Lady Baltimore Cake from South Carolina

Lady Baltimore Cake



This is s recipe by Mrs. Mayberry from Charleston, South Carolina



Shopping List:
A Candy thermometer

For the cake:

110 gr butter, softened
300 gr soft white sugar
2 large eggs, free range, seperated
220 gr cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
230 ml milk

For filling nr. 1:

100 gr sugar
54 gr ground walnuts
60 ml water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract

For filling nr. 2 and for putting the cake together:

400 gr sugar
125 ml water
2 large egg whites, beaten until it peaks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
150 gr raisins, chopped
100 gr walnuts, chopped
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Preheat your oven to 190C. Spray or grease and line two 20 cm round tins or springfroms.
Cream the butter and the sugar together until light and fluffy. Seperately: Beat the egg yolks until light, then beat them into the butter mixture. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the butter mixture alternately with the milk, ending with the flour mixture. In a clean bowl: beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry. Gently fold the whites into the batter.

Divide the batter into your prepared tins and bake them into your preheated oven for about 25 minutes. Use your caketester to see if it comes out clean. Take them out of the oven and let them cool in the tin for about 10 minutes. Turn them out onto your wire rack to cool completely.

While the cakes are baking and cooling you can make the fillings.

For filling nr: 1 : Put the sugar, walnuts and water in a small saucepan and cook over a medium heat without stirring to: very soft ball stage on your candy thermometer. Remove from the heat and let cool just a little. Stir in the extracts and beat until slightly thickened.
Spread Filling nr. 1 over the 2 cake layers.

For filling nr. 2 :  Dissolve the sugar in the water in the heavy saucepan. Don't stir at this point. Bring to a boil over a medium heat. Cover and boil for 3 minutes. Then you remover the lid and boil until the mixture HOT! reaches the firm ball stage on your sugar thermometer.

Now slowly! pour this hot syrup into your beaten egg whites whilst beating all the time and continue doing so until it has cooled down a little. If you pour it in too fast you will end up with cooked eggs nasties!
Then you quickly add the extracts, raisins, nuts, and the lemon juice.

Spread a little of the filling 2 over the filling nr. 1 on each of your cake layers, then you put one layer on top of the other. Pour all of the filling nr 2 over the assembled cake and cover the sides nicely with you palette knife. You can decorate with figs if you want to, but i did not want to wander from the original recipe as it is.


                                                           "Enjoy"