Alabama's State Dessert Is A Booze-Filled Delight

Many of us love a good dessert, but your favorite may depend on where you live in the United States. Each state has its own iconic dessert — there's peach cobbler in Georgia, key lime pie in Florida, and baked Alaska in, well, Alaska. And for those who live in Alabama, their dessert is a booze-filled delight: the lane cake. In fact, this cake is the official dessert of the state of Alabama.

The lane cake has four layers of white cake with a boozy filling that typically consists of bourbon, raisins, butter, sugar, vanilla, and egg yolks. Some variations also include coconut flakes and pecans in the filling, but, of course, bourbon is arguably the most important element of the filling.

According to the original recipe, the filling calls for 1-3 cups of bourbon (or brandy), which is significantly more than most modern recipes call for (anywhere from a few tablespoons to ½ cup). As for the cake itself, it consists of the basics such as butter, sugar, and flour — but, notably, it calls for eight egg whites (save the yolks for the filling) to achieve an airier, spongier texture. The lovely layers of bourbon-soaked filling and fluffy white cake are on full display.

The lane cake dates back to 1898. It was created by Emma Rylander Lane, from Clayton, Alabama, who won a baking competition at the county fair with the bourbon-filled, sweet, fluffy cake. After winning at the fair, Lane then included the recipe in a self-published cookbook, "Some Good Things to Eat." In the recipe book, Lane called the dessert the "Prize Cake" (which it is sometimes still referred to as today).

The dessert was delicious enough to stand the test of time on its own. Still, it got some help from author Harper Lee, who mentions it in her 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird." In the book, one of the characters, Miss Maudie, is known for her lane cake. Additionally, it's included in President Jimmy Carter's memoir, "Christmas in the Plains" — he wrote that his dad would bake lane cakes around Christmas time. In fact, Carter was a fan of all Southern comfort food and would request Southern staples from White House chefs.

It's possible that the references in "To Kill a Mockingbird" and Carter's memoir helped solidify the lane cake as a staple of Alabama, but it's also just a delicious and all-around beloved cake in the state. It's no wonder that, in 2016, the cake was designated the official state dessert, even further cementing it as an integral element of Alabama.