“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, both in the flavors for frosting and the cake itself” – Maryland Manual On-line
I confess to being a onetime Smith Island Cake skeptic. When the layer-cake was declared the state dessert in 2008 I was baffled. What of the white potato pie? Or Lady Baltimore? (Not a Maryland cake by the way. Shame on me.) And then, in my haste to try this famed cake, I ordered up a slice at one of the many restaurants along Route 50 boasting the dessert. Hoping to lure in tourists on their way to or from the beach, many such establishments scrambled to procure some form of “Smith Island Cake.” I was disappointed by nine dry, lifeless layers, probably straight from Sysco, foe of all that is authentic.
I was missing the point of the Smith Island Cake Act. This cake wasn’t coronated to reign above all other Maryland desserts and to add a token “must try” to diners’ lists for corporations to cash in on. This is about more than cake. It is about recognizing a unique place and culture in our state.
Smith Island Cultural Center | Ewell, MD
Many Marylanders have, unbeknownst to us, had Smith Islanders to thank for our soft crabs and crab cakes, dishes widely known and ‘owned’ from the shore up through the panhandle. When you eliminate the clams, crabs, oysters, and fish that comprise the seafood-centric sustenance of Smith Islanders, what is left to distill into an emblem of tradition and the meticulousness of skilled island cooks is Smith Island Cake.
It is hard to pin down the cake’s origin from newspapers or books. The name “Smith Island Cake” is a relatively recent convention, and the number of layers varies and bloats through the ages. Some early news-writers mention trying the famous “seven layer cakes” of Smith Island. Layers eight, nine and ten have been slapped on in the last 20 years or so, with authority enough that many would scoff at seven layers today.
Mrs. J. Millard (Helen Avalynne) Tawes’ “My Favorite Maryland Recipes” features a seven-layer cake with a cake and chocolate icing composition that is nearly identical to available recipes for Smith Island Cake. Tawes grew up in Crisfield, the closest town on the mainland, a departure point for ferries to the Ewell community on Smith Island.
My 1981 copy of “Mrs. Kitching’s Smith Island Cookbook” does not include the recipe for the cake – it was added by popular demand to later editions in the 1990′s. According to “Ethnic American Food Today: A Cultural Encyclopedia” (2015, Lucy Long), “many incorrectly credited the late island hostess, innkeeper and cookbook author Frances Kitching with the cake’s appearance. She helped popularize it with the thousands of guests she served at her home and boarding house…“ This account claims that the thin layers were the result of a primitive wood oven in which it was hard to get a larger layer to rise properly.
Others maintain that the large icing ratio helped to preserve the cake for longer. The rising fame of the cake only serves to further confuse the cake’s true origin or ‘purpose’ – as if a cake ever needed a purpose.
At the risk of incurring the wrath of purists everywhere, I used Kitching’s recipe for the cake layers to make two miniature layer cakes, and swapped out a cream-cheese icing. I gave my tiny cakes a patriotic flair with food coloring, and I did a characteristically incompetent job of icing them. Nonetheless, the cakes were a hit; moist soft layers held together with a thin slathering of icing.
Smith Island Cake, Bayside Inn
In 2015 I visited the island. After a 30-minute breezy ferry ride to the Ewell community, we watched a video of a resident swiftly and expertly picking crabs for packing. I inquired into Mrs. Kitching’s old place – it had long since burned down. We strolled the streets for awhile. They resembled a sleepy Eastern Shore fishing community, but due to population (and land) loss it was even quieter. Occasional boat motors buzzed like cars on a distant highway, cicadas sang nearby. I was surprised to see pomegranate trees surviving the climate. Biting flies terrorized us, distracting from the picturesque calm summer day. We retreated indoors to Bayside Inn to finish our visit with a soft crab sandwich and yes, a slice of Smith Island Cake. I chose the “Peaches and Cream” variety. It was the best slice of cake I have ever tasted.
Recipe:
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into chunks (1 cup)
- 5 eggs
- 3 cups flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup evaporated milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- ½ cup water
Cream together sugar and butter. Add eggs one at a time
and beat until smooth. Sift together flour, salt, and baking
powder. Mix into egg mixture one cup at a time. With mixer
running, slowly pour in the evaporated milk, then the vanilla
and water. Mix just until uniform.
Put three serving spoonfuls of batter in each of ten 9-inch
lightly greased pans, using the back of the spoon to spread evenly. Bake three layers at a time
on the middle rack of the oven at 350° for 8 minutes. A layer is done when you hold it near your
ear and you don’t hear it sizzle.
Start making the icing when the first layers go in the oven. Put the cake together as the layers
are finished. Let layers cool a couple of minutes in the pans. Run a spatula around the edge of
the pan and ease the layer out of the pan. Don’t worry if it tears; no one will notice when the
cake is finished. Use two and three serving spoonfuls of icing between each layer.
Cover the top and sides of the cake with the rest of the icing. Push icing that runs onto the plate
back onto the cake.
Smith Island Cake Recipe: visitsomerset.com
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 2 sticks of butter, softened (room temperature)
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Cream the butter and cream cheese together; gradually add sugar. Stir in vanilla.
