19:37:36","modified_gmt":"2025-02-22T19:37:36","slug":"lane-cake-layer-cakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=103925","title":{"rendered":"Lane Cake: Layer Cakes"},"content":{"rendered":"


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My friend Dana sent me a text message not that long ago saying “this looks like a cake you should make”. I agreed with a “Yum!” and found myself wondering about why the author of this recipe chose the method she did for making the cake layers.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I had a vague recognition of this cake but couldn’t quite place it, so researched it a bit and realized the connection while I was seeing an excellent adaptation of Harper Lee’s classic in May of this year. According to Josh Miller from his article in <\/span>Southern Living<\/span><\/u><\/a>, <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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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 recipe “Prize Cake.” The judges took note and awarded her first place.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Rylander\u2019s recipe for Prize Cake appeared in a book she published in 1898, Some Good Things To Eat. Rylander\u2019s version called for raisins and a “boiled\u201d frosting.” Another Alabamian, author Harper Lee, immortalized the Lane Cake in her 1960 masterpiece To Kill A Mockingbird, when her main character, Scout, referred to a neighbor\u2019s Lane Cake as “so loaded with shinny it made me tight.”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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I have no reservations at all about tackling layer cakes but know some do. Why put in that extra baking and construction effort? Here are a few reasons:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    They offer excellent proportion of frosting or filling to cake<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    The basic idea of layer cake allows for an incredible range of cake types, fillings, frostings, icings, added textures to play with – versatility<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    They run the gamut from fairly simple to outrageously complex with alternating cake and icing or filling layers<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    They are visually very impressive when done well<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n

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    After you decide to make a layer cake you might just do what you know, but there are a few different ways to tackle the layers. Baking each layer separetly in pans, baking one or more in pans and then slicing and trimming. The author of this recipe uses a lipped sheet pan and cake ring. Ever try that? <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    There are a few advantages. The shallow depth means a faster bake, there is less doming in a sheet pan and results in more flat areas, use of a cake ring to cut the circles makes for a cleaner edge and a more dramatic result. I’ve used acetate strips to build naked layer cakes and have skipped that step – using them makes a cleaner edge. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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