Lots About Lane Cake, TKAM, And A Carrot Cake Recipe

Yesterday for St. Patrick’s Day, for whatever reason, instead of making corned beef and cabbage or boxtys or anything else, I made a cake. A carrot cake.

Outside, the daffodils have been blooming and I know the azaleas aren’t too far behind…it just feels like spring, and spring means food like carrot cakes.

Well, actually I’ve been in the mood to make a Lane cake (it’s also called “Prize Cake”) but at the moment I can’t have any alcohol, so…no alcohol, no Lane cake. For now. Anyway, Lane cake is a special-occasion cake. It is *the cake* of Alabama.

And one thing about Lane cake is that it is made in pie tins rather than cake pans. I was wondering if I remembered that right, and sure enough they mention it in the Encyclopedia of Alabama article.

Here is the recipe for the carrot cake I made yesterday (and like Lane cake, it actually gets a little better after a day or two).

Carrot Cake Ingredients for a 2-layer cake:

for the cake:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp cocoa powder

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. oil (you can use a very mild oil like canola or peanut, I even use a mild olive oil)

2 eggs

1/2 tbsp vanilla extract

5 medium carrots, shredded

1 cup chopped pecans (in nice-size chunks – not too big, but not too fine!)

2 cake pans buttered with a circle of parchment paper in the bottom (like a Lane cake, I use pie tins sometimes)

Icing:

8 tbsp butter, cut into pieces

16 oz cream cheese (2 blocks), cut into pieces

2 cups confectioner’s sugar (once you’re making the icing, taste and see if you want to use more)

2 c. chopped pecans (same size as in the cake batter)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350*.

In the Kitchenaid, mix together the white and brown sugar plus the oil:

Next, mix in the eggs one at a time until incorporated. Now, the vanilla. Now add the flour, baking soda, and salt. Don’t mix too much, just until it comes together:

Add the carrots plus the pecans, mix, and pour evenly in each of the cake pans or pie tins. After 25-30 minutes, the cake should be done:

Once these are cool, make the icing. In a clean Kitchenaid bowl, mix together the butter and cream cheese, then when that comes together well, the confectioners sugar. It will take a while of mixing in the Kitchenaid for it to reach a good spreading consistency (probably about 6 or 8 minutes). Add in the pecan pieces, mix again: