Pink Lady Baltimore Layer Cake

For Cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream butter until pale yellow, add sugar and blend until smooth. Separate 4 eggs. Beat 4 egg yolks and 1 whole egg and add to butter and sugar mixture.

Sift flour twice with baking powder and add alternately with milk, by spoonfuls, to egg and sugar mixture. Beat egg whites stiff, but not dry with pinch of salt, add vanilla and fold lightly into batter.

Bake in 3 greased and floured 9-inch cake pans for 20 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

For Filling: Boil sugar and water, uncovered, until mixture reaches 240 degrees F. Beat egg white until it holds soft peak. Add lemon juice, then add sugar-water mixture and beat until creamy. Add chopped cherries, raisins, and nuts and mix gently. The cherries will tint the filling a tantalizing red.

For Frosting: Cook sugar and water together until a little lifted from a spoon forms a thread (230 degrees F on a candy thermometer).

Beat egg whites until they hold soft peaks; pour hot syrup over them. Add lemon juice, cherry juice, and almond extract, and continue beating until frosting is thick enough to spread.

To Assemble Cake: Put filling between layers and frost thickly. Decorate with a circle of pecan halves and/or chopped maraschino cherries that have been well drained.