History of Robert E. Lee Cake

© copyright 2004 by Linda Stradley - United States Copyright TX 5-900-517- All rights reserved. This web site may not be reproduced in whole or in part without permission and appropriate credit given. If you use any of the history information contained below for research in writing a magazine or newspaper article, school work or college research, and/or television show production, you must give a reference to the author, Linda Stradley, and to the web site What's Cooking America. 

  Home  |  Recipes  |  Diet Recipes  |  Dinner Party Menus  |  Food History  |  Culinary Dictionary  |  Diet, Health & Beauty
 


Also called General Robert E. Lee Cake. One of the most famous Southern American cakes of all times. Making this cake is definitely a labor of love because it is not simple to do. There are many recipes and many versions in old southern cookbooks (this cake was extremely popular in the nineteenth century). No two authorities seem to agree on the egg content of the cake (ranging from eight to ten eggs). The icing also varies with each recipe.

This cake was made to honor Robert E. Lee (1807-1870), commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces during the American Civil War. For some southerners he is an almost god-like figure - for others, he is a paradox. Following the war, Lee was almost tried as a traitor, but was only left with his civil rights suspended.

1879 - In the cookbook, Housekeeping In Old Virginia; Contributions from Two Hundred and fifty of Virginia's Noted Housewives, Distinguished For Their Skill In The Culinary Art And Other Branches of Domestic Economy, Edited by Marion Cabell Tyree:

"Robert E. Lee" Cake
Twelve eggs, their full weight in sugar, a half-weight in flour. Bake it in pans the thickness of jelly cakes. Take two pounds of nice "A" sugar, squeeze into it the juice of five oranges and three lemons together with the pulp; stir it in the sugar until perfectly smooth; then spread it on the cakes, as you would do jelly, putting one above another till the whole of the sugar is used up. spread a layer of it on top and on sides. - Mrs. G.

"Gen. Robert Lee" Cake
10 eggs.
1 pound sugar.
1/2 pound flour.
Rind of 1 lemon, and juice of 1/2 lemon.

Make exactly like sponge cake, and bake in jelly-cake tins. Then take the whites of two eggs beat to a froth, and add one pound sugar, the grated rind and jice of one orange, or juice of half a lemon. Spread it on the cakes before they are perfectly cold, and place one layer on another. this quantity makes two cakes.
- Mrs. I. H.

1890 - The General Assembly of Virginia passed a law to designate Robert E. Lee's birthday (January 19th) as a public holiday.

1904 - The legislature added the birthday of Stonewall Jackson to the holiday, and Lee-Jackson Day was born.

1984 - President Ronald Reagan declared the day in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Virginia, who since 1978 had celebrated King's Birthday in conjunction with New Years Day, made the change and simply tacked him onto Lee-Jackson Day. Thus Lee-Jackson-King Day was born.

2000 - Virginia Governor, Jim Gilmore, proposed splitting Lee-Jackson-King Day into two separate holidays, with Lee-Jackson Day to be celebrated the Friday before what would become Martin Luther King Day. The measure was approved and the two holidays are now celebrated separately. Virginians still observe Robert E. Lee Day by partying and making this famous cake.