• Elizabeth Ellicott Lea’s Smearcase

    This isn’t the official Smearcase post- that’s to come later. (Update: Click here for Official Smearcase Post) This is just a brief post with two recipes from Elizabeth Ellicott Lea’s book. I thought they might offer some insight into the history of smearcase. Many Baltimoreans know “Smearcase” as a beloved cheesecake of German origin, available at many…

  • Baltimore Peach Cake**

    This recipe for an alternate version of Baltimore Peach Cake** comes from “Black-Eyed Susan Country,” another popular Maryland fund-raising cookbook. This particular book, first printed in 1987, raised money for St. Agnes Hospital. Onetime St. Agnes Auxiliary president Mary Parga was a volunteer at the White House, and used her connections to compile the book’s notable “VIP”…

  • Baltimore Peach Cake*

    Note: for a better at-home Baltimore Peach Cake Recipe click here Hoehns Bakery Baltimore Peach Cake “Every spring and summer, almost like clockwork, I receive multiple recipe requests for the Baltimore peach cake… Peach cake is one of those uniquely Baltimore things, like coddies, thatlive long in people’s memories. The true Baltimore peach cake is…

  • (mini) Smith Island Cake

    “Effective October 1, 2008, the Smith Island Cake became the State Dessert of Maryland (Chapters 164 & 165, Acts of 2008; Code General Provisions Article, sec. 7-313). Traditionally, the cake consists of eight to ten layers of yellow cake with chocolate frosting between each layer and slathered over the whole. However, many variations have evolved,…

  • Lillian Lottier’s Tropicaroma Cake

    Before the internet and magazines boasted millions of novel (and disposable) recipes, newspapers were a valuable source for recipes that could become staples in a household. With that in mind, I’m hoping to source more entries from newspaper recipes. This one was shared in 1939 in the Afro-American by Lillian Lottier, prominent Baltimorean, teacher, activist,…