• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
✮ The Food Dictator ✮

The Hirshon Ruby-Throated Hummingbird Cake

August 7, 2018 by The Generalissimo Leave a Comment

119
SHARES
FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditWhatsappYummly
Light Dark Dark Light
()
The Hirshon Ruby-Throated Hummingbird Cake
Hummingbird Cake Image Used Under Creative Commons License From pinterest.com

My Citizens, the always sweet and rarely sour paragon of culinary excellence – the impassioned TFD! – is a huge fan of all southern heirloom desserts. Few are as toothsomely satisfying as Hummingbird cake, and I will share now with you an almost completely lost version of it, known as Ruby-Throated Hummingbird cake, using red grapefruit to take the sweet edge off the cake!

This version does not include the banana of the classic, but I believe it is even better with the addition of strawberries, as the recipe uses these for the “ruby throat”. 🙂

The classic version of the Hummingbird cake is a banana-pineapple spice cake common in the Southern United States. Ingredients include flour, sugar, salt, vegetable oil, ripe banana, pineapple, cinnamon, pecans, vanilla extract, eggs, and leavening agent. It is often served with cream cheese frosting. The cake has been a tradition in Southern cuisine since the mid-19th century.

Created on the island of Jamaica, hummingbird cake was named after the island’s national bird, where it is also known as the Doctor Bird cake (Doctor Bird is another name for the island’s national bird).

In 1979, the Jamaica Tourist Board exported the recipe for hummingbird cake, along with other local Jamaican recipes, in media press kits sent to the USA. The marketing was aimed at American consumers to get them to come to the island.

As printed in the March 29, 1979 issue of the Kingston Daily Gleaner (Jamaica), “Press kits presented included Jamaican menu modified for American kitchens, and featured recipes like the doctor bird cake, made from bananas.”

One of the first known publications of the recipe in US print, as written by L.H. Wiggin, was in the February 1978 issue of Southern Living. The cake won the Favorite Cake Award later that same year at the Kentucky State Fair.

It was selected Southern Living’s favorite recipe in 1990 and was noted as the most requested recipe in the magazine’s history. The cake typically has two or three layers with pecans (or walnuts), mashed bananas, crushed pineapple and cream cheese frosting.

It is unknown who came up with the ruby-throated variant, but it appears to be sadly an almost lost version – there isn’t even a single picture of it on the Web (thus the reason for the classic Hummingbird cake image I was forced to use).

I hope you enjoy this lost heirloom recipe as much as I do, Citizens! 🙂 My one tweak to the classic recipe? I add some fresh vanilla bean seeds to the rum in the filling – I find it really adds something to the final dish!

Battle on – The Generalissimo

Print
clock clock iconcutlery cutlery iconflag flag iconfolder folder iconinstagram instagram iconpinterest pinterest iconfacebook facebook iconprint print iconsquares squares iconheart heart iconheart solid heart solid icon
The Hirshon Ruby-Throated Hummingbird Cake

The Hirshon Ruby-Throated Hummingbird Cake


★★★★

4 from 3 reviews

  • Total Time: 0 hours
Print Recipe
Pin Recipe

Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 1 1/2 cups Flour
  • 3 tbsp. Baking powder
  • 1 pinch Salt
  • 1/3 cup Sugar
  • 1/2 cup Vegetable oil
  • 6 Egg yolks
  • 1 can (8oz) crushed pineapple
  • 2 tbsp. Lemon juice
  • 6 x Egg whites
  • 1 pinch Cream of tartar
  • 1/2 cup Sugar
  • ***
  • Filling:
  • 1/2 cup Water
  • 1 1/2 tbsp. Cornstarch
  • 1/3 cup Sugar
  • 2 tbsp. White rum + the seeds of 1 split Tahitian vanilla bean – TFD prefers Appleton white rum with its tart grapefruit aftertaste as the perfect complement
  • 1 cup chopped strawberries
  • Icing:
  • 1/2 cup Butter
  • 1 pk (8oz) cream cheese
  • 1 tsp. Vanilla extract
  • 1 lb. Confectioners sugar
  • Milk
  • 1 med. sweet red grapefruit
  • Fresh edible flowers (TFD prefers rose petals and violets)

