If you happen to’ve ever visited Maryland, odds are excessive you have caught a fork right into a slice of what is now often known as Smith Island Cake. The formally designated state dessert consists of no less than seven layers of yellow or white cake with cooked fudge icing unfold in between, making for one wealthy, chocolatey slice that solely critical candy tooths might be able to end.
This famed dessert is way over your fundamental layer cake, nonetheless. Smith Island Cake dates to the early 1900s and has a little bit of a romantic historical past.
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What Is Smith Island Cake?
The residents of Smith Island—solely round 200 stay at present—have lengthy made their residing within the fishing trade. When the lads would head out on Chesapeake Bay, usually for per week at a time, their wives despatched them on their means with sustenance within the type of this cake, says Elaine Eff, retired Maryland state folklorist who helped to develop a museum for the island.
The rationale for the cake was three-fold: The lads beloved sugar, they wanted it for the vitality increase, and all of the layers of chocolate icing helped to maintain the cake moist. To not point out, a big hunk of cake was so candy, it could theoretically last more than an everyday piece of cake. Discuss a saccharine sendoff, proper?
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Smith Island Cake’s quite a few skinny layers weren’t a lot a murals as a necessity, although, explains Eff.
To know its beginnings, contemplate the time: Smith Island did not get electrical energy till the Fifties—a number of a long time after many of the remainder of the nation—so residence cooks needed to make do with wooden stoves. To whip up desserts, they’d “bake” with a steel field set atop their range. As you possibly can think about, getting a thicker cake layer to rise and bake by means of was practically not possible. As an alternative, they received inventive, pouring a small quantity of batter in a number of pans and repeating the method a number of instances.
With out electrical energy, you are additionally and not using a fridge. That is why the unique Smith Island Cake chocolate icing was made up of sugar and chocolate. No butter meant it did not require refrigeration, both at residence or out on the water with the fishermen.
Two recipes are extensively considered the originals for “from the stump” (i.e., produced from scratch) Smith Island Cake. The primary, from Frances Kitching’s 1994 e book “Mrs. Kitching’s Smith Island Cookbook,” requires a whopping 4 cups of sugar between the cake and icing, and 10 nine-inch pans.
The second, from Mary Ada Marshall—a former Smith Islander now based mostly in Tylerton, Md., who’s been making the cake for many years—affords a little bit of a shortcut, beginning with a field of Duncan Hines yellow cake combine.
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Get the Recipe: Mary Ada’s Smith Island Cake
The place to Purchase Smith Island Truffles
Right this moment, a bit, however not an excessive amount of, has modified. A spread of recipes for Smith Island Cake name for buttercream frosting, and bakeries all through Maryland now bake and ship tens of 1000’s of truffles across the nation. (You’ll be able to even purchase one by means of Goldbelly).
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Smith Island Baking Firm of Crisfield studies promoting round 30,000 Smith Island Truffles per yr, equating to about 250 a day. Traditional Truffles, in Salisbury, Md., is owned by two native Smith Island girls who’ve been baking truffles for practically 20 years and now produce greater than 20 flavors of Smith Island Cake.
Household-owned Smith Island Bakery is the one remaining industrial bakery on the island itself, housed within the constructing the place the very first cake bakery was positioned.
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“We felt it was necessary to convey the cake making again to Smith Island, the place it originated,” says co-owner Kathey Jones. She provides that the eating places on Smith Island bake their very own truffles in home, and a number of the island girls nonetheless make truffles and promote them out of their properties, often known as cottage bakers.
Whereas Smith Island Bakery’s course of is proprietary, “I do not assume there’s any large secret to the recipe,” says Jones. “It is all [about] how Grandma taught you to make them.”
Then and now, “the cake,” as locals say, is far more than cake. Smith Island is geographically remoted as Maryland’s solely inhabited island out there solely by water, and most households nonetheless make a residing on the water. Males sometimes go to work pre-dawn, and their wives choose the crabs they catch and assist in the shanties fishing smooth crabs in season, says Wendy Robertson, tourism supervisor at Somerset County Recreation, Parks & Tourism, simply throughout the Tangier Sound from Smith Island. Nonetheless, their lifestyle is rapidly disappearing, and Smith Island Cake represents a supplemental earnings for cottage bakers and a method to make ends meet, Robertson provides.
