CROSS THE BAY BRIDGE onto the Eastern Shore, and you’ll likely see signs for Smith Island cake at nearly every seafood shack and produce stand that dots the string of tiny towns on the 115-mile drive down to the tip of the peninsula in Crisfield. Every person has their own riff on the iconic layer cake, but here, in Crisfield, the Smith Island Baking Company is the only bakery that bears the name of the 400-year-old remote fishing village located just over the Tangier Sound, and whose fame over the last 11 years has led to the shipping of cakes across the country.
Prior to the COVID crisis, theirs was the Smith Island cake you could eat at Nordstrom’s café, the Silver Diner, Harris Teeter, McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood & Steaks, and Oriole Park at Camden Yards. And devotees can be found way beyond the bay.
“I’ll never forget, I got a call from a guy in Beverly Hills on a Friday afternoon,” says the baking company’s founder, Brian Murphy. “He said, ‘My wife is going to kill me. She wanted a Smith Island cake for her birthday and her birthday is tomorrow.’ By Saturday, he had one of our cakes.” Coincidentally, on that same Friday afternoon, a customer “wanted a Smith Island cake while elk hunting in Idaho,” recalls Murphy. “I sent a cake there, too.”
“We ship to a lot of names you’d recognize,” adds Murphy. “The highest people in government, the most famous athletes and actors you’ve heard of—at the end of the day, they just want a great cake.”
Denne historien er fra October 2020-utgaven av Baltimore magazine.
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Denne historien er fra October 2020-utgaven av Baltimore magazine.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Man With a Plan
The eternal optimism of Thibault Manekin.
SHOWER POWER
Locals let rain gardens soak up the storm.
THE SOFA QUEEN
Stuffed & Tufted’s Samantha Kuczynski relishes being the new face of upholstery.
The Starting Gate
At long last, plans are underway for a new “Home of the Preakness.”
CLEANING UP CITY HALL
Baltimore is the second most corrupt federal jurisdiction in the country. Can a city with our history be reformed?
THE HOMECOMING
For one family, it was time to start living in their house, not just existing there.
SUGAR RUSH
Baltimore gets a fresh batch of home-grown bakeries——and the line forms here.
GAMECHANGER SANDRA GIBSON
Executive Director, SNF Parkway Theatre & Maryland Film Festival
FROM THE GROUND UP
A new build gives a couple a house that finally feels like them.
AFTER GLOW
KEY HIGHWAY