I have no time now to monitor this thread...please continue all fun without me. I'd hoped to put a master list together but I have a huge work project that just came up and don't know if I can. Anyone else wants to do so, please do.

Sure Bumblebeez, we all know you had to make an emergency run to the local bakery!

BTDT, Brownstone Front Cake is (when done the right way!) a many layered cake (6-8 layers ?) of a very dense cake, usually yellow or brown sugar? with a wonderful caramel frosting. It is a tall, regal cake, very rich and most folks slice it thin because it is so tall. My co-worker's mom makes them and we get to share one at least once a year. None of us can resist it!

Not many people make it because it is very time consuming and there are tales of people burning up their mixers trying to make the frosting.

I read some recipes on Google, but they called it a chocolate cake. Our local version is of thin yellow cake layers. None of the images on google looked like what we have here either.

Sushipup is right about the strawberries for California, at least southern to central. Not only do they grow here, but most meals end in fruit, and there are always strawberries, even if they're trucked in from Mexico. If people don't feel like cutting fruit they just serve strawberries. And if you want a sweet in a restaurant, even if it isn't on the menu, they'll bring you strawberries.

Mississippi Mudcake.

And from my own childhood memories, even though it may not be indigenous, the dessert I loved above all others was the classic Lemon Icebox Pie. I made one for Easter, and my kids just devoured it! Does anyone know where it originated?

I'd add Lemon Bars for Wisconsin. They turn up at every potluck dinner.

Ohhhhh, Lemon Icebox Pie - one of my favorites! I think it must be Southern in origin - dontcha think? It's so deliciously tart and sweet. When I lived in Greensboro there was a specialty ice cream shop that made Lemon Ice Box ice cream, complete with graham crackers swirled through the tart lemon ice cream. OMG it was good! If my friend and I went there and they were out....we just left the place without buying anything else.

As to the origins, maybe it was first put out by the Eagle Brand Condensed Milk company? I found a mention of a Lime Ice Box Pie recipe from 1958.

Here is P. Allen Smith's recipe, a good one:

Lemon Icebox Pie

Crust Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup graham crackers
3 tablespoons sugar
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted

Filling Ingredients:
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk

Meringue Ingredients:
2 egg whites.
4 tablespoons sugar.
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Instructions:
Begin by making the graham cracker crust. For me a lemon pie just isn't the same with any other type of crust. Combine the graham cracker crumbs and sugar, and then add the melted butter. Stir this together until you have a crumbly mixture. Press the mixture into a 9-inch pie plate and bake at 350 degrees F for about 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Pour sweetened condensed milk into a medium sized bowl and gradually add lemon juice and grated rind. Stir this until well blended and then pour into cool graham cracker crust.

Now you are ready to make the meringue. In large bowl, add the egg whites and the cream of tartar. Beat until all the egg white turns into foam. Add the four tablespoons of sugar and beat until stiff enough to hold a peak, but not dry. Pour the mixture on top of the pie filling and bake in a preheated oven at 325 degrees F for 15 minutes.

After removing the pie from the oven, chill it in the refrigerator until the filling sets. This usually takes a little over an hour.

Here is a link to a fascinating web site - a food time-line. This is the page on pie, from pastry to quiche to pizza to refrigerator pies.

Here is a link that might be useful: Food Time-line, Pies

Anyone familiar with Vermont knows that apple pie (with a hunk of cheddar) is most definitely the state dessert! Maple sugar candy is also high on that list, too.
New Mexico- biscochito (anise cookies)

I do associate lemon or lime pies with the south. I know whenever we go visit relatives in Florida and go out to eat that's what we get. It's not that you never see it up north but it is definately not that common at all and tends to show up on more gourmet type menus as a special item. Boston cream pie seems ubiquitous out here in PA though, much more so than in MI. Not that it is going to replace Shoefly pie, which again, I had never even heard of until I came to PA, but it is definately more popular in the east then midwest. Again, not that we don't get it in the midwest too, just like the citrus pies. Same with cheesecake, we have it in MI all over the place, but it is just much more common here on the east coast. At a diner in MI you might see it, but it will be hardly touched and the fruit pies will be all gone, and pumpkin too, but here it will be the reverse, folks will order the cheesecake over the pies. Not always, depends on the place, but in general, and I think that's not because people like one better than the other regionally, I think it is the effect of the type of bakeries that are flourishing in the region. In west MI where I'm from, there are a lot of Dutch (of which I'm one) and you see pies, where as here there is a strong German and E. European influence and yous are more likely to see cheesecake in a bakery as a specialty. Not that the Dutch can't make cheesecake and the Germans can't make pie. Boy, I had great Kasekuchen in Germany though! And if a Midwesterner wants to impress you with their cheesecake, they will call it "New York style."