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That is a giant purpose that, practically 15 years in the past, a number of state organizations rallied to advocate for a invoice that will designate Smith Island Cake because the state’s official state dessert. Talking to legislators by means of their stomachs, they delivered fastidiously plated slices of cake to every member of the Common Meeting in Annapolis. The invoice handed, and the cake earned its rightful title as State Dessert of Maryland in 2008.
“For the reason that designation, the cake has served as an envoy of kinds, heightening consciousness of the island and offering an financial increase not solely to custom bearers however to the area as nicely,” says Robertson.
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If that is not a candy purpose to order a Smith Island cake and take pleasure in a slice, or attempt your hand at whipping up your personal, we do not know what’s. As Eff attests, Smith Island Cake is a crucial a part of the islanders’ tradition.
“[On a trip years ago], I went from home to accommodate and visited with crabbers and oyster males and sea captains and housewives and retailer homeowners, and each single home I went to… invited me in for a chunk of cake,’” says Eff. “Lastly I mentioned, ‘This isn’t cake, that is very particular.’”
BALTIMORE – With a little more than two months until election day, the majority of Marylanders surveyed in the new Gonzales Poll would vote for Vice President Kamala Harris over Donald Trump for president.
A total of 820 registered voters in Maryland who indicated they are likely to vote in the 2024 general election were queried for the poll by live telephone interviews, utilizing both landline and cellphone numbers between August 24 and August 30.
A cross-section of interviews was conducted throughout the state, reflecting Maryland’s general election voting patterns, the pollster said.
The Gonzales Poll stated that “the margin of error, per accepted statistical standards, is a range of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points and if the entire population was surveyed, there is a 95% probability that the true numbers would fall within this range.”
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Presidential survey
According to the latest Gonzales Poll, 56% of Marylanders surveyed said they would vote for Harris over Trump for president.
According to the latest Gonzales Poll, 56% of Marylanders say they would vote for Kamala Harris over Trump for president.
Gonzales Poll
The poll says 84% of Democrats support the Harris/Tim Walz ticket and 80% of Republicans support the Trump/JD Vance ticket. Also, 83% of Black voters polled would vote for Harris/Walz.
Among the independents, 38% favor Harris/Walz and 36% prefer Trump/Vance, according to the poll.
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Gov. Moore’s approval gets a bump
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, who led the state’s response to the deadly Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in March, has the approval of 64% of Marylanders surveyed. Moore has a 35% “mostly soft approval” among Republicans who were surveyed (7% strongly approve, 28% somewhat approve),” the poll shows.
His approval rating increased by 33% since the last Gonzales Poll in the winter.
His approval rating increased by 33% since the last Gonzalez poll in the winter.
Gonzales Poll
Last month, the governor spoke at the Democratic National Convention in support of Harris, who was nominated as the party’s presidential candidate.
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He framed Harris’ candidacy as “the story of a prosecutor who defended our freedoms and had Maryland’s back when we needed it most. And now MVP: We’ve got yours.”
President Biden’s approval
The Gonzales Poll shows that 53% of Maryland voters surveyed approve of the job President Joe Biden is doing, while 45% disapprove. Seventy-six percent of the Democrats believe Biden is doing a good job in office, and 84% of Republicans disagree.
Gonzales Poll
State transportation and juvenile reform
According to the poll, 95% of Marylanders think it is “important for the State to invest in improving its transportation infrastructure.”
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And, when it comes to juvenile crime, voters were asked, “What type of laws, in your opinion, ultimately better help our children under 18 who commit crimes – Laws that are strict, which include things such as juvenile detention and boot camps. This hold individuals responsible and accountable for their behavior; or Laws that are lenient, which include social programs and counseling. This recognizes that society is responsible for much of this behavior?”
