It could have come straight out of Maryland...

When we were in Annapolis a couple of months ago I had a major tease when it came down to the land of desserts.  The short story was that we were in a classic seafood restaurant consuming our fair share of crab (because when in Maryland what else are you going to eat?) and discovered something on the dessert menu called "Smith Island Cake" which I had never heard of before.  After a quick educational session from one of my cousins, I learned it was the official state dessert of Maryland and was a cake consisting of numerous thin layers sandwiched between frosting and crushed candy bars.  I was instantly intrigued and while too full to consume it then, the plan was hatched for later to hunt down an authentic slice of cake.  Well needless to say, the plan was foiled by a different restaurant changing their menu and we left Maryland with only the chasing thought of what the cake could be like.  


But I'm a girl who is a doer that takes matters into her own hands and figured "well if I can't have the cake somewhere, then I am just going to make it myself" and the latest baking challenge was born.  So here I was last weekend, hosting a birthday cookout/luncheon for one of my Uncle's as well as aligning perfectly with my Maryland (soon to be San Diego) cousins up visiting and I knew this was going to be the right opportunity to try my hand at the Smith Island Cake.  And maybe I was delusional from baking in the heat but when I finished baking it the night before and stood there examining my finished cake with my mental baking high, I knew that I did Maryland quite proud on this one.  This is one of those cakes that is really easy to make and actually starts with a boxed yellow cake mix.  I followed the recipe pretty closely from Saveur Magazine that I followed pretty closely but swapping out their chocolate frosting for my "tried and true, never fail" chocolate sour cream frosting that I can literally eat by itself it is so frickin good.  The cake also has an almost perfect ratio of cake and frosting and as we were devouring it on Sunday, declared it a perfect birthday cake as well.  It might just be the official state dessert of Maryland but it is now going in my own personal rotation of go to/perfectly domesticated desserts.  

this was one of those moments where half way through consumption, I had the "H.S." moment of forgetting to take photos so here it is in half devoured form.  You can see the layers at least.

Smith Island Cake 


-Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Spray 4 8-inch round baking pans with nonstick baking spray or grease generously with butter and a heavy sprinkle of flour.  (I only own 3 8-inch rounds so I just did 3 rounds of baking instead of 2).


-In a food processor pulse 4 frozen large Reese's peanut butter cups into a fine powder and transfer into another bowl until later (I would suggest refrigerating  so they don't melt all together).  Pulse remaining 4 large Reese's peanut butter cups into small chunks and transfer to another bowl and chill.


-In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix together the following on low speed until well combined about 10 -12 minutes:

• 8 tablespoons or 1 stick of unsalted butter, softened
• 1  18 1⁄4-oz. box yellow cake mix, preferably Duncan Hines
• 1 and 1/2 cups evaporated milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 eggs at room temperature 
• 1/3 cup of water 

-Pour a thin layer of batter into the prepared baking pans (it comes out to be just around 2/3 of a cup.  You want it to completely cover the entire bottom of the pan but not too high at all because remember we are going for thin layers here.)  Set remaining batter aside for next rounds.   Bake until cooked through and golden around edges, 11–14 minutes. Set aside to let cool slightly, then loosen cake layers with a knife and invert onto cooling racks and then you can layer them with parchment on a cookie sheet until you are ready to assemble. Coat the pans with whatever method you are using and repeat the process a second and third time.  (Round 3 will only be 2 pans instead of 3 to get you to 8 layers).  

-As your cake layers are cooling, make your icing from the link listed above.  Take your first cake layer and spread about a 1/3 of a cup of frosting evenly onto it.  Sprinkle about 1 tablespoon powdered peanut butter cups onto the frosting and repeat with remaining layers. Frost outside of cake with remaining icing on top and sides and sprinkle peanut butter cup chunks on top.