bird Despite the name, no hummingbirds are incorporated into
this tasty cake. The cake consists of two to three layers of
pecans, mashed bananas and crushed pineapple covered in
cream cheese frosting.
The confection is believed to have originated in Jamaica,
where it was called Doctor Bird cake after the national bird of
the island, a colorful swallowtail member of the hummingbird
family. The cake was so sweet it could attract hummingbirds. An
alternate version says that the cake is so delicious it makes you
hum with happiness.
Doctor Bird cake became Doctor Byrd cake in the Southern
United States, where Byrd was a popular family name, and from
there became the more generic hummingbird cake we know
today.
It has, in the past number of years, gained celebrity status as
Oprah Winfrey’s most requested cake from her personal chef,
Art Smith. Smith reportedly also made his now- famous hum-mingbird
cake for Maya Angelou’s 75th birthday and says it is
the most requested dessert item on the menu at his Chicago
restaurant, Blue Door Kitchen and Garden.
WBM december 2017 88
REDvelvet
In the words of Atlanta food writer Angie Mosier, “It’s the Dolly Parton of
cakes: a little bit tacky but you love her!”
Christmas simply wouldn’t be Christmas in the South without a red velvet
cake. A real red velvet is not too sweet and slightly tangy. Moist layers of crim-son,
a subtle hint of cocoa and a buttermilk batter with cream cheese frosting
give this cake its distinctive taste.
No one knows exactly when and where red velvet cake originated.
Southerners claim it came about during the Civil War, but New Yorkers say it
was invented in the 1950s at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria.
The dispute might arise because red velvet cake was not born red. The color
may seem important today, but recipes dating back to the late 1800s make no
mention of the color red — velvet was a reference to the texture. Recipes called
for the use of cocoa to soften the flour and make the cakes as smooth as velvet.
Chemists, bakers and historians still debate whether the dance between
cocoa and acid gave the cakes a hint of red. Others believe the name simply
came from the brown sugar that was used, which was commonly referred to as
red sugar.
Red velvet cake showed up in the 1989 Southern-based movie “Steel
Magnolias” (based on the stage play by American writer Robert Harling) as an
armadillo-shaped groom’s cake with the unmistakable red interior, helping it
emerge as one of America’s favorites.
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