Recipes from Southern Cakes

Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott

Taste the chocolatey goodness of Mississippi Mud or marvel at the extravagant elegance of the Lady Baltimore and there will be no doubt that Southerners know how to bake a cake. Here are 65 recipes for some of the most delicious ever. Jam cakes and jelly rolls; humble pear bread and peanut cake; whole chapters on both chocolate and coconut cakeseach moist and delicious forkful represents the spirit of the South. A Baking 101 section offers the cake basics, some finishing touches (that means frosting and lots of it!), and the how-to’s of storing each lovely concoction so that the last slice tastes as fresh and delightful as the first.

Two slices of oatmeal cake on plates

Oatmeal Cake

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Oatmeal cake, to us, is synonymous with breakfast, seeing as there’s wholesome oatmeal beneath all that coconut and old-fashioned boiled frosting.

A frosted brown sugar pound cake on a white plate on a cloth-covered picnic table.

Brown Sugar Pound Cake

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This rich, buttery, unabashedly sweet Southern tradition is a twist on a classic and becomes even more indulgent with a heavy-handed drizzle of caramel glaze.

Three slices of pear bread on a white plate with a cut loaf in the background.

Pear Bread

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Quick bread. Tea cake. Spice bread. Whatever you call it, this recipe has pedigree–and you don’t need to know its geneology to know this. One taste tells all.