Smith Island Cake #CakeSliceBakers

This month's Cake Slice Bakers' choice was an easy one for me.  I've been wanting to make a Smith Island Cake since I first came across the recipe several years ago.  It look delicious and is the state cake of Maryland.  A couple things have prevented me from doing this: 1. most of recipes call for either having many more cake pans than I own or cutting the cakes into layers and 2.  I have a small kitchen and did not know how I could possibly find space for all of those cakes.  The recipe in America's Test Kitchen's The Perfect Cake, however, seemed a little more doable.  Two cake pans, reused over the course of a morning.  Frosting made separately and refrigerated until ready to assemble.

To deal with the space issue, I re-purposed our dining room table and used a stacking cookie tray rack I owned.  Here are some of the cakes cooling.


The cake consists of eight thin layers of yellow cake filled and frosted with a fudge-type frosting.  It was definitely a winning combination.



I did have two minor issues.  Unlike every other recipe I've prepared out of this book, this one did not have an abundance of frosting.  I could have easily used another half a cup to make sure the cake was covered sufficiently and had even layers of filing in between the cake layers.


Second, I had an issue with the cake layers not being exactly the same size.  This was a little puzzling to me because I actually measure the amount of batter I used for each layer and used the same two pans for all the layers (which are a matched set).  All I can think is maybe I overcooked a couple and that caused them to shrink a little.


All-in-all, though, a tasty, moist cake.  I'm not sure if I'll make another one anytime soon, but I may use the recipe to produce a more traditional layered cake as the combination was perfect.



Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through.  This year it is The Perfect Cake from America's Test Kitchen #atkcake.  We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes!

Follow our Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the thumbnail pictures below to take you to each of our cakes, or visit our blog where the links are updated each month. If you are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details.

get the InLinkz code

Comments

  1. Sandra LeeSeptember 20, 2018 at 12:09 PM

    It looks yummy and I love the classic flavor pairing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. KarenSeptember 20, 2018 at 1:21 PM

    Your layers look perfectly even to me! Nice job and great tips!

    ReplyDelete
  3. SusanBSeptember 21, 2018 at 6:36 PM

    Beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  4. All That's Left Are The CrumbsSeptember 22, 2018 at 3:11 PM

    You did a wonderful job with your cake, and I love how your dining room became cake central :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tart Cherry Almond Cake #CakeSliceBakers

Image
 The Tart Cherry Almond Cake starts with an easy almond-flavored cake batter that you then fold in tart cherries. Once it comes out of the oven and cools, it gets a soak in an almond simple syrup and then topped with a thick glaze and a sprinkle of slivered almonds.  The only problem I had with this recipe is that the cherries all sunk to the bottom. The recipe says you can use either fresh or frozen tart cherries. I had a couple of jars of tart cherries in my house, so I decided to use one of those. The note at the top suggests placing half the cherries on top of the batter if you're using frozen, which I did with my jarred cherries. But they all sunk anyway. With the cherries all clustered at the bottom, I had to work to get a proper taste of all the components. And while the iced cake was good, and the cake-encased cherries were good, the cherries with iced cake was perfection. If I were to make this cake again, I would cut the cherries into fourths, and I might even opt to coat
Read more

Chamomile Cake with Honey Creme Fraiche #cakeslicebakers

Image
For my May Cake Slice Bakers bake, I chose the Chamomile Cake with Honey Creme Fraiche.  I had my doubts about it when I chose it; it was chosen mostly for convenience and not out of excitement, but I was wrong.This cake was delicious!  The cake was light and flavorful. The icing was the perfect complement.  Everyone in my family enjoyed it. I used chamomile tea bags instead of dried chamomile as that's what I had on hand.  Creme Fraiche is not sold in our local store, and given the current pandemic conditions, I did not think I should go shopping about for it.  The internet had several suggestions, but one was familiar to me from other icings I've made and present in my refrigerator - plain, full fat Greek yogurt.  Add some honey, whip it up, and it was a great substitute. Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through. This year it is The New Way To Cake  by Benjamina Ebuehi. We each choose
Read more

Crumb Cake #CakeSliceBakers

Image
 My March bake for the Cake Slice Bakers was a crumb cake.  While I've eaten plenty of packaged crumb cakes, I had never made one myself.  I can't imagine why it took me this long.  This recipe is easy to follow and produced a cake that was flavorful and not oversweet. Definitely a cake we'll make again and again. Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through. This year it is Little Everyday Cakes  by Candace Floyd. We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes! Follow our Facebook , Instagram , and Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the thumbnail pictures below to take you to each of our cakes. If you have a blog and are interested in
Read more