I've always wondered just how good Miss Maudie's cakes would have tasted myself. They must have been pretty delectable, though, since Jem, Scout and Dill were always ready to cut out their mischievous ways in order to snack on them. One thing is for sure:
... We reaped the benefits of a talent Miss Maudie had hitherto kept hidden from us: she made the best cakes in the neighborhood... every time she baked she made a big cake and three little ones, and she would call across the street... Our promptness was always rewarded.
Part of the reason may have come from using fresh milk, since Scout mentions her enjoyment of "getting a squirt of hot milk from Miss Maudie's cow on a hot summer day." Of course, she may have avoided nuts and other hard ingredients since she would often "thrust out her bridgework, a gesture of cordiality that cemented our friendship."
Maudie did like baking an Alabama specialty--Lane cakes. After her house burned down, Miss Maudie rewarded Mr. Avery with one.
... That Stephanie's been after my recipe for thirty years, and if she thinks I'll give it to her just because I'm staying with her, she's got another thing coming.
Although Maudie would have never given away her secret recipe, Scout did observe once that it "called for one large cup of sugar."
I was not privy to Maudie's secret either, but I did discover that a Lane cake is a four-layer sponge cake with raisins and whiskey. Scout remembered that Maudie once baked one for Aunt Alexandra "so loaded with shinny it made me tight."
Aside from the Lane cake, no other specific types of cakes are mentioned in the novel, but Maudie may have at least attempted one with the fresh Scuppernongs which grew in her yard.
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