Martha's Lady Baltimore Cake

Prep Time:

1 hr

Cook Time:

45 mins

Total Time:

1 hr 45 mins

Servings:

Yield:

1 9-inch cake

Lady Baltimore Cake is a spectacular dessert. The tall layer cake, complete with white frosting and a unique dried fruit and nut filling, is fluffy, chewy, crunchy, and soft. For Martha, this luscious dessert brings back happy memories: It was our founder's pick for her birthday cake when she was growing up—her mom made it for her year after year.

We can understand why: The cake's layers are light and airy and the filling is a rich combination of walnuts, dates, golden raisins, and rum. Best of all? The cake is finished with clouds of seven-minute frosting. Lady Baltimore cake isn't just a Martha-approved birthday cake—it's also a special dessert for the holidays or any celebration where an over-the-top confection is required.

The History of the Lady Baltimore Cake

Lady Baltimore cake seems like it belongs to another era—and it does. Most people assume that Lady Baltimore cake hails from Baltimore, but the dessert is actually affiliated with Charleston—by way of a blend of fact and fiction. A popular origin story involves author Owen Wister, who published a book, Lady Baltimore in 1906. In the romance novel, a gentleman orders a Lady Baltimore wedding cake at a bakery—but ends up falling in love with (and marrying) the shop clerk, instead.

Culinary historians say that Wister drew the inspiration for his novel from a real cake, which was served at Lady Baltimore Tea Room, run by sisters Florence and Nina Ottelengui. They supposedly developed the confection—a version of a popular dessert of the time called queen cake—and Wister ordered one every year.

Key Equipment for Making Lady Baltimore Cake

To make and assemble this towering dessert, you'll want to pull together the following equipment:

Electric mixer: An electric mixer is crucial for making this recipe. You'll need it to cream the butter and sugar (which aerates the mixture and helps to evenly disperse the sugar) and to beat the egg whites for both the batter and frosting. A stand-mixer will make the process go more smoothly and quickly than using a handheld mixer, but the latter will still get the job done.

Cake pans: You'll need two identical nine-inch round cake pans for this recipe. To ensure the cakes release easily without sticking or tearing, be sure to thoroughly butter and flour the bottom and edges before adding the batter.

Sifter or fine-mesh strainer: For extra light and fluffy cakes, the dry ingredients are sifted a total of three times. This helps to incorporate air into the flour mixture while also catching any clumps. If you don't have a sifter, you can use a fine-mesh strainer instead.

Candy thermometer: Making the frosting requires first cooking a sugar syrup to precisely 238 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature known as "soft-ball stage." We call for a candy thermometer for this step, but you can use an instant-read thermometer instead, just be sure to not touch the bottom of the pan with the tip of the probe.

Serrated knife: To evenly slice both cakes in half, we recommend using a long serrated knife. Other long, thin-bladed knives will work as well, just avoid using any knife that is too short or bulky, which can result in jagged layers.

How to Separate Eggs

Many cake recipes, including Lady Baltimore cake, call for separating the egg whites and yolks. You might add them to the batter at different times—or only add one or the other (Lady Baltimore Cake, for example, only calls for egg whites). Separating the egg whites from the yolks is a basic culinary skill and one that doesn't require any special equipment. There are two basic techniques—try both and see which one works best for you:

When you are separating egg whites and yolks, use room temperature eggs for the best result.

Using the Halves of the Eggshell

This is the best known technique for separating eggs.

Crack the egg against a hard surface, such as a countertop or the edge of a bowl. Tilt the yolk back and forth between the two halves of the eggshell as the egg whites drip into a bowl below. Make sure the sharp edges of the shell do not puncture the yolk as you alternate.

Using Your Hands

A gentler but messier technique is to simply crack the egg into your hands.

Crack the egg into your hand and let the egg white slip through our fingers into the bowl below.

Directions

Preheat oven, prep pans, and sift dry ingredients:

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Butter and flour two 9-by-2-inch round pans; set aside. Into a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt three times; set aside.
Cream butter and sugar:

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
Add extracts:

Beat in vanilla and almond extracts.
Add flour and milk:

Add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk and the water, and beginning and ending with the flour. Set batter aside.
Whip egg whites:

In a clean bowl of the electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Fold whites into batter; transfer to pans:

Fold gently into reserved batter until well combined. Divide batter between prepared pans.
Bake and cool cakes:

Bake until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Transfer pans to a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Remove cakes from pans, and return to the rack to cool, top-sides up.
Make fruit and nut mixture for filling:

Bring raisins, dates, and rum to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until liquid has been absorbed. Remove from heat; let cool. Stir in walnuts; set aside.
Cook sugar mixture for frosting:

In a small saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup, and the water. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. When sugar has dissolved, continue to cook without stirring, until it reaches 238°F (soft-ball stage) as measured on a candy thermometer.
Beat egg whites and add sugar mixture:

Meanwhile, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat egg whites, vanilla, and salt until stiff peaks form. When sugar mixture has reached 238°F, pour it into the beaten egg whites while beating constantly on high speed, until the mixture is cool and is the proper consistency for spreading, about 7 minutes.
Make filling:

Transfer 1 cup frosting to a medium bowl. Add reserved dried fruit and nut mixture. Stir to combine, and set aside.
Assemble the cake:

Trim cake tops. Slice cakes in half horizontally. Place one cake layer on a serving plate; spread with one-third of the filling. Repeat with 2 more cake layers. Top with remaining cake layer, bottom side up. Spread frosting over sides and top of the cake.

How to Store Lady Baltimore Cake

Once frosted and assembled, this cake can be stored at room temperature for up to one day, though we recommend eating it within a few hours for best results. (The longer it sits, the stiffer and less fluffy the frosting will become.)

Lord Baltimore Cake

There's a lord to this cake's lady: Though Lord Baltimore cake isn't as well known as the classic, it's just as tasty. The riff calls for a different filling (crushed macaroon cookies are added to the nuts and candied cherries replace the fruit) but features a similar white cake and fluffy frosting.