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Lady Baltimore cake is a multi-layered white cake with white icing, nuts, and candied or dried fruit mixed into the frosting. Its origin is uncertain, but it was likely named after a character in a romance novel. The first recipe was published in 1906 and has since been modified with different icing ingredients.
A Lady Baltimore cake is a multi-layered white cake that has white icing bubbled between its layers and coating the top and sides. What sets it apart from a plain white layer cake is the addition of chopped nuts and chopped candied or dried fruit mixed into the frosting. It was a popular wedding cake in the early 20th century and remains among the top choices of many brides today.
The story of how the Lady Baltimore cake got its name varies. Since there is no mention in the literature or evidence that it is a pre-1906 recipe, it is unlikely that it had anything to do with the real Lady Baltimore. Ann Arundel, who died in 1649, was called Lady Baltimore because she was married to an Irish man who had inherited from her father the entire state of Maryland in the United States (USA), including her great city of Baltimore. Interestingly, she never visited the North American continent, just as Lord Baltimore never did.
The most probable origin of the Lady Baltimore Cake was a romance novel called Lady Baltimore, written by Owen Wister and published in 1906. According to legend, prior to writing the book, Wister had received a cake from a Southern Charleston belle , South Carolina, named Alicia Rhett Mayberry. The packaging impressed him so much that he included it in his novel, stating in the story that he bought a cake for his wedding in a tea room from a lady named Lady Baltimore and then named the cake after her.
Wister’s description of the cake’s appearance and taste was so appealing that readers of the novel were desperate for the recipe. Since it hadn’t been created, the bakers set about creating a cake that mimicked Wister’s excited and vague description from the book. All they had to continue was the passage: “Oh, my God! Have you ever tasted it. It’s all soft, it’s layered and it has peanuts in it – but I can’t write about it anymore; my mouth is watering too. The happy surprise made me speak loudly once again, and with my mouth full, ‘But, dear me, it’s delicious!’ ”
The first recipe for Lady Baltimore Cake was published shortly thereafter. On December 24, 1906, the Daily Gazette and Bulletin, based in the United States in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, published the version that is still in print today. The only variations over the years have been the icing ingredients, which have often included chopped figs and raisins and crushed amaretti biscuits.
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