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1. For the cake: Preheat the oven to 350° F. Coat four 9-inch layer cake pans well with nonstick oil-and-flour baking spray and set aside.

2. Sift the cake flour, baking powder, and salt onto a piece of wax paper and set aside also.

3. Cream the butter, sugar, and vanilla in a large electric mixer bowl at moderate speed for 2 to 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat the eggs in one by one, then reduce the mixer speed to low and add the sifted dry ingredients alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry. Beat after each addition only enough to combine; overmixing will toughen the cake.

4. Divide the batter in half. Quickly dredge the raisins and pecans in the all-purpose flour and fold into half of the batter along with the cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg.

5. Spoon the yellow cake batter into two of the pans, dividing the total amount evenly, then the spiced batter into the remaining two pans, again dividing evenly.

6. If possible, bake all four layers at the same time on the middle oven shelf for 20 to 25 minutes or until springy to the touch and a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. Otherwise, bake the two yellow layers, then the two spice. Cool the baked layers in the upright pans on wire racks for 15 minutes, then invert on the racks and cool to room temperature.

7. Meanwhile, prepare the filling: Combine all ingredients but the coconut in a large, heavy, nonreactive saucepan, set over moderately high heat, and cook, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes or until thickened and smooth. Reduce the heat to low and simmer uncovered, stirring now and then, for 10 minutes. Add the coconut and cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 20 to 25 minutes or until the consistency of marmalade.

8. To assemble the cake: Center a spice layer on a large round plate and spread generously with the filling. Top with a yellow layer, press firmly into place, and spread with more filling. Repeat—spice layer, yellow layer—each time pressing the new layer firmly into the one underneath and spreading with filling; don’t be stingy. The last of the filling goes on top of the cake, not on the sides, although if some of it dribbles down the sides, so much the better. That’s how I Iike it.

9. Let the cake stand for at least 24 hours before cutting; this gives the filling time to seep into the cake and firm up a bit.

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Heirloom Recipe

In this early twentieth-century Georgia recipe pamphlet, Japanese fruitcake is called simply Japanese Cake and appears to be four layers and two cakes. The “spice” called for is probably allspice. Today’s Japanese fruitcake usually consists of two plain layers and two spice layers.

JAPANESE CAKE

Seven eggs, 1 cup butter, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour, 2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder. Use this with the whites of 7 eggs, baking in four layers. With the yolks of the 7 eggs, use same quantity of butter, sugar, flour and baking powder, adding 1 teaspoonful each of ground spice, cloves and cinnamon and 1 box of seeded raisins; bake in 4 layers.

JAPANESE CAKE FILLING

Three cups sugar, 2 tablespoonfuls corn starch mixed with sugar (dry), 1 large cocoanut grated, juice of 3 oranges, juice and rind of 2 lemons. Mix together and pour over 1 teacup of boiling water. Cook until thick, put between layers using white and dark layers alternately.

—Good Recipes by Athens’ Housewives, 1916–1917

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TIME LINE: the people and events that shaped Southern Cuisine

1982

Elizabeth and Michael Terry open Elizabeth on 37th Street in a down-at-heel Savannah neighborhood. Elizabeth’s updated renditions of old Georgia recipes are applauded by America’s top food critics.

In a $22 million leveraged buyout, a group of Krispy Kreme franchisees buys the company back from Beatrice Foods. Their first move is to reinstate Krispy Kreme’s signature yeast-raised doughnut recipe.

Alabama-born and-bred Frank Stitt, after cooking in France, comes home and opens his first restaurant in Birmingham. He calls it Highlands Bar and Grill and before long