This Majestic Southern Cake Was One of Jimmy Carter’s Favorite Desserts

The late president Jimmy Carter, who was famously proud of his Southern roots, had a fondness for Alabama Lane cake—a magnificent white cake layered with a bourbon-spiked custard speckled with dried fruit and nuts. Writing for The Bitter Southerner in 2024, journalist and cookbook author Anne Byrn notes that the cake was an essential part of Carter’s Christmas celebration each year from his childhood right through to his days in the White House.

In his 2001 book Christmas in Plains, Carter recalls how his father baked not one, but several Lane cakes during the holidays when he was growing up: “Since this cake recipe required a strong dose of bourbon, it was just for the adult relatives, doctors, nurses, and other friends who would be invited to our house for eggnog.” When he became president in 1977, the dessert accompanied him to the White House. It was his mother-in-law Francesca “Allie” Smith who taught the White House pastry chefs how to make the beloved Southern cake, according to Byrn.

Carter may be the most famous fan of the cake, but he’s not the only one: In 2016, the cake was chosen as the state dessert of Alabama. Like Carter and the state of Alabama, I adore Lane cake. But in New York, where I live, the dessert is extremely difficult (if not impossible) to find. Luckily for me, our Birmingham, Alabama-based test kitchen colleague Nicole Hopper recently shared her recipe for the confection, which means I can make it whenever I want. In the South, the cake is popular for holidays, including Christmas and Easter, but this beautiful layered cake would be welcome at any celebration.

After baking numerous cakes, Nicole landed on a bakery-worthy version that pleased our other Alabamian colleagues, many of whom grew up eating the cake and had warm, nostalgic memories of the dessert. Nicole’s version consists of three layers of tender white cake and a bourbon-laced custard packed with coconut, pecans, and dried fruit, all encased in a silky Swiss meringue buttercream. Here’s how to make a Lane cake like a true Alabamian.

How to Make the Very Best Alabama Lane Cake

Prepare the cake batter using the reverse creaming method. Many recipes have you begin by creaming butter and sugar together (which helps aerate a cake), then incorporate the eggs one at a time before adding the dry ingredients. Nicole’s recipe takes a completely different approach with a method called reverse creaming. Popularized by Rose Levy Beranbaum in her 1988 cookbook The Cake Bible, reverse creaming involves paddling the dry ingredients—flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt—with room temperature butter, then adding the wet ingredients.

In The Cake Bible, Beranbaum notes that this method is “faster, easier, and virtually eliminates any possibility of toughening the cake by overbeating,” which can develop too much gluten, resulting in an unpleasantly chewy cake. Paddling the dry ingredients with butter helps evenly coat the flour particles in fat; this makes it more difficult for the gluten proteins glutenin and gliadin to bond with one another—limiting these bonds in turn results in a tender cake.

Gently fold in whipped egg whites. Lane cake is made with a white cake, which contains no egg yolks. (Don't worry—you'll use all those yolks in the custard.) With the traditional creaming method, the egg whites are incorporated into the cake batter after the butter and sugar are beaten, and before the dry ingredients are added. In her tests, Nicole found that a white cake made this way produced an unpleasantly chewy cake. She found a smarter way to incorporate the egg whites without giving the cake a rubbery texture: She whips the egg whites until they are stiff, then gently folds them into the batter for a light, fluffy cake that’s still sturdy enough for the custard filling. 

Cook the custard filling to 170°F (77°C)—and whisk constantly. To make the cake’s signature boozy filling, Nicole cooks egg yolks, sugar, and butter until the mixture becomes thick and smooth. Egg proteins begin to coagulate at around 165°F (75°C), and cooking the yolk mixture until 170°F (77°C) ensures that it sets into a velvety custard that’s just thick enough to cradle the pecans, coconut, raisins, and cherries. Just be sure to whisk constantly, otherwise you’ll end up with sweet scrambled eggs.

Frost the cake with a Swiss meringue buttercream. Traditionally, Lane cake is frosted with a boiled white icing, which is also known as a seven minute frosting: You whisk a mixture of egg whites and sugar in a bowl set over a hot water bath until it’s thick and glossy. It’s essentially a Swiss meringue. Though the frosting alone is delicious, it makes for an uncomfortably saccharine dessert when paired with already sweet Lane cake. To cut through some of the sweetness of the cake, Nicole decided to take the Swiss meringue one step further by adding butter and turning it into a buttercream. Rich, creamy, and silky smooth, the buttercream complements the sharp, spiced notes of the bourbon and the nuttiness of the pecans and coconut. 

It’s a dessert fit for a special occasion—but anyone who’s ever had the pleasure of enjoying Lane cake knows that having a slice is an occasion in itself.