Oh, heavens, Teresa, that sounds good! I'll take caramel over chocolate anyday. Funny, I grew up only about 25 miles east of where you are and never heard of it. (Which really doesn't mean much as I probably haven't heard of a lot of things. LOL!)

Egg custard pie. My grandmother used to make those. They were too sweet to me, but the men in the family could make them disappear PDQ.

Anyone from East Texas? DH says when he was stationed there in the 80s, nearly every bakery in the area -- which has a huge German influence -- sold a cream-filled cone-shaped cream filled pastry. He said the pastry was similar in texture to a cannoli, and the filling often had minced fruits in it. He thinks the name started with a "K" but can't remember what they were called.

Wouldn't Washington state be something with apples?

I'm pretty sure this is a Philadelphia iconic desesrt type thing, but I'm sure someone will correct me if it isn;t....

Water Ice (pronounced wooder ice) Rita's is a popular brand name here, but I've never seen any sort of wooder ice anywhere else in the world.

Also - put that maple sugar candy on the list from Vt (or NH or Maine) You know - the sickeningly sweet little globs of sugar that have been formed into maple leaf forms?

And even though I had them in Maine, my fav candy Lust Bars are made in Mass - so you might add that to the list too.

http://www.eatonfarmcandies.com/?q=node/10

Alexa

Here is a link that might be useful: Ritas Water Ice

Columbus: "Buckeyes" -- not the inedible nuts from the state tree, the chocolate-peanut butter candies that look like them. I'm pretty sure there is a law against having a goodie platter without including them.

There is also Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream, which is so transcendent, the fancy restaurants in town now say they are hardly selling any desserts anymore -- everyone just goes to Jeni's. A couple of years ago, I think after she won the Gallo award for the Cherry Lambic Sorbet, it was the darling of the New York Times food section, and trendy folks were having pints of Salty Caramel and Goat Cheese with Fig and Cognac shipped to each other for posh Xmas gifts. But I can't really call it iconic because only locals and foodies know about it.

I've been wracking my brain trying to think of an iconic confection for Southern California. Something besides fresh strawberries, which are often served washed. That is, with the tops on. But really, it's strawberries. And ice cream. But not a particular kind of ice cream. It could be green tea, red bean, vanilla, praline, cookie dough, dulce de leche or rocky road.

That's it!!!

Baskin Robbins 31 Flavors. We eat ice cream. All year round. All flavors. And we're the home of Baskin Robbins.

I am surprised nobody has mentioned the iconic See's Candy from California? During my 30+ years in CA that's what would show up as "What's For Dessert?"...not strawberries unless you count See's chocolate-covered strawberries! :)

I have never liked See's but my step-mother literally lived off them. She'd eat like a bird at dinner but stuff 8-10 candies down afterwards saying, "Oh, just one bite of something sweet would be soooo nice!" Then another bite, and another, so on & so forth...rofl She kept a dozen one pound boxes stacked in the hall closet. For twenty years she sent me a box every Christmas. I either pawned them off on somebody else or dumped them. I don't know why 'cause I love chocolate but See's has a funny aftertaste, to me.

/tricia

South Dakota-I think Kuchen is the official dessert of South Dakota but I would guess 90% wouldn't know what it is.
Most likely my generation they would probably say apple pie or something with rhubarb.

Well.... "they say" that Iowa has the greatest sales of Jell-o in the country....but lots of it goes into 'salads"...if jello with fruit in it is a salad...
And we have "Wader" ice in Iowa....but it's called Italian ice...go figure.
Linda C

What about Toll House Cookies - Massachusetts???

LOL!! Tricia, See's candy is what people bring as a hostess gift, not what people (besides your step-mother) eat for desert. People eat it, don't get me wrong. Some people are rabid for See's. But it's not attached to a meal.

I'm sticking with ice cream--though we could expand it to include frozen yoghurt and sorbet.

Alexa:
You are right with Rita's water ice.

Before that, it was Maroni's Water Ice.
They had trucks that went everywhere in the city.
He made Water Ice popular in the late 40's.

That's when my wife made and sold it.
Her's was the best around, all natural fruit flavors.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Had some of Rita's, Vanilla Water Ice , on Easter Sunday.
Added a couple shots of Kahlua.
That put it over the top !!!
.

Trica:
I thought of something else.

Fralingers Fudge from the Boardwalk in Atlantic City.
I don't know if it counts as a dessert.
LOU

Texas Sheet Cake
Pecan Pie
Tres Leches Cake (especially central/south)

And that is all I can think of now.