The poll showed that 58% of Marylanders are in favor of strict laws, which hold juveniles responsible and accountable for their behavior, and only 34% desire laws that are lenient.
Gonzales Poll
The poll shows that 58% of Marylanders are in favor of strict laws, which holds juveniles responsible and accountable for their behavior, and only 34% desire laws that are lenient.
“A majority of nearly every demographic group backs strict laws to inspire a sense of personal responsibility and to best assist our juvenile offenders ultimately realize at least a chance at a successful, happy life,” the poll said.
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Is the country going in the right direction?
Fifty percent of Marylanders polled say the country is headed in the right direction, while 45% say the country is headed in the wrong direction.
According to the poll, 93% of Maryland voters who think the country is moving in the right direction are voting for Harris/Walz, and 70% of Maryland voters who think the country is moving in the wrong direction are voting for Trump/Vance.
Fifty percent of Marylanders polled say the country is headed in the right direction, while 45% say the country is headed in the wrong direction.
Gonzales Poll
In the previous poll, 41% of voters said the country was headed in the right direction.
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“The mood of voters in Maryland vis-à-vis how they perceive things overall going in the country is a tad less grumpy than it was in winter,” the Gonzales Poll said.
Adam Thompson
Adam Thompson is a digital content producer for CBS Baltimore.
Proud Montgomery County, MD resident Gavriella Kaufmann (Potomac) won her episode of FOX’s game show “Name that Tune”, which aired last week.
Kaufmann, who was born and raised in Potomac and graduated from Churchill High School in 2015, stated in an interview with FOX 5, that she has always been into music and referred to herself as a music and game show savant. When she saw an ad on LinkedIn about being on season 4 of the game show, she immediately knew she had to do it.
“I’ve loved game shows for as long as I can remember, and music has always been a huge part of my life. Being on Name That Tune was the perfect combination of both passions—it was like a dream come true.” Kaufmann told us.
The episode had a happy ending, with Kaufmann winning a whopping $85,000! She added, “When I was on Name That Tune, I was so focused on doing my best and naming as many songs as possible that I completely lost track of the score. It wasn’t until Jane, the host, told me my total. I was in complete shock, but it was such an incredible moment!”
Who’s ready for Big Ten play to begin? In all honesty, I am not. I really wish Michigan State football had more tune-up games after seeing them struggle against Florida Atlantic and only win 16-10. But unfortunately, that is not how the schedule unfolds for Michigan State this season.
The Spartans will hit the road for an early Big Ten game as they face Maryland on Saturday at 3:30 pm. Going into the season I thought Michigan State and the Terps were on a pretty level playing field, but after seeing both teams play week one that doesn’t appear to be the case.
And Vegas agrees.
Michigan State opens as a 7.5-point underdog next week at Maryland. My guess is that grows to 8, 8.5.
As you all know, Michigan State only beat Florida Atlantic by six and did not look very impressive, especially on the offensive side of the ball. So it’s no surprise that MSU will be the underdog next week. But 7.5 points feels like a lot, and according to the Lansing State Journal’s Graham Couch, it likely will only go up from there.
So does Vegas have it right or are they underrating Michigan State?
Looking at Maryland’s week one game against UConn it appears Vegas has this line right. The Terps were up 23-0 at halftime and never looked back and went on to win in dominant fashion 50-7. UConn and FAU are very similar in terms of what level they’re at in college football, so that drastic of a difference in the final score is very scary.
So Vegas probably could’ve gotten away with Maryland being even bigger favorites in this one.
But maybe Vegas saw what I did and thinks a lot of Michigan State’s mistakes on Friday are easy to fix. Maybe they think Aidan Chiles will be much better next week. The Spartan’s defense was also fairly dominant so there isn’t much of a chance Maryland scores 50 points next week either.
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I tend to not bet on Michigan State games, but even if I did this would be a line that I would avoid because who knows how much Jonathan Smith’s squad will improve by next week, and who knows how much Maryland might struggle against a Power Four opponent.