From Biscuits to Lane Cake

When the Lane cake, named after Emma Rylander Lane (1856-1904), appeared in Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird (1960), the boozy Southern dessert was at peak popularity. Yet the culinary artist behind the cake had fallen into obscurity. From Biscuits to Lane Cake recovers Lane's biography, as well as the recipes she published in Some Good Things to Eat (1898) and the Columbus Enquirer-Sun. Born in Americus, Georgia, and left fatherless in the American Civil War, Lane spent most of her life living, studying, and managing a household in Southwest Georgia. While in Clayton, Alabama, and Columbus, Georgia, she drew on the diverse culinary heritage of the South as she won cooking demonstration competitions, published a cookbook, and taught cooking classes. The family's move from the U.S. South to Mexico, alongside a tragedy there, cut short her fame. By recovering the life story of Emma Rylander Lane, From Biscuits to Lane Cake reveals the Georgia backstory of Alabama's official state dessert. Lane's recipes-from biscuits, wafers, and loaf cakes to salads, cordials, and holiday favorites-show that her expertise went far beyond the bourbon-infused dessert that bears her married name.