Another Michigander here. Was shocked when I moved out of state to find that fruit and garden stands weren't everywhere in the summer. Only then did I look it up to find that Michigan is not only an agricultural powerhouse but probably in the top 5 or 10 for agricultural diversity - corn, soybeans, wheat of course but also asparagus, carrots, potatoes, beans, cucumbers the list goes on, then all the fruit. WAAAAA! I miss it.

Don't know that we have a one famous desert but most people would probably opt for Cherry pie since the marketing of Traverse City as Cherry Capital.

Seems like just plain maple sugar squares or something along those lines would fit with the logger trapper up north thing, something Polish around Detroit, Dutch around GR.

Wisconsin grows lots of cranberries......cranberry relish

I did google this and no one knows the origin (first written reference in the Girl Scouts book) but the Hershey's chocolate post got me wondering about S'Mores. Associated with Hershey's maybe Pennsylvania can claim it:)

Did anyone mention Salt Water Taffy? That's probably New Jersey's contribution...

Growing up in Philly, the bakeries had something called "butter cake", which was a yellow cake with a butter/sugar crust on top, crispy at the very top and wet/gooey underneath, then a dense cake. It isn't the "gooey butter cake" that I have seen on some web sites. I can still get it at Shop Rite in Philly.

Lou mentioned the pineapple (also comes in cherry) cheese cake from Philly, it is a ricotta-based cheese cake with a pie-like crust. I have never seen anything like it outside of Philly, it is different from "Italian cheesecake", and I never knew about "New York Cheesecake" until I was an adult.

Beanthere, sorry, but neither that cake, nor the cheesecake, would I consider iconic for those parts of the Bay Area. Yes, available and well-liked, but cheesecake is cheesecake. And the cake may be locally popular, but it's not iconic. I can just as easily say that the cakes from Rosine's in downtown Monterey are iconic, but that would not be right. They are lovely and delicious and popular, but nothing about them screams out "Monterey".

And the See's candy isn't a dessert, I agree with that.

I also agree that Michigan's dessert would have to be the cherry pie, only the tourists buy the fudge. That's why tourists on Mackinac Island are referred to as "fudgies".

Elery's favorite Tennessee dessert is blackberry cobbler and it's pretty common there. He says that the apple stack cake is probably more Kentucky than Tennessee, but it's common both places. I even have his mother's recipe for apple stack cake, he says it was commonly used as a wedding cake, with guests contributing layers.

Apple Stack Cake
Vola Barnes

Cake:

3 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Filling:

2 eight oz. packages dried apples\
5 cups wter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves

This recipe makes seven 8 inch rounds.

Stir together flour, soda & cream of tartar. Cream sugar, shortneing and butter until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Add vanilla, then flour mixture, beating at low speed. Put 1/2 cup of dough into each greased and floured cake pan, as many pans as will fit in your oven. Bake for 8-10 minutes, cool a couple of minutes in the pan then turn out onto racks to cool completely.

Simmer apples and water for 45-50 minutes or until apples are very soft. Add sugar and spices and mash the apples. While filling is still hot, stack layers, spreading filling on each layer before adding the next layer. Chill several hours covered.

Serves 16

Annie

"Growing up in Philly, the bakeries had something called "butter cake", which was a yellow cake with a butter/sugar crust on top, crispy at the very top and wet/gooey underneath, then a dense cake."

OMG - you are so right on with this! Cramer's Bakery in Yardley PA makes an incredible Butter Cake, I have not bought one in years because I was not sure I needed to mainline a full LB of butter in that manner LOL! However, it absolutely DEFINES dessert from the Delaware Valley (not sure it is truly just Philly) part of the world.

And yes, I have been emailed by several people correcting me that Rita's is not the original Water Ice company, and I know that is correct. It was originally called Italian Ice and sold by any number of Mom & Pop stores, but I think Ritas has done a remarkable job marketing and selling a tasty product and may be the best known at this time.

Alexa

Here is a link that might be useful: Cramers Bakery

When I last visited my son, my DIL bought a butter cake at a bakery in Flourtown. That was something special, indeed!

Annie,
That stack cake but with chunky applesauce between the layers is in my BH&G Heritage Cookbook in the settling of America section:

"Stack Cake was a traditional pioneer wedding cake made - at least put together - right at the wedding celebration. Each guest brought a layer of cake. Applesauce made from either fresh or dried apples (depending on the time of year) was spread on each cake layer and the layers were stacked. The bride's popularity could be measured by the number of cakes she had and by the number of stacked layers in each cake."

