smith island cake

Smith Island cake is the official dessert of Maryland. This stunning cake features 9 delicious yellow cake layers and chocolate icing layers. The chocolate icing seeps down into the cake layers creating the most deliciously moist cake you'll ever taste. Garnish with sprinkles for an extra special treat!

Smith Island Cake

Tablespoons (85 grams) unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces

bar (113 grams) bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped*

sugar

(240 milliliters) heavy cream

corn syrup (optional, for shine)

vanilla extract

salt

baking powder

baking soda

(400 grams) granulated sugar

eggs,

(420 milliliters) buttermilk, at room temperature*

optional: rainbow sprinkles

Make the icing first

The icing needs to completely cool and thicken, so prepare it first. Combine the butter, chocolate, granulated sugar, heavy cream, and corn syrup together in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly until butter has melted. Once melted, stir occasionally as the sugar dissolves and the mixture comes to a boil. Allow to boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Taste (it&#8217;s warm, so be careful!) Add a sprinkle of salt, if desired. I always add a pinch. Leave uncovered and set aside to thicken and cool for at least 1-2 hours or until it has a spreadable consistency. This is enough time to bake and cool the cake layers. See make ahead tip if you want to prepare ahead of time. Yields about 2 and 1/4 cups icing.

Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Grease three 9-inch cake pans, line with parchment paper rounds, then grease the parchment paper. Parchment paper helps the cakes seamlessly release from the pans; they may crack and crumble otherwise. (If it&#8217;s helpful, see this parchment paper rounds for cakes video &amp; post. You can also reuse the parchment for each of the 9 cakes or cut 9 individual circles.)

Make the cake

Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside. Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on high speed until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. On medium-high speed, add 1 egg at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.

With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients in three additions alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, and mixing each addition just until incorporated. Do not overmix this batter. The batter will be smooth, velvety, and slightly thick.

(There are 8 cups of batter total, so each of the 9 cakes will have slightly less than 1 cup of batter. Leave unused batter loosely covered at room temperature as cakes bake.) Pour slightly less than 1 cup of batter into prepared cake pans. Bake for 12 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. The cakes are VERY thin, so they shouldn&#8217;t take much longer than that. Allow to cool for a couple minutes, then carefully invert the cake onto the counter. Peel off the parchment to reuse (or use a new parchment round). Grease the warm cake pans, line with parchment, and grease the parchment. Repeat with slightly less than 1 cup of batter per cake pan. Repeat baking, cooling, and releasing the cakes from the warm pans. Grease the warm cake pans, line with parchment, and grease the parchment. Repeat one final time. Allow all 9 layers to cool completely, about 45 minutes.

Assemble cake: 

Carefully place one layer on a serving platter or cake stand. Spoon and spread 1/4 cup of icing on top, then repeat with the rest of the cake layers and icing. Some icing will spill over the sides and that&#8217;s ok! Makes a beautiful cake! Decorate the top with sprinkles, if desired.

Set cake aside for at least 30 minutes before slicing and serving. This gives the icing a chance to adhere to the cake and makes slicing a little easier.

Cover and store leftover cake at room temperature for 1-2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Do read through the recipe thoroughly before starting. Do spread the batter as close to the edges of pans as possible, and as evenly as possible.  Do make 1 and 1/2 of the frosting recipe- being sure to calculate out the revised measurements before you begin.   Do pour the frosting on the top of the cake after putting it on the layers - but give it a quick mix with your hand mixer before frosting the sides of the cake - it will thicken it up and make it easier to work with.  Sally, a video for this cake would be really helpful for less experienced bakers

I have always wanted to try a Smith Island cake, but did not have any around here. This recipe provided clear instructions that walked me through the steps and delivered a delicious cake. We are dark chocolate lovers and so I used Baker's unsweetened chocolate for the icing. It had great chocolate flavor without being too sweet or too bitter. I made eight layers with the batter. Next time I will put a bit less on the batter for each pan and try to get to the nine layers. I had a little bit of trouble spreading the batter out in the pans as the parchment paper would move. Using the back of a soup spoon and moving from the center out worked well. Overall this cake came out a success. Sally, thank you for guiding me through it!
Best -
Christine

My stepson, a Maryland boy, requested a Smith Island cake for his birthday. I was up for the challenge and this recipe made it 100% easy to bake and build. And it was so, so, SO SO SO SO good. Oh my gosh. It was so good. SO GOOD. I ended up making 8 layers for his 8 years.

I wish you could have seen his face when he saw it, and when he bit into it. Heaven. Thank you!

I'm from Maryland and I've always wanted to make a Smith Island cake! This recipe was easy to follow and I was pretty pleased with how mine turned out. Just one question - How did you get your layers so flat? I had some trouble getting the thick batter to spread out evenly in the pans so my layers had a slight dome to them.

I love this cake. I've made it twice now and it was perfect both times. The only aspect I am having a challenge with is that even though I scoop just under a cup of batter into each pan, I can only get 7 or 8 layers. Can you suggest a measurement that would work to ensure nine layers?

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The most viewed smith island cake recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engineic_arrow_forward_48px

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Smith Island Cake

The most viewed smith island cake recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine