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Papua New GuineaFlavors · Maryland
A cake of eight to ten very thin layers of yellow cake alternated with chocolate frosting. It originated on Smith Island in the Chesapeake Bay and has been Maryland’s official dessert since 2008.
Traditional sweet from Maryland
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Smith Island cake — Maryland, the United States
The Smith Island cake comes from Smith Island, a small fishing community in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.
The cake has eight to ten very thin layers of yellow cake, baked one at a time in shallow pans and stacked with frosting between each layer. The classic version is chocolate fudge; there are also coconut, strawberry and other flavors.
In 2008 Maryland declared the Smith Island cake its official dessert. It is sold whole or by the slice at bakeries across the state and appears at family gatherings and summer fairs from June through August.
Yellow cake (flour, butter, eggs, sugar, milk); chocolate fudge frosting.
In thin, tall slices as a dessert or with coffee.
Year-round; very common at family gatherings.
Your questions
It is a cake of eight to ten very thin layers of yellow cake with chocolate frosting between them.
From Smith Island, a fishing community in the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.
Yes, it has been the state’s official dessert since 2008.
Flavors of the United States
Ground beef shaped into a patty, grilled or cooked on a griddle and served inside a round bun. Several American cities claim the sandwich's origin, and it became one of the foods most associated with the United States.
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Thick stew of crawfish tails cooked in a light roux-based sauce with onion, celery and bell pepper, served over white rice. It is one of the dishes of the Cajun cuisine of southern Louisiana.
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Philadelphia sandwich with thin slices of beef cooked on a griddle and melted cheese in a long Italian roll. The most accepted story links it to a hot dog vendor from the south of the city, in 1930.
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New Orleans cocktail with rye whiskey or cognac, sugar and the bitter created by Antoine Amédée Peychaud, served in a glass scented with absinthe and a lemon peel. It is the city’s official cocktail by a 2008 state law.
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Large pizza with a thin, crisp yet flexible crust, thin enough to fold a slice in half. It originated among Neapolitan bakers in New York and is sold by the slice throughout the city.
Pastrami sandwich: cured, seasoned and smoked beef, hot-sliced on rye bread with mustard. It’s the sandwich of New York’s Jewish delicatessens.
Buttery New Mexico cookie, traditionally made with lard, scented with anise and rolled in sugar and cinnamon. It has been the state cookie since 1989, the first official state cookie in the United States.
Hamburger topped with melted cheese and roasted, chopped New Mexico green chile. The state’s official tourism promotes a trail of restaurants that serve it, and several towns claim to have created it.
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Clam and potato chowder in a tomato broth, with bacon and the sweet heat of datil pepper. A family recipe from descendants of Menorcan settlers in Saint Augustine.
Beef stew in a sauce of dried chilies, cumin and garlic, in the Texan style, without beans. Chili queens sold it from booths in San Antonio plazas in the 19th century; it has been the official dish of Texas since 1977.
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Stew of fish and seafood in a tomato-and-wine broth, created in the 19th century by Italian fishermen, mostly from Genoa, on the San Francisco pier. It is served with bread for dipping into the broth.
Large burrito made with a flour tortilla, filled with meat, rice, beans, salsa and sour cream, wrapped in aluminum foil. It originated in the taquerías of the Mission neighborhood in San Francisco in the 1960s.
Low St. Louis cake with a dense, buttery base and a moist, sticky topping of butter, sugar and eggs, dusted with powdered sugar. Local tradition attributes it to a baker’s mistake in the 1930s.
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Cuban sandwich made with Cuban bread, roasted pork, ham, Swiss cheese, pickles and mustard, pressed on a griddle. In Tampa it also includes salami. The City Council declared it the city’s signature sandwich in 2012.
Whiskey made in Tennessee with at least 51% corn, filtered through sugar maple charcoal before aging in new toasted oak barrels. A 2013 state law defines what may use that name.
Texas barbecue centers on smoked beef brisket as its main dish: seasoned only with salt and black pepper, cooked for many hours in wood smoke and sliced, served on butcher paper with bread, pickles and onion.
Sausage wrapped in bacon and grilled, served in a soft bolillo-style roll with beans, tomato, onion, mayonnaise, mustard and hot sauce. It came from the Mexican state of Sonora and became a symbol of Tucson.
Thick stew of chicken, lima beans, corn and tomato, cooked for hours in iron pots. The Virginia General Assembly points to Brunswick County as the place of origin, in a long-standing dispute with Georgia.
Soft roll baked with slices or sticks of pepperoni inside, which release fat and season the dough. It originated among coal miners of Italian descent in West Virginia.
A sausage thicker and spicier than the hot dog, smoked and grilled, served in bread with chili, onion and mustard. Washington’s tourism agency calls it the city’s signature dish.
Oval puff pastry, made of very thin layers, filled with fruit, nuts, or cream and topped with icing. Brought by Danish immigrants, it is Wisconsin’s official dessert.