The picture looks pretty spectacular! the top is spread with whipped cream and topped with finely chopped nuts.

Teresa

Hmm, born and raised in Maine, still live here, and I have never heard of cranberry duff, what is this dessert about? I am curious for I like cranberries.
As for whoopie pies, oh yum.....perhaps a blueberry pie for Maine, too? In the touristy towns that seems to be the go-to dessert served with the lobster dinners...

I also grew up eating Boston Cream Pie and the Egg Custard pie mentioned. The custard pie was Grandpa's favorite. Dad would get apple or blueberry and Grandpa always got custard. :]

Indicanoe, it's sort of like a pineapples upside down cake, but made with cranberries, sometimes dusted with powdered sugar or with a light sauce over. Here's a link to Martha Stewart's version of it. Had to go with the link that had the prettiest picture. :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Cranberry duff

On the Mississippi Coast there are many descendants of Yugoslavian immigrants, so Pusharatas are quite popular. They are a delicious little dessert, usually made around Christmas, but are also served at weddings and other special occasions. They look similar to doughnut holes, but are a little chewier, and have fruit and nuts. I found an article with some description, history, and a couple of recipes with pictures of them during the cooking process.

Here is a link that might be useful: pusharatas

jazmynsmom, how could I forget about kringle? In fact, they are even more specific than "Wisconsin" -- I understand that they are made only in the Danish bakeries in Racine (a city south of Milwaukee, for all you non-Cheeseheads). My parents were all excited to have authentic kringle when they went on a trip to Denmark long ago, only to be met with puzzled stares. There is a Christmas treat or something there called something similar, but evidently the divine, racetrack-shaped pastry is a creation of the Danish-Americans of Racine. I was so happy when they started selling them here.

"Hermits" for Boston.

"CMP" sundaes (chocolate, marshmallow, and peanuts, if memory serves) for Wilkes-Barre, PA

The state tree of Texas is Pecan and I'm not sure you can get more Texan than Pecan Pie.

Sopapillas are Mexican (or TexMex?) and we DO have a ton of REALLY good TexMex food here but I'm not sure I'd consider sopapillas as Texan as Pecan Pie. They're darn good though!!

Same with Strudels - Texas has a large German descent population and thus the strudel is plentiful, but only in certain areas of Texas, not really statewide.

Buttermilk pie.... hmmm... I've lived in Houston for nigh onto 50 years now (since birth) and I can't really remember seeing buttermilk pie on any menues. What part of the state do you live in Rusty? Texas is big enough to have its own regions with their own regional differences! LOL

Beanthere, I'm guessing you're talking about a kolache (pronounced ko-LAH-chee) although I've never seen one with a cannoli type crust. Normally they are a mildly sweet yeast bread with filling - if sweet then it's a jelly type filling and the filling sits on top in the middle. If savory then usually they are filled some combination of eggs, cheese and bacon or sausage, and the filling is enclosed. They usually offer a choice of mild or spicy sausage which can be really hot but really good. They are VERY common in East Texas but not really German, they're Czeck, another ethnic group that settled heavily in the area west of Houston, and east of San Antonio.

You can pick up kolaches at any doughnut shop around here plus there are spots that specifically sell kolaches as their main fare. I wouldn't call them a dessert though, more of a breakfast food. Kolaches are to East Texas what bagels are to New York.

I'd definitely agree with Texas Sheet cake being a Texas staple. Makes me think of banana pudding (is that regional to Texas?) because you can get both at what I consider to be the BEST barbecue restaurant in Houston.

Tres leches is another Mex or TexMex item but it has gained enough popularity to be offered in just about any kind of restaurant around here lately, as opposed to the sopapillas which are generally confined to Mexican restaurants only. So I'd say Yes to that as well.

Great thread!!

I'm another who thinks southern it is a three-way tie of banana pudding, chess pies, and cobbler. I'm pretty certain you can't enter a "meat and three" (another regional thing) without those three being in the dessert section. There is often a pecan pie sitting there and maybe a fudge pie, but not as often as the other three. I would've said chess pie, but every time I read banana puding I said yep, and then when Annie said Elery's blackberry cobbler, that's another yep. There is a restaurant here that has a cobbler of the day. Peach, cherry, blackberry, strawberry..... I only make cherry or blackberry. Mom is on a diet and has nothing sweet in her food stores. Except two cans ready for cherry cobbler.

:)

Lowspark, I'm down in the southern end.
This area is about 75% Hispanic.
So the Mexican and/or Tex-Mex restaurants are many.

As for Buttermilk pie, it used to be in all the "Mom & Pop" type restaurants. Not the chains.
I say 'used to be', because I really don't know if it still is or not.
I now live on a rather low fixed income, so eating out is a luxury that doesn't happen much.

Rusty

An interesting story about the "stack cake"! I never heard it was prepared for weddings but then you would have to know we lived in a very rural area. I do know the ladies who made them prided themselves on having the thinnest, most layers on the stack cake.

My mother used a fluted pie tin to cut the layers and the dough must have been a great deal like a cookie dough. I vaguely remember the layers being baked in an iron skillet. The end result was a cake with scalloped edges...so pretty!

Also, we had egg custard pie...didn't learn about chess pie until I was grown and moved to the "big" city of Knoxville which was referred to as "town". So I guess I'm a country hick, whatever that is!

jude

jude, Elery's mother baked the layers in round cake pans, but the dough is very much more like cookie dough than it is like cake batter. The layers only got soft after the filling was added, and I'm told that it "has" to sit overnight to get really "good". I'm translating that as "moist".

The fluted pans are a good idea, that would be pretty.

The cobbler was different too, my Grandma's cobbler was more like biscuit dough on top of fruit. Elery's version is more of a batter, poured over the fruit.

And we always had egg custard pie here in Michigan, probably because we had cows and chickens, so we were always trying to use them up. Then again, my Grandmother learned to cook from her Stepmother, who was from Kentucky, so maybe egg custard is regional to the south.

Annie

Butter Tarts - Canada

Yea Elery! My cobbler is batter poured over the fruit too. He does it right. Told ya he's good people. I just knew it.

;)

So it appears that "regional desserts" can vary by even smaller regions, what constitutes cobbler in one place can be something else in another, and it's not necessarily by state.

Annie

Minnesota might be danish...I used to have a friend from there who would send ONE OF THE LOCAL DANISHES TO ME EVERY YEAR.

Annie, I always thought the batter poured over the fruit was a more recent method. My mother made a bottom crust AND a top crust. The crust was always my favorite part of any pie, cobbler or not. No wonder bread is my favorite food.

And..your thought about raising chickens being a factor in the egg custard is probably right. My Dad died when I was only 9. We had to move to a smaller place, and although we continued to live in the country we didn't have cows, but did raise chickens and at least one hog a year.

I'm lovin' this thread...brings back a lot of good memories. That makes me think of something else. Did any of you all ever have fried raisin pies? I can remember coming home from school and smellin' those pies before I ever got in the door!

jude

Fried raisin pies? That sounds weirdly delicious. We only had apple fried pies. Our peach tree wouldn't cooperate.

Lows, he says he remembers kolache, but these other things were different and the fruit (if used) was minced and added to what a cream similar to a Bavarian cream but with more stiffness to it. You'd think as much as he drives through Texas these days, he'd find a bakery, stop and ask! :)

Texas is so big, ya'll could easily have five or six iconic desserts.

Diane:
The Fluffy Pineapple Cheesecake I was refering to was not made with Ricotta.

It is made with Phila. Cream Cheese.
And, you are right, they did make a Cherry Cheese Cake too.

At that time it was sold at Haverford Bakery ,
63rd and Haverford ave.,
In the Overbrook section of West Philly.

You had to get there early on a Sunday to get one.

The owner passed away and his son took over and moved the business to Upper Darby, Pa.
But it wasn't as good. IMO

It took me months to duplicate the taste and texture.
I put the recipe on the CF a few times and some members tried and liked it.
But it was ridiculed because I used Vanilla Ice Cream,
in the Recipe.
So that was the end of this story.
Everyone here loves it. Good enough for me. !!!
Lou

beanthere, if he finds out the name, I'll be very curious to know. I'm racking my brain but can't come up with anything that sounds like what you describe.

jude, I had a secretary from Oklahoma who always made "cobbler" with a top crust and a bottom crust but she just used pie crust, so to me, that was a pie!

Annie

Ollaberry pie - Central Coast CA. Have fields of berries grown here. Pick them yourself at Gizdich Ranch.
Clare

Here is a link that might be useful: Gizdich Ranch

Oh, wow! Clare, I haven't had them since I was 8, but SOOO good!

Thanks, Lou, to me, it didn't seem creamy enough to be a cream cheese-based cheesecake, that's why I said ricotta. Termini Brothers still makes a version, next time I'm at Reading Terminal, I'll ask. Or at one of the bakeries in Mayfair.

Diane:

Have a bite!!!
Lou

Gotta agree with Pllog- Frozen yogurts, ice creams, and fruits like berries or melons scream southern CA. Frankly, we love See's and would choose it for dessert, but it probably doesn't qualify as one.