Alabama Lane Cake is a bourbon-laden layer cake with a coconut pecan icing that's traditional in the American South.
A Family Tradition
Have you ever heard of Alabama Lane Cake? It's a favorite in my family. The recipe has been handed down for generations. We call it simply Lane Cake in my family but I'm calling it Alabama Lane Cake in this post so readers know its origin. I'd never made it myself before now, but I have my grandmother's handwritten recipe. That is not a huge help though since it gives no directions. Only ingredients. My mother has tried making it several times, as well as some of my cousins. They have all had trouble getting it to turn out just right. We recently had a family reunion and it was my cousin, Amy, who inspired me to finally attempt to make this much loved confection. Challenge accepted!
Vintage Recipe
I decided to use my grandmother's original ingredients, with the exception of a few additions and my own baking method. I was so delighted with the outcome. It came out great and that is why I am thrilled to share the recipe with you and all of my family members who would love to make this very special cake.
Use Medium Sized Eggs for the Recipe
I used medium sized eggs for this recipe (it's the egg on the right in this photo). Can you see the difference? The one on the left is large. I thought the eggs might have been a bit smaller at the turn of the century when my great grandmother was first making this recipe. Smaller eggs would provide for a smaller quantity of eggs whites. If you can't find medium eggs, then you can measure the egg whites. You will need exactly 1 cup.
How to Make Alabama Lane Cake
- To make this cake, I used a method that is not the traditional creaming the butter and sugar, then adding eggs, dry ingredients and milk. No. This is the opposite and it works surprisingly well. So you start with your sifted cake flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix it together.
- With your mixer on low, you slowly add cubes of very cold butter. It's sort of like making a pie crust. Continue to mix on low until you have achieved fine crumbs.
- Add your milk and vanilla. Mix on low for 5 minutes.
- Gradually add your egg whites and mix on low for 3 more minutes. Voila! You have your beautifully perfect Lane Cake batter.
I used a Kitchenaid Mixer like this one to make the cake. You can find it on Amazon (affiliate):
Baking the Cake
Divide the batter equally into your 3 prepared cake pans. Believe it or not, I used disposable cake pans (8"x1.25" Hefty EZ Foil). It's very important to prepare your pans properly so that your cakes won't stick. I use Homemade Pan Release (Goop - see recipe below) and I also cut my own parchment circles.
Divide your batter equally amongst the 3 pans so that the cakes will be equally sized. DO NOT OVERBAKE. This is the key to a delicate, moist cake.
Filling the Cake
The filling ingredients. My grandmother didn't specify golden raisins, but I thought they would be pretty.
A Word About "Spirits"
My grandmother also didn't have bourbon in her recipe but I thought it would be a nice addition. She had the word "wine" on her recipe card, but I wasn't sure what kind. The bourbon turned out great. It gives it a boozy flavor which is lovely. When making the filling on the stove, stirring is the key. Don't stop stirring or you might get scrambled eggs. Once it's done, you will need to refrigerate, so that it thickens up enough to spread onto the cake without spilling over the sides.
Here's my grandmother's recipe card. Her handwriting wasn't the best because her finger was damaged in a childhood collision she had with a fan. The index finger on her right hand was always straight. She couldn't bend it but she could play the piano beautifully and she taught many students as well as played the organ at her church. And arranged flowers (from her garden) for her church every Sunday for 30 years!
My grandparents, Dorothy and Glenn. The sweet lady behind this special cake and her loving husband who was a big fan of her desserts. (You can see her forever straightened index finger in this photo.)
This is her brother, John Glenn (Uncle Gus), and an Alabama Lane Cake for his 90th birthday. I'm sure my grandmother would have made it for him if she had lived long enough. We think this one was made by his wife, Aunt Doris (around 1995).
According to Wikipedia, the original inventor of Lane Cake was Emma Rylander Lane, of Clayton, AL who won first prize with it at the county fair. This makes total sense to me since my grandmother is from a small town not far from there called Hartford, Alabama.
I hope you enjoy this cake as much as my family has! Let me know if you make it and how it turned out in the comments below. Also, is this a tradition in your family? Tell me about it.
