The past four weeks were busy legislative weeks in Maryland as lawmakers in Annapolis debated which dessert should be named the official state dessert. 

After much heated discourse over the fate of Maryland's identity, the legislature presented a bill which elevated the Smith Island Layer Cake to iconic status to Maryland's Governor, Martin O'Malley, to sign yesterday. 

He was bribed into signing when the bill's sponsors presented him with two nine-layer yellow cakes with chocolate frosting.  The bribe proved too much to resist.  O'Malley, helpless in the presence of the chocolate monstrosity, signed the bill into law.

Bay Weekly summed the heated debate up nicely: 

"In the midst of decrying taxes, circumscribing windmills and regulating recycling, Maryland state government took time out for cake. They weren’t on a break, however. The delegates and state senators of Maryland cut their forks through eight layers of chocolate-frosted yellow cake to determine whether Smith Island Cake deserves the title of State Dessert.

This frosted piece of legislation may seem like a debate more suited to after-dinner conversation. But for all who spoke at the hearings for House Bill 315 and Senate Bill 287, Smith Island Cake is serious business.

“In the Senate you only had two [state title] bills; one was the cake bill and one was the walking bill,” explained HB 315 sponsor Delegate Elmore. “In the House, you had the cake bill, the walking bill, the bee bill, the American Indian bill, the charter bill and two or three more projects. I think the chairman [Peter Hammen], thought we had too many bills or whatnot. We’re a little slow, but it’s better than no vote at all.”

“Frankly I was reluctant to introduce this, but I saw the light,” Senator J. Lowell Stoltzfus told the committee. Responding to claims that the bill was trivial, Stoltzfus pointed to precedent. “We have a state cat and a state bird. What could it hurt to say, now we have a state cake? A delicious, delectable cake.”