Smearcase

[Eleanor Rose]

(Wikiwand)​

Smearcase is a cheesecake-like dessert with a yeasty crust and a custard-like cheesy filling topped with a sprinkle of cinnamon. Derived from the German schmierkäse ("to smear" and "cheese"), smearcase simply meant cottage cheese to 19th-century Americans. Milkmen sold it and Victorian families mixed it with cream to create the product that paved the way for modern cream cheese. In the Pennsylvania Amish community, smearcase is still a term for cottage cheese.

In Baltimore, once home to a large population of German immigrants, smearcase is the name of a custard type cheesecake. Compared to standard American cheesecake, smearcase tastes lighter and less sugary, with a more cake-like crust. Have you ever had Smearcase? I've read that it's getting harder to find so you may need to make your own.

Smearcase Cake

Cake Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 cup cooking oil
1 cup granulated sugar

Filling Ingredients:
16 ounces cream cheese
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons flour
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
13-ounce can evaporated milk
Cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325 °F. Sift together the flour and baking powder. Add eggs, oil and sugar. Stir well. Press on the bottom and up the sides of a 9- by 13-inch pan. Set aside.

Mix all filling ingredients; beat until smooth. Pour filling over cake. Sprinkle with cinnamon and bake for approximately 1 1/2 hours.

 

[donna]

Love cheesecake. Thanks for all the information on this type.

 

[Fairfield]

This certainly ought to be delicious and I have every intention of making it! I am very partial to cheesecake. Perhaps one of the reasons that it is becoming hard to find is its name--this surely is a case where something has been lost going from the origninal.