A good rule of thumb in the South: bring a cake. Wherever you’re going, whatever you’re doing, a cake will help (or at least never hurt!) your case. Extra points are earned for layers or boiled icing, but you’ll rarely go wrong with a cake in any form.
Certain cakes are true Southern staples — coconut cake, carrot cake, red velvet, among others — and they grace Southern tables year-round. We made three tasty versions of the best-known classics so you can slice and serve any way you like. Make a Southern Pound Cake one day and Carrot Cake Cupcakes the next.
And, we didn’t stop there. Mix, chill, and enjoy icebox creations — like a 3-layer bananas foster ice cream cake — plus, dozens of party cakes that are sure to make every occasion more special. You’ll be inspired to bust out your cast-iron skillet and whip up skillet cakes. Upside down or right side up, baking doesn’t get much easier than one-dish skillet cakes.
Last, but certainly not least, we found our favorite store-made cakes around the South and highlighted a few of our favorites.
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Tried the Coconut Raspberry Layer cake noted the Southern Christmas issue (Dec 2015). Cake looked beautiful but I found the raspberry preserve filling had leached into the cake, making it wet and dense, with a texture of custard. Very disappointing, especially since this cake took 10 egg whites and I expected it to light and fluffy. The top half of the top layer was edible and delicious. The recipe called for 2 1/4 cups of raspberry preserves so a lot of preserves for the filling and I used seedless raspberry preserves. Any suggestions to avoid this issue in the future?