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Baking Life: Storied Chesapeake Island Fights for
Survival
Bicycling
By Steve Blakely — March 31, 2008
Birding
CasualEats
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The Author
A recent spate of news articles have brought fame (if not yet fortune) to
bakers of the Smith Island Layer Cake, a local delicacy made on
Maryland's last remaining inhabited off-shore island in the middle of the
Chesapeake Bay.
But despite their bright light and positive spin, what the stories really
illuminate is the hard times on Smith Island -- and how the remaining 360
or so local residents are fighting to stay on their island home.
Sailing
[Smith Island, Chesapeake Bay]
Showcase
There are two basic types of Smith
Island Cake: 10-layer
Sidetrips
traditional (yellow cake), and eightlayer peanut butter, both slathered
with sweet (usually chocolate) icing.
Spirits
Sportslovers
Its origins are as murky as the
frosting, but the dish is believed to
have been started as a variation on
Tango
Tools&Tips
Volunteer
an English torte and is generally
credited to Frances Kitching, an island
Wildthings
cook whose crabcakes were worldfamous and whose recipes comprise
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Destinations
Annapolis (4)
Antarctica (2)
Steve Blakely has been
exploring the Chesapeake
Bay for 30 years. He
docks Bearboat, an Island
Packet 26, in Galesville,
Maryland.
(Photos: www.smithisland.org)
SelfDiscovery
WineHunter
Steve Blakely
Writer and Skipper
the island's official cookbook.
You can order a home-made Smith Island Layer Cake for $22-$25, plus
shipping ($6-$12) from the island's web site -- or you can sail there and
taste one yourself. The only way to get to Smith Island is by boat and it's
a great destination if you sail the Chesapeake Bay, but only if you have a
shoal-draft vessel.
[Smith Island Layer
Cake]
The never-ending erosion
of the island makes "Big
Thoroughfare" (the
dredged channel that
snakes through the
marshland to the island's
three towns) a pretty
shallow affair, especially
during low tide. Last time
I went through there in
Bearboat, my Island
http://www.travelbeat.net/sailing/archives/2008/03/layer-cake-smith-island-md.html[1/19/2011 12:39:27 PM]
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Recent Posts
Baking Life: Storied Chesapeake Island Fights for Survival | Sailing Beat
Antilles (1)
Argentina (2)
Bahamas (2)
Packet 26 (which draws only 3 feet), we frequently hit bottom if we
strayed even a little outside the channel. Any vessel over 4 feet in draft is
likely to have trouble finding navigable water going through Smith.
Baltimore (5)
Bermuda (1)
Boston (2)
If you don't want to go on your own boat, there are two ferries that serve
Smith Island:
Brazil (1)
• From Point Lookout, Md., on the Western Shore of the
British Columbia (1)
Chesapeake Bay (the north shore of the Potomac River), one boat
leaves at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday through Sunday during non-winter
British Virgin Islands
(5)
Cabo San Lucas (1)
California (4)
Canada (2)
Caribbean (8)
Catalina Island (1)
Chesapeake Bay (16)
months, and returns in the afternoon.
• From Crisfield, Md., about 12 miles away on the Eastern Shore,
one boat leaves daily at 12:30 pm, returning in the afternoon.
Rates are $24 per adult, $12 per child (three to 11).
[Smith Island
Crab Boats]
Chile (1)
If the origin of
Smith Island Cake
China (1)
is lost in the mists
Chicago (2)
Connecticut (1)
Copenhagen (2)
Denmark (1)
Dominican Republic (2)
Dublin (2)
England (2)
Florida (2)
France (2)
Germany (2)
Great Britain (1)
Grenada (1)
Halifax (1)
Hawaii (1)
Honolulu (1)
Iceland (1)
India (1)
Ireland (2)
Japan (1)
Key West (1)
Leningrad (1)
Liverpool (1)
London (2)
Mackinac Island (1)
Maryland (8)
Massachusetts (1)
Mediterranian (1)
Mexico (1)
Miami (1)
Michigan (1)
Monaco (1)
New York (2)
Newport, RI (1)
Norfolk (1)
Norway (1)
Washington on the
Potomac: A River
Cruise Through
History
Dockside Dreams:
From Annapois to
L.A., Fall Boat Shows
Strut Their Expensive
Stuff
Virgin Islands Redux:
My Dream Trip
Through British and
U.S. Waters
Catching Up: NewFangled Boats Using
Waves and Sails
Complete Their
Maiden Journeys
Mystic Seaport: A
'Moby-Dick Marathon'
in Connecticut's
Museum of the Sea
of time, there's
a lot of history for
it to get lost in.
Capt. John Smith
was the first
Chicago-Mackinac
Race: 'The Mac' Hits
100 with 5,000 Sailors
Traversing Lake
Michigan
Bastion of Baltimore:
Fort McHenry Still
Stands as a Harbor
Gateway
European to see
the island during
his famous "voyage
of discovery" in 1608, having left the starving colony of Jamestown, Va.,
to explore and map the Chesapeake Bay. The island is named not for
Capt. John, but rather for Henry Smith, an early landowner from
Jamestown.
English and Welsh setters first colonized the islands between 1659 and
1686. The area is so remote that current residents can trace their
genealogy back 12 generations. Today there are three towns in the
Baltimore Harbor:
Summer Salute to
Francis Key and His
Star-Spangled Poem
Tangier Island: A
British Foothold in the
Chesapeake Bay
Archives
marshy group of islands: Ewell (the largest), Tylerton, and Rhodes Point.
Residents' distinctive dialect, often described (incorrectly) as Elizabethan,
November 2008
is what linguists call "Tidewater English" or "Ocracoke Brogue," a unique
September 2008
blending of Old English, American Southern and coastal accents.
August 2008
[Smith Island
Museum]
Early residents
farmed the islands
(then much larger
than today) for their
livelihood, and later
turning to fishing,
crabbing, and
oystering. During
the 1700s, the
fiercely independent watermen also turned to piracy (known locally as
"picaroons"), preying on both British and Patriot shipping during the
Revolution. In those lawless days, Rhodes Point was better known as
"Rogues' Point."
Normandy (1)
North Carolina (1)
Portugese Skywatch:
From Moonrise to
Sunset
Today, Smith Island -- like its neighboring inhabited island just to the
south, Tangier Island, Va. -- is threatened by a rising sea level (the water
has come up a foot in the past century), increasing water pollution from
http://www.travelbeat.net/sailing/archives/2008/03/layer-cake-smith-island-md.html[1/19/2011 12:39:27 PM]
October 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
Baking Life: Storied Chesapeake Island Fights for Survival | Sailing Beat
Nova Scotia (1)
Portugal (2)
Rhode Island (1)
Rio De Janeiro (1)
Roskilde (1)
Russia (2)
San Diego (2)
San Francisco (2)
San Francisco Bay (1)
Santa Cruz (1)
development throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and rapidly
shrinking seafood resources (oysters are gone as a commercial catch and
blue crabs are shrinking fast). The island has lost more than 3,300 acres
in the last 150 years, and the remaining marshland stands barely four feet
above sea level.
The island's population has been steadily dropping as the land and jobs
slowly disappear. So few children remain that the island's school was
closed several years ago, and the remaining school-age children take a
boat to and from class in Crisfield each day. Signs of real poverty on the
island are impossible to miss.
Scandinavia (1)
Scotland (1)
Singapore (1)
[Abandoned Smith Island
Waterman's Home]
South Africa (1)
Which is why Layer Cake is
South America (4)
so important to the island.
Southern Ocean (2)
As economic options have
Spain (1)
shrunk, tourism has become
increasingly important.