Alabama Lane Cake
Ingredients
For the cake
- 3 cups cake flour, sifted 340g
- 2 cups granulated sugar 400g
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes (store in refrigerator until ready to use) 226g
- 1 cup whole milk, at room temperature 225ml
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 8 egg whites at room temperature (1 cup or 225ml)
For the filling
- 8 egg yolks
- 1 whole egg
- 2 cups granulated sugar 400g
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened 113g
- ¼ cup whole milk 55ml
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup bourbon (such as Evan Williams) 120ml
- 1 cup golden raisins 150g
- 2 cups chopped pecans 200g
- 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut 125g
- 10 maraschino cherries drained and cut in half
Instructions
For the cake
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare 3 round 8-inch cake pans by brushing with homemade pan release* (goop), lining with parchment rounds and brushing on more goop.
- Place cake flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. With an electric mixer on low, combine the dry ingredients for about 20 seconds.
- Take the butter out of the refrigerator. With the mixer on low, add the butter, one cube at a time. Mix on low until you have achieved fine crumbs.
- With mixer on low, add the milk and vanilla. Continue to mix on low for 5 minutes. Then gradually add the egg whites in several batches. Mix on low for 3 more minutes.
- Pour batter into prepared pans with equal amounts in each pan (about 1 ½ cups or 388g per pan). Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (a few crumbs on toothpick is ok). DO NOT OVERBAKE! Let cakes cool in the pans for 15 minutes. Then remove from pans and cool completely on cooling racks. Frost when cooled. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for 1-2 days. To keep fresh longer, store in airtight container in refrigerator.
- *Goop is homemade pan release. You can easily make it by combining ½ cup vegetable shortening (such as Crisco), ½ cup vegetable oil and ½ cup flour in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Brush on pans to prevent sticking. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container for months. Or you can use non-stick cooking spray. To cut the parchment circles, place a clean pan on top of parchment paper. Use a sharpee marker to trace the outer edge of pan onto paper. Cut with scissors.
For the filling
- Combine egg, yolks, sugar, butter, and milk in a medium saucepan. Stir constantly and bring to a boil over medium high heat. It's important to keep stirring, so you don't have scrambled eggs. Once it's boiling, continue stirring vigorously for 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and cool for 5 minutes. Stir in vanilla, bourbon, raisins, nuts and coconut. Refrigerate for about 1 hour or until completely cooled. It's ready to frost the cake. Divide into thirds.
To assemble cake
- Place one layer of cake on a cake board or platter. Frost with one third of the filling on the top only. Do not frost the sides. Place another layer of cake on top and spread another ⅓ portion of filling. Repeat for last layer of cake and filling. Place cherry halves on top. It's ready to serve.
Nutrition
This recipe is featured on Meal Plan Monday at the Southern Plate.
The Lane Cake was a success! And well received at the family reunion. I hope you will try it. My cousin describes it as a blonde German chocolate cake and I think that's exactly right.
You also might like this cake from my grandmother's recipe collection. It's called Watergate Cake.
All text and images © Lise Ode for Mom Loves Baking. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or link back to this post for the recipe. Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be accurate. This post may contain affiliate links.
Shirley Watson says
I love this cake! This is the same recipe my grandmother who was born in 1910 used and passed down. We also live in Alabama. She was from Enterprise, Alabama and also listed wine or whiskey but didn’t use it either. 💕 Delicious!
Lise Ode says
Hello Shirley, It really is a small world! Thank you for sharing your family's connection to this special cake.
GIsela Hudgins says
Iiii
HeatherAnne Norbury says
I made this into a bundt cake (since I didn't have three 8" rounds) and it turned out perfectly! The glaze/filling made WAY TOO MUCH for a bundt cake, but it is so good, you can just eat it straight anyway. 😀 I'll be posting a video of my baking escapades next Sunday. I'll be sure to share the link with you on Instagram when the video posts.
Lise Ode says
How fun! I can't wait to see your video!
Kahia Brann says
Hi, I'm new to baking especially with alcohol and I just wanted to be sure this recipe is kid friendly. 🤷🏻♀️im clueless. if its not kid friendly what do you suggest i do to make it that way while maintaining the flavor and tradition?
John says
I have never had Lane Cake before , I stumbled onto it by seeing state by state best desserts . I came across Mom Loves Baking when I put Lane Cake in address bar on Pinterest and I am so glad I did. I think that it is so precious the story of your grandmother her recipe card with her handwriting and the pic of your grandparents . Reminds me of my own precious grandmother. she too wrote down recipes with only ingredients and no directions .but no matter whatever she made it always turn out superb ..I have several of her hand written recipes ..Thank you so much for sharing I cannot wait to bake this cake and try it!!!
John from WV.
Mom Loves Baking says
Thank you, John! I hope you enjoy the cake!
John says
I have been tying to leave feed back on this recipe but haven't been able too. I tried it , made it for Easter 2017. Very delicious , I found that the older the cake became the better it taste . Will be tying this recipe again. Thanks for sharing
John from WV.
Mom Loves Baking says
Hello John, Thank you for your comment! I'm sorry you were having trouble leaving feedback, I think I had comments turned off earlier this year by accident. I really appreciate you letting me know that you liked this cake. It means a lot to me. Especially since it was my grandmother's special recipe! Happy Easter! :-))
John says
You are welcome , thank you for sharing your grandmother's special recipe with us. May God bless.
Jewell says
Well, that makes two of us in the Florida Panhandle who are fans of the Lane Cake. I'm in Panama City and don't find many people who make it, or even have the recipe. This Lane Cake is the closest to my recipe that I have seen, especially the suggestion to put your pecans, currants (I use raisins) and coconut thru a food grinder, which I ALWAYS do. It makes the filling smoother and much easier to spread and will hold nicely to the sides of the cake. It also allows us to use regular coconut, when we don't have fresh available. The Lane Cake has been a favorite with our family and friends since the 1950's and always took a Blue Ribbon at the County Fair. I make at least 4 layers, giving you more of that good filling. After all, that's the best part of the cake! My recipe calls for 4 cups of pecans and I use Wine or Apricot Brandy (preferably the Brandy). Good fresh pecans make all the difference in the world (as most of you already know) and years ago we got them from and Aunt & Uncle who had a pecan orchard in south Georgia. Now we order from Good Hope Farms in Columbia, Alabama. A friend who was buying their pecans at the Base Commissary recommended them, and you can go online and check them out. The first time we called and mentioned that we would be needing some for holiday baking and the man said if we were not in a hurry for them, we might like to wait a few more weeks till the fresh crop was in. So we did. Thought that was nice of him. Just wanted to pass that little tip along.
Mom Loves Baking says
I love Panama City and went there every summer as a kid. Thank you so much for your comments!
Gwen says
From Mobile,Alabame... my family has been making theLANE CAKEas far back as I can remember my grandmother made it and great-grandmother... There were few differences we made it for Christmas time... When you made the feeling you made it you put green and red cherries in the filling and you did not put it through a grinder
... Also you put the bourbon in after it cool down a little... After you put the feeling on you covered it airtight for about 2 to 3 weeks...then you enjoyed it on CHRISTMAS DAY
Pam Stewart says
My mother and dad lived I. Hartford,AL. I did too for probably a year when young! My Aunt Pearl In Panama City, Fl, made us Lane cake when we visited them. It was my dad’s favorite cake, but she split the layers in half so it was 8 layers . Thank you so much for sharing this recipe again!
Lise Ode says
What a small world. Nice to meet you, Pam! I love the idea of 8 layers for this cake. Merry Christmas!
Brenda says
I am from North West Alabama. As a child it was a dry county. My Grandmother never drank and didn't keep alcohol in her house. I remember her getting my Dad to get to whiskey for her since it was his favorite
Mom Loves Baking says
Hi Brenda, What year was that? Just curious. Also, you can omit the alcohol from this recipe if you want to.
buck says
Please give me contact information of someone in Jefferson or Shelby county
that makes ALABAMA LANE CAKES for purchase.
