Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!! Although I only have a small portion of my heritage that is Irish it doesn’t hurt to celebrate. Perhaps my favorite Irish offering besides Potato-Leek soup and the Boxty (Ireland’s version of a potato pancake), is Bailey’s Irish Cream. My favorite way to enjoy Bailey’s is in a frozen coffee like drink… delicious. Of course it also tastes wonderful in desserts. When contemplating what to prepare for St. Patrick’s Day, the one thing I was sure of is that it would include Bailey’s. I finally decided on cake, and what better way to impress all your leprechauns then with not just any cake but a Smith Island style cake dyed a two-tone green color synonymous with the holiday.

For those that don’t know what Smith Island style cake is, it’s very tall with many many layers. Hailing from the small town of Smith Island, Maryland, the Smith Island Cake is famous for its tall stature created by multiple thin layers smothered with a rich, fudgy frosting. The Smith Island Cake has created such a grand reputation that it recently became the official state dessert of Maryland. With such an impressive reputation I decided to modify it for St. Patrick’s Day by tinting the layers green, adding Bailey’s Irish Cream to the cake batter, but maintaining the original choice to frost the layers with chocolate. The pairing of Irish cream and fudgy chocolate creates a taste so divine you will think you followed the rainbow to your taste buds pot of gold.

I will admit this isn’t my best post because I have had a rather stressful past week and have also had to juggle watching my daughter all while handling the stress which didn’t bode well. This is a cheater recipe for those who are rather strapped for time like myself. I don’t typically recommend cheating with any store bought products but a semi-homemade dessert every once in a while won’t hurt. It did hurt my final outcome of this post however as the cake layers were too moist and tended to slide and break apart upon slicing. I suppose no matter how displeased I was with the look of the cake I have to admit it tasted delicious. Oh well, I will have better luck next time. Hope you all have a great day celebrating and have all the luck of the Irish this year 🙂

Irish Cream Smith Island Cake

Ingredients:

2 boxes of White Cake Mix
4 tubs of Chocolate Frosting
1 cup Bailey’s Irish Cream
Green Food Coloring
Shamrock Decorations

Formula:

Preheat oven according to package directions. In two separate bowls prepare each cake mix according to the boxed directions. To each bowl, add ½ cup Bailey’s Irish Cream. Mix until just incorporated. Tint the first bowl a light green and the second bowl a darker green. Grease and flour six 8 inch round cake pans (I use store bought foil pans to make things easier. If you don’t wish to do so, grease and flour 3 round cake pans and bake in batches. Be sure to allow the pans to cool completely before adding the next batch of batter to bake). Divide each bowl of batter evenly into the cake pans. Bake cakes for 20 minutes. Remove cakes from the oven and allow to cool completely before assembling.
Once the layers have cooled, use an offset spatula to spread a thick layer of chocolate frosting on the first layer before topping it with another layer. Repeat with the rest of the layers, making sure to alternate the lighter and darker green layers as you frost the cake and build it up. Once all the layers have been assembled, spread an even layer of frosting across the top and sides of the cake. With the remaining frosting, fill a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip. Pipe 8 rosettes around the top edges of the cake. Place a shamrock decoration on top of each rosette.

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