St. Croix (1)
St. John's (1)
St. Petersburg, FL (1)
St. Petersburg, Russia
(1)
St. Thomas (1)
St. Vincent (1)
Sweden (1)
Terra del Fuego (2)
U.S. Virgin Islands (5)
Venezuela (2)
Virgin Islands (2)
Virginia (5)
Washington (1)
Washington, D.C. (4)
Index
adventure, adventure
travel, aircraft carriers,
American history,
amusement parks,
anthropology, aquarium,
archeology, architecture,
art, art museums,
astronomy, B&Bs, bareboat,
barque, bars, beaches, blue
crab, blue crabs,
boardwalks, boat gear, boat
racing, boat shows, boating,
boatmaking, books, bridges,
buried treasure, Capt. John
Smith, carbon emissions,
cargo ships, Caribbean,
catamaran, charter,
chartering, charts,
Chesapeake Bay, cities,
Coast Guard, coastal,
conservation, coral reefs,
creationism, crewed,
cruises, cruising, cultures,
disasters, eco-friendly,
ecosystems, ecotourism,
environment, estuaries,
evolution, ferries, festivals,
fireworks, First
Thanksgiving, Florida Keys,
forts, fuel prices, gardens,
grand bahama island, Great
Lakes, green commerce,
guided tours, historic
landmarks, historic
reconstruction, history,
There is now a state-funded
Smith Island Museum, a
refurbished Smith Island
Marina (both in Ewell), and
several comfortable
(although certainly not fancy) local B&Bs. This year the locals are heavily
advertising Smith Island Day (May 18) and the Smith Island Crab Skiff
Races (July 21) as events to draw paying tourists to the island.
Smith Islanders are known for being extremely hard-working, tenacious
and optimistic. But you don't have to go down too many layers to see
that Smith Island Cake is really part of a determined struggle to save their
homes, heritage, and community.
Experience At-a-Glance
Smith Island
• Official Web site
• Smith Island
Museum
• Lodging • Smith Island
Marina
• Wikipedia entry
• Book: "Island out
of Time," by Tom
Horton
• Dialect: To hear
the Smith Island dialect, see this snippet of the award-winning
documentary, "Island Out of Time," by Hugh Drescher
News articles
• New York Times, "Islands Past and Future, in a Layer Cake"
• National Public Radio, "Smith Island Cake Poised for Maryland
Fame"
• NPR Photo Gallery of Smith Island
Smith Island Layer Cake
• Mail order
• Traditional recipe (10 layers)
• Peanut butter recipe (8 layers)
http://www.travelbeat.net/sailing/archives/2008/03/layer-cake-smith-island-md.html[1/19/2011 12:39:27 PM]
Baking Life: Storied Chesapeake Island Fights for Survival | Sailing Beat
hotels, hurricane noel,
hurricanes, intelligent
design, Intracoastal
Waterway, islands,
Jamestown, labor strife,
lakes, lighthouses, luxury
travel, marinas, marine
archeology, Marine Corps,
marine ecosystems,
maritime history, maritime
museums, marsh harbor,
massau, merchant marine,
military history,
monuments, motorboating,
museums, national parks,
natural history, navigation,
Navy, nuclear power,
oceans, oil spill, osprey,
outrigger canoe, oysters,
paradise island,
photography, pirates,
pollution, ports,
preservation, rally, rivers,
Robotic sailing, sailboat
design, sailboat racing,
sailboats, sailing
associations, sailing records,
sailing school, sails, Santa
Ana, science, scuba diving,
sea burials, Sept. 11,
shipping, ships, shipwrecks,
shipyards, shopping,
skywatch, Smith Island,
snorkeling, Special
Olympics, sports, squarerigger, state parks, storms,
surfing, tall ships, Tangier
Island, technology, tropical
storms, U.S. Navy,
underwater archeology,
Vikings, warships,
watermen, waves,
whaleships, wildlife, wine,
wine-tasting, winter, women
sailing, writers, yacht,
yacht clubs
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Destinations: Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, Virginia
Related Stories: B&Bs, blue crabs, Capt. John Smith, ferries,
Jamestown, oysters, Smith Island, Tangier Island, watermen
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