Program

Hungry for History®

Subject

Arts & Culture, Site

Location

20846 Caleb Jones Rd, Ewell, MD 21824, USA

Lat/Long

37.995299, -76.033213

Grant Recipient

Smith Island United

The Smith Island Cake is a multi-layer cake that originated on the Island. The cake is a staple of Smith Island culture and has been a tradition for many generations. Smith Island Cake was named the official Maryland State Dessert in 2008 (House Bill 315). Traditionally, the cake consists of eight to twelve layers of yellow cake with chocolate frosting between each layer and covering the entire cake. Variations have evolved in flavors of the cake and frosting.

According to the Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History at Salisbury University, the origin of the cake’s famous thin layers is a bit of a mystery. One theory says that the thin layers and fudgy icing keep the cake from drying out while watermen are out on their boats. The thin layers may also have been out of necessity as electricity didn’t arrive on the island until the 1950s and 1960s and the cakes were easier to bake in a wood-fired oven. Yet another theory claims the multiple layers were started as a friendly competition between local cooks. In 2009, Mary Ada Marshall, a life-long resident of Smith Island who bakes the delicious dessert, noted that it was a challenge for local bakers to see how thin they could get the layers.

Smith Island, Maryland, consists of three distinct communities: Ewell, Tylerton and Rhodes Point. Originally settled in the 1600s, it has been home to waterman (i.e. fisherman) and their families for centuries. The island lies twelve miles east of Crisfield, Somerset County, Maryland in the Chesapeake Bay.

Links

• Smith Island United