Instructions

  1. Cake: In a mixer or food processor sift together the flour, baking powder, salt & sugar. Blend in oil, egg yolk, pineapple & lemon juice & mix well. In a separate bowl beat egg whites, cream of tartar & sugar until very stiff.
  2. Fold the cake mix into the egg white mixture & stir until well blended. Pour the mixture into an ungreased 10″ tube pan & bake at 350 for 1 hour. Remove from oven & cool upside down on rack. When cooled remove to serving plate.
  3. Filling: Stir cornstarch into the cold water & heat gently in saucepan until it starts to thicken. Stir in the sugar & rum. Beat until smooth & shiny. Stir in the chopped strawberries.
  4. Icing: In a food processor combine butter, cream cheese, vanilla & confectioners’ sugar. Process to a smooth spreadable paste. Adjust the texture with a little milk if necessary.
  5. To assemble: Spoon strawberry filling into the hollow center of the cake. Spread the icing over the cake including the sides, if you are so inclined. Decorate the top with grapefruit sections & flowers.
  • Prep Time: 0 hours
  • Cook Time: 0 hours

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @thefooddictator on Pinterest, Instagram or Facebook and hashtag it #TFD

 

 

How useful was this post, Citizen?

Click to rate My Recipe, Citizen - 5 hearts are ALWAYS appreciated!

Average rating / 5. Vote count:

No votes so far! Be the first to rate this post.

As you found this post useful...

Follow us on social media, Citizen!

We are sorry that this post was not useful for you!

Let us improve this post!

Tell us how we can improve this post?

Related posts:

The Hirshon Costa Rican Christmas Tamales
The Hirshon Oceania Pavlova
The Hirshon Victorian Roast Goose with Sage, Onion & Apple Stuffing
The Hirshon Sichuan Ma La Crawfish - 麻辣小龙虾
The Hirshon Viennese Potato Salad - Wiener Erdäpfelsalat
The Hirshon 'German' Liquid Olive Spheres - Flüssige Olivenkugeln
The Hirshon South African Grilled Cheese - Braaibroodjie
Ratner's Famous Onion Rolls

Filed Under: Recipes Tagged With: Dessert

About The Generalissimo

The myth of the Generalissimo is far more interesting than the reality.

Previous Post: « Joël Robuchon’s Mashed Potatoes
Next Post: The Hirshon Scottish Tipsy Laird Trifle »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe rating ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆

Primary Sidebar

➤ Citizens – Please Support TFD Nation!

Donate to Help TFD!

⇔ Search, And Ye Shall Assuredly Find!

✮ Citizens ✮

TFD currently has a total of 1,364 posts and 1,160,868 words written since December of 2014! Add your voice to My 50,000+ dedicated readers, comment on My recipes and thus become an active member of TFD Nation! Looking for a particular recipe? Search for it in the box above or via the category tags below - there are THOUSANDS of the finest in world and historic recipes here!

❧ TREMBLE Before Our Categoric Zeal!

Appetizers (146)Beef (143)Beverages (24)Bread (112)Cheese (64)Chicken (132)Chinese (122)Chocolate (16)Condiments (262)Dessert (166)Drinks (23)Duck (20)Egg (47)Fish (56)French (56)Game (30)Georgian (34)Indian (60)Italian (58)Jewish (84)Lamb (73)Manifestos (1)Pasta (90)Pork (148)Salad (40)Sandwich (42)Seafood (84)Shrimp (53)Soup (109)Spices (12)Tofu (7)Turkey (15)Veal (18)Vegetables (108)

✺ Click to Follow Us Across Social Media!

Facebook   

    instagram

☥ TFD SPEAKS!!!

https://www.thefooddictator.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/TFD-Avatar-Cold-Open-FINAL.mp4

 Enjoy TFD’s Mellifluous Podcasts, Citizen!

Listen on Apple Podcasts

© 2023 · The Food Dictator is abjectly served by WORDPRESS

✮ The Food Dictator ✮
Manage Cookie Consent
Citizens!

Be advised that as an enlightened Dictatorship here at TFD, we are indeed on the side of right when it comes to protecting the privacy of TFD Nation!

We do use technologies such as cookies to store and/or access device information, solely to improve your browsing experience and to show personalized ads.

Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions - trust us, we really ARE on your side!

YOUR LOYALTY IS NOTED! 🎖️
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
119
SHARES
FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditMailYummly