Lady Baltimore Cake

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup raisins
• 2/3 cup chopped pecans
• 2/3 cup chopped dried fruit
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 recipe White Frosting

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
2. In a medium bowl, combine raisins, pecans, and dried fruit. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream together butter, shortening, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Gradually stir in flour alternately with orange juice, mixing until just blended. Stir in raisin mixture and vanilla.
4. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
5. Cool cake in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Frost with White Frosting.

Interesting Facts

• The Lady Baltimore Cake was created in 1906 by a Baltimore caterer named F.L. Klauder.
• The cake is traditionally made with white cake, raisins, candied cherries, pecans, and a white frosting.
• It is said to have gotten its name from a novel of the same name by Owen Wister.
• The novel was published in 1906, the same year the cake was invented.