General Robert E. Lee Cake

 "A luxurious lemony cake with a lemon curd filling, and a coconut citrus frosting. A beautiful cake for Easter."

  Original recipe yield:1 four layer 9 inch cake

 INGREDIENTS

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

8 egg yolks

2 cups white sugar

8 egg whites

2 teaspoons grated lemon zest

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/8 teaspoon salt

  4 egg yolks

1 1/3 cups white sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon zest

1/3 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup butter

  1/3 cup butter, softened

4 cups confectioners' sugar

3 tablespoons grated orange zest

2 1/2 tablespoons orange juice

1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon zest

1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/2 cup flaked coconut

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9 inch pans. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and cream of tartar. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, beat together the 8 egg yolks and 2 cups sugar until thick and pale. Stir in the 2 teaspoons lemon zest and 2 tablespoons lemon juice. In a large glass or metal mixing bowl, beat egg whites and salt until soft peaks form. Fold whites into the egg yolk mixture alternately with the flour mixture. Spread evenly into the prepared pans.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Let layers cool in the pan for 15 minutes before inverting onto wire racks to cool completely. Using a long serrated knife, slice the layers in half horizontally.

To make the filling: In the top of a double boiler, combine the 1 1/3 cup sugar, 4 egg yolks, 2 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest and 1/3 cup lemon juice. Cook over high heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar is dissolved and mixture thickens. Remove from heat, and stir in the butter. Cool to room temperature before filling cake.

To make the frosting: In a medium bowl, cream the 1/3 cup butter until light and fluffy. Gradually add the confectioners sugar and mix in the orange zest, orange juice, lemon zest and lemon juice. Finally, stir in coconut. Frost the outside of the filled cake.

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.