Zebra stripes of fluffy cake and fudge frosting. 440: Smith Island Cake

While this slowly sliding tower of sugary goodness looked like something out of a Dr. Seuss book, the chocolate-donut-esque flavor was addicting. The official Maryland state dessert, its many thin layers are supposed to keep a slice as fresh as possible for long fishing trips.

I already want to make this again with the same cake base but alternating frosting layers, maybe a strawberry Swiss meringue and a vanilla crème diplomat?

Let’s rank the cake elements ruthlessly for no good reason:

• Flavor: 7/10 While I appreciate the heavy dose of nostalgia from the thin, super-sweet frosting à la chocolate old-fashioned donut glaze, the main flavor is barely disguised sugar.
• Texture: 9/10 A near perfect cake layer with a light and fluffy crumb. Thin layers interspersed with chocolate icing reminded me of pancakes in the best way.
• Presentation: 2/10 A losing combo of the glaze remaining stubbornly liquid despite my best efforts and the cake edges being uneven. Good thing we go for substance over style in this kitchen!

Since I don’t make fudge on a regular basis, the amount of sugar in the frosting knocked me flat. Four cups for one cake?! Hot damn.

A bubbling cauldron of sugary dreams.

Noting for my future self: I swapped in sour cream for the yogurt. If I’m allowed to have two baking mottos, I gotta add “use what you’ve got” to “it’s ok, it still tastes good.”

A very satisfying swirl fold situation.

For the re-do: use 8” pans instead of 9” so the amount of batter floods the whole pan and makes a consistent round layer.

I’m wondering if cooking the glaze for longer than the recipe called for might have helped it thicken a bit more? I erred on the cautious side so I didn’t accidentally burn a giant vat of fudge, but I might have been a good call.

Womp.

Womp womp.

Happy munching!

Recipe from: https://www.chiselandfork.com/smith-island-cake/