chopped nuts + dried fruits

The Lady Baltimore cake is a southern specialty dessert. It is a popular wedding cake flavor due to its unique components and thick, luscious, fluffy frosting. This cake's history dates back to 1906. Nobody can really agree on who was the first to make this cake. Some believe it to be named after Charleston novelist Owen Wister's character, Lady Baltimore, who was modeled after Alicia Rhett Mayberry, a former belle of Charleston, South Carolina. Wister wrote about his character baking the cake in his book. The actual recipe appeared in a 1906 newspaper, the Daily Gazette and Bulletin located in Pennsylvania. The frosting is a meringue recipe and the cake is filled with dried fruits and crunchy nuts. Some versions of the recipe include rosewater and I was excited to use a new ingredient, so I included rosewater in this doughnut. I ventured to make this southern classic into a delicious, heaping doughnut. Here's the recipe!

This doughnut uses the brioche doughnut dough.

for the glaze:
1 cup rosewater (either buy the rosewater, a middle eastern ingredient, from a specialty store or make your own like I did)
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Mix the rosewater and powdered sugar until smooth.

how to make the rosewater:

Take 4 roses and strip the petals. Wash them gently and place into a pot filled with 3 cups of water. Boil until the rose petals lose their color. Let it cool and place it into a container. Place container into a refrigerator and use within a week.

for the meringue frosting:

2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, divided

1/4 cup water

Dash of salt

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

3 large egg whites

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine 2/3 cup sugar, 1/4 cup water, and dash of salt in a small saucepan over medium-high heat; bring to a boil, stirring just until sugar dissolves. Cook, without stirring, until a candy thermometer registers 240° (about 4 minutes). Combine cream of tartar and 3 egg whites in large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until foamy. Gradually add the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, beating at high speed until medium peaks form. Gradually pour the hot sugar syrup into the egg white mixture, beating first at medium speed and then at high speed until stiff peaks form. Beat in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract.

for the toppings:
1 cup dried figs, cut into small pieces
1 1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 1/2 cup raisins
1 orange for zesting

Top each doughnut with fig pieces, pecans, raisins and orange zest.


Here's a printable version of this recipe!


There you have it! 'Til next time,