Theres no Southern belle quite like a Southern cake , whether its a vintage Lane cake or a timeless favorite like red velvet. Southern bakers are renowned for their superb, hospitality-style baking exemplified by statuesque, fussy cakes of every description. Even if a cake originates from elsewhere, such as California carrot cake or New York brownstone front , when a stellar recipe falls into the hands of a Southern baker, they adopt it like family.

Southern cookbook author Nathalie Dupree told HuffPost that the Southern cake baking rep is due to their soft, winter flours which, says Dupree, are great for cakes and she touts hallowed brands such as White Lily and Martha White.

Gossamer flour is just one part of the Southern baking equation. Sugar cane was a regional crop in Louisiana around the time of the Civil War, adding to the shiploads of Caribbean sugar pumped through Southern ports, offering a steady supply of cakes main ingredient and promoting an exponential sweet tooth. The predominantly agricultural bent of the region meant there were always plenty of baking ingredients such as pecans, sorghum, molasses, sweet potatoes, sweet butter, eggs and buttermilk.

Southern bakers of the 1800s were also adept at using up that farm buttermilk which made for exceptional, tender-crumbed cakes. Then, a pivotal moment came in the 1850s with the invention of modern baking powder . Now bakers no longer had to rely on whipped egg whites for a cakes loft. Baking powder enabled bakers to be extra creative and they rose to the occasion with bigger, prettier fairy-tale cakes.

In addition, slaves carried their own experience with ingredients such as sugar cane, bananas and coconut to Southern plantation kitchens. They brought a creativity to cooking and much hard work, Anne Byrn, author of American Cake, told NPR in 2016.

Aside from these reasons explaining Southern baking mastery, two socioeconomic conditions were also at play. The historical reality of the plantation way of life enabled households with a number of unpaid slaves or low-wage household workers to bake, cook and entertain at a level that, lets say, a pioneer woman on the Oregon trail could not. There was also an influx of British gentlewomen to the South, which brought a class of women for whom manners and gender roles were entrenched. These women were perhaps a touch more traditional than their northern settler sisters. In this decidedly ladylike value system, food wasnt just about sustenance. Being a great baker, excelling in the domestic arts and hostessing gave women a platform on which to shine and bring honor to their husbands and families. This was somewhat true for all women of a certain era, but it was so vital in the South that it was unofficially part of the value system that is in no small part the backbone of Southern food-ways.

According to Byrns American Cake , most familiar Southern layer cakes came into popularity at the end of the 19th century through the new millennium, coinciding with the popularity of 20th-century cookbooks, print food features in ladies magazines, newspaper food sections and then the internet. Over time, recipes became more widespread and picked up traction along the Mason-Dixon Line. Its not too difficult to trace the Southern cake genealogy via their numerous citings in blogs, cookbooks, food features, and church and community bake sales.

Although certain cake recipes come up frequently, every Southern baker worth their salt has their own blue-ribbon version of these recipes. Bragging rights are as much a part of the charm of a great Southern layer cake as is the generous use of butter and sugar. It doesnt hurt that these cakes are also good keepers, i.e., they keep fresh and moist for days. Here are some knock-out examples garnered from some of the best Southern baking bloggers.

Lane Cake