Recipes Discovered

Smith Island Ten-Layer Cake Recipe

I picked up the Washington Post yesterday and on the front page (of the Food Section) was a picture of a beautiful cake. I swear the cake was taunting me – not just because it happened to be 10 layers, but because it just looked so perfect and was 10 layers. I have a hard time getting 4 layers to come out looking half decent. This cake is unusual though. Instead of making 3 or 4 cakes and cutting them into layers, this recipe actually calls for making 10 separately baked cake layers. It’s done that way so each layer has a crust and it doesn’t dry out. The cake originated from a place called Smith Island, a little island off of Maryland with a population of about 360 people. The ingredients and number of layers vary from baker to baker, but the cake should stand no more than 3 inches high when completed. I decided to tackle this cake recipe. >> First of all, the directions are a little vague on how much batter to put each cake pan. How much is 3 serving spoons? I’m not sure, but I found that roughly a half cup of batter will cover the bottom of the cake pan, which is pretty much what you need. The first layers I did were a little too thick, and I only ended up having enough batter for nine layers of cake. My next dilemma was how long to bake the cakes. The recipe says 8 to 9 minutes, until the sizzling stops, but mine actually took closed to 16 or 17 minutes, even with just a very thin layer of batter. Getting the cakes out the pans was another challenge. This is supposed to be done quickly, to avoid the cake breaking up. No matter how I tried, the cakes would come out in at least 2 pieces (or as many as 7). To remedy this, I lined the bottom of the pans with parchment paper. The cakes flipped easily out and I just reused the parchment paper for the next round of cakes. My last problem was with the icing. It was simple to make – the hardest part was letting it cool long enough to thicken up – but even with the thinnest possible layer of icing, I didn’t have enough for the top or sides. I made another quarter batch, but I think I should have gone with a half batch. The sides of the cake were tricky to cover because there are so many layers and a lot of unevenness. All that being said, the cake was kind of fun to make and put together. When we cut it, I was really surprised that it actually looked a lot like the picture I saw in the paper. The layers are so thin, it hides most of the ‘mistakes’. The cake tasted pretty good too. It wasn’t the most amazing cake I’ve never had, but for a white cake with chocolate icing, it was good. I thought it would be incredible sweet with all the layers of icing, but the cake does a good job of balancing out the sweetness. The cake definitely wouldn’t be the same without all the layers as well. The cake would be too bland if it was in a thicker layer. However, the icing could go with another cake, as it was delicious on it’s own. I don’t think I’ll be making this cake on a weekly bases, but if I ever need a unique cake to impress someone (or as a conversation piece), this would be high on the list.