A square white cake under a thin lemon glaze, cut into squares on a round white platter, with two squares on a small plate in front showing the fine white crumb. — Lady cake cut into iced squares.

Lady Cake (1840)

Name: Lady Cake
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 2 h 45 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1.5 oz finely ground blanched almonds; ½ tsp almond extract; ½ tsp rose water; 4.25 oz unsalted butter, softened; 5.75 oz superfine sugar; 3.5 oz all-purpose flour; 6 large egg whites, at room temperature; 1 tsp butter, for the pan; 4 oz confectioners' sugar; 1½ tbsp lemon juice; ¼ tsp lemon extract

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Eliza Leslie’s lady cake, from her 1840 Directions for Cookery: a white almond butter cake raised only by beaten egg whites, baked in a square pan and iced with lemon.

By The Forgotten MenuPublished Oct 22, 2026

Recipe makes: One 8-inch square cake, 16 pieces
Prep: 30 min
Cook: 35 min
Total: 2 hr 45 min

Allow an hour for the cake to cool before icing and half an hour for the icing to set. Leslie says the cake is best the day after baking, so make it a day ahead if you can.

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Lady cake cut into iced squares.

The story behind the recipe

Lady cake is a white cake, made with butter, sugar, flour, pounded almonds and only the whites of the eggs, seventeen of them in Eliza Leslie’s version, beaten to a stiff froth and folded in a little at a time. It is baked in a square pan, iced with lemon, and in Leslie’s opinion “best the day after it is baked.” The bill of fare for Lincoln’s 1865 inaugural ball lists a “Lady Cake” among its cakes and tarts.

A white cake from bitter almonds

Balzer’s version is lost; the name on the bill is all that survives of it. The recipe here is one an American household cook could have known, from the 1840 eleventh edition of Leslie’s Directions for Cookery.

Leslie’s almonds were bitter: “a quarter of a pound of shelled bitter almonds, or peach-kernels,” blanched, pounded one at a time with rose water so they wouldn’t turn oily, then beaten into the creamed butter and sugar. The flavor of the cake came from them. Raw bitter almonds and peach kernels contain amygdalin, which releases cyanide, so they have no place in a modern kitchen. On the bill, lady cake sits with almond sponge, pound cake and sponge cake among the cakes and tarts; the full column is in What Was on the Sweets Table at Lincoln’s Inaugural Ball?

Making it today

We replace the bitter almonds with ground sweet almonds and a little almond extract, which gives the cake its almond taste safely, and keep Leslie’s rose water. Her cake has no baking powder; the beaten whites alone raise it, as they did in 1840. We bake about a third of her quantity in a smaller square pan, so it needs about half her hour.

Because it is best a day old, it can be baked ahead, leaving the day of the party free for the Vanilla Ice Cream (1840), which needs most of an afternoon to freeze twice.

Take a quarter of a pound of shelled bitter almonds, or peach-kernels. Put them into a bowl of boiling water, (renewing the water as it cools,) and let them lie in it till the skin peels off easily; then throw them, as they are blanched, into a bowl of cold water, which will much improve their whiteness. Pound them, one at a time, in a mortar; pouring in frequently a few drops of rose water to prevent them from oiling and being heavy. Cut up three quarters of a pound of fresh butter into a whole pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Having warmed it, stir it to a light cream, and then add very gradually the pounded almonds, beating them in very hard. Sift into a separate pan half a pound and two ounces of flour, and beat in another pan to a stiff froth, the whites only of seventeen eggs. Stir the flour and the white of egg alternately into the pan of butter, sugar and almonds, a very little at a time of each. Having beaten the whole as hard as possible, put it into a buttered tin pan, (a square one is best,) and set it immediately into a moderate oven. Bake it about an hour, more or less, according to its thickness. When cool, ice it, flavouring the icing with oil of lemon. It is best the day after it is baked, but it may be eaten fresh. When you put it away wrap it in a thick cloth.
If you bake it in little tins, use two ounces less of flour.

Eliza LeslieDirections for Cookery, in Its Various Branches, 11th ed. (Philadelphia: Carey & Hart, 1840), p. 342

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Ingredients

For One 8-inch square cake, 16 pieces. Quantities are shown as written.

Quantities as written here, for One 8-inch square cake, 16 pieces.

Cake

Finely ground blanched almonds1.5 oz
Almond extract1/2 tsp
Rose water1/2 tsp
Unsalted butter, softened4.25 oz
Superfine sugar5.75 oz
All-purpose flour3.5 oz
Large egg whites, at room temperature6
Butter, for the pan1 tsp

Lemon icing

Confectioners’ sugar4 oz
Lemon juice1 1/2 tbsp
Lemon extract1/4 tsp

Ingredients as written here

1.5 oz finely ground blanched almonds
½ tsp almond extract
½ tsp rose water
4.25 oz unsalted butter, softened
5.75 oz superfine sugar
3.5 oz all-purpose flour
6 large egg whites, at room temperature
1 tsp butter, for the pan
4 oz confectioners’ sugar
1½ tbsp lemon juice
¼ tsp lemon extract

Equipment

8-inch square cake pan
Parchment paper
Two mixing bowls and a small bowl
Electric mixer
Sieve
Wire rack

Instructions

Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C), with a shelf in the middle. Rub the butter for the pan over the inside of the pan and line the bottom with parchment.
Stir the ground almonds, almond extract and rose water together in the small bowl.
Beat the butter and superfine sugar together with the mixer until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the almond mixture.
Sift the flour into a second bowl.
In a clean bowl with clean beaters, whisk the egg whites until they hold stiff peaks.
Fold the flour and the whites into the butter mixture alternately, a few spoonfuls of each at a time, starting and ending with whites. Fold gently until no streaks of flour or white remain.
Spread the batter evenly in the pan and put it in the oven at once.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the top is pale golden, the cake springs back when pressed lightly in the center and a skewer comes out clean.
Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto the rack, peel off the parchment and turn it right side up. Leave it until completely cool, about 1 hour.
For the icing, sift the confectioners’ sugar into the small bowl, stir in the lemon extract, then add the lemon juice a little at a time until the icing is thick and spreads slowly. You may not need all of it.
Spread the icing over the top of the cake and leave it to set for about 30 minutes before cutting into 16 squares.

Nutrition

165calories per serving

Recipe makes: One 8-inch square cake, 16 pieces
Servings: 16

Estimated per piece (16 to the cake) from USDA FoodData Central values for the listed ingredients.

Recipe notes

When adjusting quantities

This is six seventeenths of Leslie’s cake, set by the number of egg whites. It fills one 8-inch square pan; Leslie’s whole recipe needs a pan about three times the size.

Notes

Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.

Leslie’s own icing was beaten egg white and sugar, eaten unbaked; our lemon icing avoids raw egg. Wrapped, the cake keeps for 3 days at room temperature, which is how Leslie stored it: “wrap it in a thick cloth.” Two of the six leftover yolks make the custard for the Charlotte Russe (1840). Contains milk, egg, wheat and almonds.

Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.