This Discontinued Pillsbury Cake Mix Was Inspired By An Old-Fashioned Southern Cake — But It Was Much, Much Richer

Pillsbury cake mixes have been a popular choice for home bakers for decades. Over the years, standard Pillsbury cake flavors like yellow cake, white cake, and fudge have stood the test of time, but some vintage Pillsbury mixes have been completely forgotten. One of those forgotten flavors is the 1960s Lord Baltimore cake from the Pillsbury Flavormoist line.

In a vintage 1960s advertisement promoting the new flavor, Pillsbury says that the Lord Baltimore cake is so rich that cooks will need three eggs instead of the standard two. The advertisement shows the Lord Baltimore as a layered yellow cake topped with textured, light pink frosting. But what did it actually taste like, and why did it largely disappear from our culinary memory?

The Lord Baltimore cake is a twist on the Lady Baltimore cake, which is a retro but beloved cake flavor popular in the South. The Lady Baltimore cake, which first became popular in the early 1900s, is traditionally made with egg whites and features a filling of nuts and dried fruit, which are sometimes soaked in rum before being added to the cake batter. The Lord Baltimore cake recipe also features fruit such as maraschino cherries or cherry preserves, which gives it a beautiful pink hue, and it often includes other additions like toasted coconut or crushed nuts.

Unlike the Lady Baltimore cake that Martha Stewart ate in her childhood, which calls for airy, delicate egg whites, the Lord Baltimore uses egg yolks, making it richer and more substantial. In the Pillsbury Flavormoist advertisement photo for the Lord Baltimore, we can see that the whipped frosting probably contains toasted coconut, and the pink hue likely indicates cherry flavoring. However, the complete ingredients and recipe for the Pillsbury Lord Baltimore cake mix are no longer available. 

But there are many other recipes for Lord Baltimore cake that still exist today. The 1941 Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book features a Lord Baltimore cake made with a filling of macaroon crumbs, almonds, pecans, cherries, orange juice, and candied cherries. Other versions include a filling made of crushed macaroon cookies and maraschino cherries. 

The cake is then frosted with a whipped mixture of egg whites, corn syrup, sugar, and vanilla. This lightly sweetened, neutral frosting lets the cake's bright, nutty filling take center stage. The Lord Baltimore cake would shine on the dessert table in fall and winter, as it features seasonal favorites like pecans, dried cherries, and cranberries.