Smith Island cake is the official state dessert of Maryland. What sets this cake apart from other cakes is it's pencil-thin layers combined with a fudgy frosting. There are many different varieties of this multi-layered cake; like Red Velvet, Peanut Butter and Coconut Cream. Smith Island cakes can be ordered online from
Smith Island Baking Company and
The Original Smith Island Cake Company.
I just recently ordered Lucie Snodgrass's cookbook
Dishing Up Maryland. The book touches on the Smith Island cake with a thirteenth-generation Smith Islander named Susan Evans. Susan
has been making Smith Island cakes for years.
Lore has it that the original families baked [the first Smith
Island cake], although it only had four layers at the time. Over the years the
height of the cake grew as the women competed against each other to see who
could make the most layers. Today, Smith Island Cakes most commonly vary from
eight to eleven layers,, depending on who's making it... Assembling and icing
the cake can be tricky and takes years of practice, Evans says. She learned to
make the cake from her mother, who learned form her mother's mother, and so on.
"It's an island thing," Evans says, shrugging. "They've always been made, and
every woman knows how to make one." [Snodgrass 2010: 273]
If you want to take a stab at making a homemade Smith Island cake, this
Layer Cake Slicing Kit would certainly help to cut those tricky layers. Here is Mrs. Kitching's Original
Recipe for Smith Island cake. Have you had Smith Island cake?
