The State of the Cake

Although Guy will not disclose her recipe -- not even to her daughter -- she will say that she uses a packaged cake mix and doctors it a bit. As she makes the icing, a container of unsweetened cocoa powder, cans of evaporated milk and bags of confectioners' sugar sit on the counter by her Sunbeam Mixmaster.

"I base my success on the quality of my product. I don't leave layers laying around drying out, like a lot of people do," Guy says as she mixes batter for another round. She scoops three serving spoons full of batter into each of three pans (as many as her oven can accommodate at one time), then gently smooths the tops. The small amount of batter produces level layers, with no domed effect.

Into the oven they go for several minutes. "Listen for the sizzle," Guy says, meaning that when it stops, the layers are done.

Like most islanders, she credits the late Frances Kitching with promoting the cake beyond the island's shores. Kitching operated an inn in Ewell that served food and, with writer Susan Stiles Dowell, wrote "Mrs. Kitching's Smith Island Cookbook" (Tidewater Publishers, 1981). The slim volume is still in print after more than 25 years.

It was Kitching, many say, who grew the cake to 10 layers. The recipe for the cake was added to a later printing of the book in 1999 and contains no explanation of why she made hers taller. Locals say that "she liked to experiment."

Other many-layered cakes are made by slicing full-size layers horizontally into halves or thirds, but each Smith Island layer is baked in an individual pan. Island bakers say their method produces a moister cake that is easy to ice because of the smooth-surfaced layers, which are "sealed" with a delicate crust on the top and bottom. The multiple batches bake quickly; no toothpick or guesswork is needed to tell when they are done.

With 10 layers of frosting, what's not to like?

Island resident Ruth Somers remembers less-voluminous tortes.

"My mom made four-layer cakes," says Somers, 88, who was watching one of her favorite television programs, "Judge Judy," when neighbor Susan Hill and a reporter dropped by to coax forth her cake memories.

Somers made a six-layer cake every Friday for her now-deceased husband of nearly 50 years. "I've never done more than that," she says, preferring to stay with the earlier, traditional way. His favorite was a yellow cake with chocolate icing, but, like other island bakers, she varied the dessert by turning out yellow cakes topped and filled with an orange glaze, fresh bananas or grated coconut in a simple syrup.

At the Smith Island Center museum, a small display devoted to the cake tells visitors that here, "a girl isn't considered a woman until she can produce a proper nine-layer cake."

Hill, a 15th-generation islander who recently opened a bed-and-breakfast called Susan's on Smith Island, was 18 when she started baking and layering.

"Some girls around here are as young as 16 when they start," says Hill, 42, who sends her guests home with a freshly baked cake, included in the $150 price of a room and dinner for two. Hill says that multi-layered banana cakes are growing in popularity. And indeed, there is baking life on the island beyond layer cakes. At suppers at the town's Methodist church, congregants also bring sheet cakes filled with figs from their gardens, and jams made from the abundant local pomegranates.

Unlike most island bakers, Hill makes her cakes from scratch and says the greatest tip she can give is to "flop the layers out quickly. You have to hurry, or they'll break up."

If you don't stay at her B&B, she says, there are other ways to take home an authentic Smith Island cake. Ask if there are extra cakes available at either of the two local restaurants that are open in the summer. Or ask the ferry captain en route to the island to call a baker and order what soon may be Maryland's official dessert.

"By the time you are ready to leave, after 2 1/2 hours on the island, when the evening boat leaves at 4 p.m.," Hill says, "a cake will be baked, boxed and waiting at the dock."

For a list of Smith Island cakemakers who sell cakes, call Somerset County Tourism, 800-521-9189.