Mom Loves Baking says
I'm sorry but I don't know anyone.
June Alford says
Lane Cake has been a favorite in my family for over 60 years. I grew up about 30 miles south of Dothan in Marianna so I guess the "Alabama" recipes crossed the state line! Over the years, she stopped making the cake from scratch and simply uses a butter recipe cake mix, which is fine with all us because it's the filling we love so much. The filling recipe is the same as your grandmother's. My youngest daughter has now picked up the torch and makes the cake on Thanksgiving and Christmas only....we never have it any other time of the year so it stays very special to all of us.
Mom Loves Baking says
Hi June, I love that your family has made this cake for so many years too! I guess yours is the Florida Lane Cake. That's neat that the filling recipes are exactly the same. 🙂
Betty Martoglio says
So funny coming across this,my mother was from Geneva county and she made this every Christmas as well.I have seen other recipes in the past for lane cake but there is only one recipe for Alabama Lane Cake.This was the same recipe she used,thanks for bringing back so many memories.
Mom Loves Baking says
That's so neat, Betty! Thank you for sharing. 🙂
Nancy Doblado says
Made thus cake with my sister for our mother's birthday. Let me tell you everyone loved it! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I thought it was going to be hard to make. And many steps. But it wasn't at all.
Mom Loves Baking says
Yay! So glad you liked it, Nancy! You're right, it's really not very hard to make. 🙂
Dianne says
My Grannie was born in 1883, in northern St. Clair County, AL, raised and lived all her life there. She always made Lane Cake for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Too rich for warm-weather, too expensive (she had to buy the raisins, coconut, flour, and vanilla), and too labor-intensive for anything but celebrations. The cake itself was just a sturdy white vanilla cake. It was the frosting that made it a Lane cake. As mentioned in above comment by Pat Junko, she used an old crank-style sausage grinder to grind together seedless raisins, pecans, and the meat from a whole coconut. The grinder was screwed to the edge of the kitchen table, and newspaper laid thickly under the grinder to soak up the dripping pecan oil and coconut liquid squeezed out by the grinding process. She made an egg-sugar-butter custard like the recipes above, then stirred the ground raisin-pecan-coconut mixture into the hot custard. When cooled, that was used between the layers (at least 3, usually 4, and sometimes as many as 6) of white cake. She usually didn’t frost the sides of the cake, but when she did, it was with the same filling she used between the cake layers. She didn’t use alcohol (St. Clair was a dry county) or any kind of cherries. Sweet memories. Thanks for the reminder of a precious time.
Pat Junko says
My grandmother was born in 1883 at Wesobulga, Clay Cty, AL, and her version was much like yours. As a little girl I liked turning the handle of the old food mill. Mama used a box of raisins and about 4 cups of pecans which she mixed into the filling like this recipe. She used her homemade scuppernong wine to thin it for spreading on the sides as well as the layers.She would sprinkle more wine on the cake as it was absorbed. FYI, the Jules J Berta Vineyard in Albertville, AL makes a white muscadine wine that is almost identical (only better) to the wine used by Granny. I made this cake for my in-laws in MI a few years ago and they raved about it.
Lise Ode says
Hello Pat, Thank you so much for sharing your memories of your grandmother's cake. I always wondered what wine my grandmother used for this. Maybe it was the same as yours.
Bev says
My family (both Mom and Dad) came here from Russia in the early 1900"s. My parents were very young then. We are Volga Germans. But your story and recipe sound wonderful. I want to make this for the holidays. I know my family will love it. The recipes my Mom brought from Russia are very simple in nature, but delicious as well. It was a harsher environment over there. Thank you so much for sharing.
. Pat Junko says
The wine your grandmother used was probably homemade scuppernong wine . My grannie ground the raisins and pecans with an old sausage mill (I use an attachment to my Kitchen Aid), mixed them together and added the custard filling to the fruit and nuts. She thinned it with wine, filled the cake and drizzled wine on the cake until serving. She topped the cske with coconut. Grandmother hailed from Clay County, AL.