A classic Smith Island cake is a thing of beauty. With its eight (or more) layers of yellow cake, sandwiched together with glossy dark chocolate, all enrobed in a smooth layer of ganache, it’s a dessert that demands attention. Named after its birthplace—a group of three island communities off the Chesapeake Bay—the cake is said to have been baked since the 1800s as a celebratory treat to mark the area’s annual oyster harvest.
Photo by Elizabeth Coetzee, Food styling by Emilie Fosnocht
I can understand if you feel a bit of trepidation about baking this impressive cake at home. Many Smith Island cake recipes require baking eight separate layers of cake; either in eight different cake pans (you have those, right?) or in multiple batches. Those methods work, but it can take hours to bake the layers you need.
The solution? Baking just four layers of cake and slicing them in half. And before you get nervous about slicing such thin layers of cake even thinner, fear not: There’s a clever trick that’ll ensure you slice perfectly even layers without the need for expert-level knife skills. All you need is a box of toothpicks. Here’s how to make it happen.
How to use toothpicks to keep your cake slices even
Before you start slicing, make sure your cake layers are completely cool. If they are the slightest bit warm they’ll be prone to falling apart as you slice them, so be patient. Go walk the dog. Empty the dishwasher. Okay, now you’re ready.
We’re going to work with one layer of cake at a time. Set your cake layer onto a flat surface (like a large cutting board) and grab some toothpicks. Stick four toothpicks evenly into the exterior of the cake, halfway up the cake’s side and parallel to the cutting board, as if they were at 12:00, 3:00, 6:00, and 9:00 on a clock, sticking out like spiky sunrays. The toothpicks should be inserted about halfway into the cake so roughly half of each toothpick is poking out.