Becca's

24399 Lankford Highway, Tasley, VA - (757) 789-3686

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Posted By Michael Stern on 2/21/2012 4:01:00 AM

Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay belongs to Virginia, but as Rebecca Crutchley grew up there, she enjoyed eating a cake named for the Bay's other inhabited Island – Smith Island, which belongs to Maryland. In fact, Maryland named Smith Island Cake its official state dessert in 2008. The impressive pastry, which is composed of eight to twelve wafer-thin, well-iced layers, wasn't even named Smith Island cake until the 1980s, but it is believed that the stack-cake tradition has its roots in tortes baked by English settlers as far back as the 17th century. Rebecca notes that Annapolis, Maryland, is known for a similar 7-layer extravaganza.

Becca's cafe is located in a house by the side of Highway 13, which threads Virginia's Eastern shore from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel to the Maryland state line. She makes the signature in over a dozen flavors, including banana with cream cheese icing or banana with caramel icing, coconut, coconut/lemon, Oreo, red velvet, chocolate cherry, carrot, and caramel. When asked why her cakes are particularly fluffy, Rebecca told us that rather than bake one large cake and horizontally slice it into multiple layers, as many bakers do, she bakes each thin layer separately. The result: fluffier cakes. They are iced while still warm – a practice that amplifies their tenderness.

While a lot of Becca's business is whole cakes to go (as well as catering), the little shop also offers a handful of tables in two cozy dining rooms, one of which is equipped with a fireplace. Here locals come for sandwiches and burgers, soups accompanied by sweet potato biscuits (sweet potatoes are a prize produce grown on the Eastern Shore), and Rebecca's wonderful summertime crab melt, which she says is served "the Tangier way," meaning strictly local lump crab meat topped with melted havarti cheese. Of course, single slices of Smith Island cake always are available.

Scorecard

Overall: One of the Best - Worth a Trip

Sweet Potato Biscuits	Smith Island Cake

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"Smith Island cake: the official state dessert of Maryland, as served in easternmost Virginia"
Michael Stern

"Sweet potatoes are a big deal along the Eastern Shore. Becca's makes biscuits from them."
Michael Stern

"The Christmas blizzard of 2010: This much snow is a rarity in Tasley, Virginia."
Michael Stern

"Here is a sign to make seekers of regional food hit the brakes."
Michael Stern