Alabama's Official State Dessert Is Jam-Packed With Booze

The state of Alabama is a hidden culinary treasure. While other Southern states like Louisiana, South Carolina, and Georgia are often put in the spotlight for their contributions to the food world, Alabama has mastered fried green tomatoes, created amazing seafood dishes with the treasures from the Gulf of Mexico, and invented Alabama white barbecue sauce, a unique condiment that you'll never forget once you've tried it. As far as sweets go, the Southern state has a lesser-known dessert called Lane Cake, and it is one boozy doozy.

The eponymous Lane Cake was created by Emma Rylander Lane, a woman born in Clayton, Alabama, who entered the cake in a baking competition in Columbus, Georgia in 1898. The dessert won, and when Lane included the recipe in her own cookbook later that year, she called it "Prize Cake." It is a layered cake with a texture reminiscent of angel food cake, but it's the filling that makes it memorable. Consisting of a mixture of egg yolks, butter, sugar, pecans, coconut, raisins, and anywhere from one to three cups of bourbon or brandy (yes, cups), it's definitely not designed for the teetotaler.

Despite its early creation date, it wasn't until 2016 that Alabama declared Lane Cake as its official state cake. Coincidentally, this was also the year that legendary author and Alabama-darling, Harper Lee, died. While she didn't create the cake, Lee can take some credit for popularizing Lane Cake, having mentioned it in her classic work, "To Kill a Mockingbird."

Harper Lee was born in Monroeville, Alabama in 1926. When she published "To Kill a Mockingbird" in 1960, millions read the story involving young Jean Louise "Scout" Finch and her father, Atticus, in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama. In the story, Scout recalls the liquor-filled Lane Cakes her neighbor, Miss Maudie Atkinson, baked for the neighborhood. She made her cakes so strong that, after eating a slice, six-year-old Scout felt the effects of the "shinny," or moonshine, that the cake was made with.

In the years after the novel was published, many curious readers sought out Lane Cakes, which until this time had been exclusively a late-19th century, Southern novelty. Modern recipes vary, and most of them don't use anywhere near even a cup of bourbon, but it remains an important part of the cake. 

Traditionally, Lane Cake was often made around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays in Alabama and, increasingly, the surrounding Southern states. But it would be a welcome addition to any meal, preferably something adored in Alabama, like smoked chicken with white barbecue sauce or a juicy tomato and mayo sandwich on white bread.