Caribbean Johnny Cakes Recipe on Food52 (2024)

FAQs

Why are my Johnny Cakes hard? ›

Although the ingredients may be simple, one ingredient plays a huge role in this recipe. If you have the wrong measurements for the baking powder then everything will go wrong. I remember my johnny cakes coming out hard as a rock because I added too much baking powder.

A modern johnnycake is fried cornmeal gruel, which is made from yellow or white cornmeal mixed with salt and hot water or milk, and sometimes sweetened. In the Southern United States, the term used is hoecake, although this can also refer to cornbread fried in a pan.

A Johnny cake recipe makes a thinner batter that is fried into rounds, essentially making cornmeal pancakes. Cornbread is made with baking soda or baking powder to give it a bread-like lift and texture and is oven-baked in a baking dish and cut into squares for serving.

A johnnycake is a Caribbean version of a fried dumpling. It was originally called a journey cake because it was made and packed as a lunch and snack for enslaved people about to embark on long journeys. The dough is pretty basic: flour, baking powder, a little sugar, some salt, butter, and water.

Three layers of white sponge cake, filled with whipped cream and banana. Covered with chocolate sauce topped with a banana slice.

An Elvis Presley cake is a single-layer classic yellow cake that's topped with a pineapple glaze. Much like a poke cake, the syrup and juices of the pineapple will seep into the cake through fork holes, resulting in a decadent, ultra-moist cake.

These thin, fried cakes are made with cornmeal, and their history goes back to the early Native Americans. While the origin of the name remains uncertain, many historians believe they were called 'Shawnee cakes' by the Pawtuxet Indians, and English settlers mispronounced it as 'jonnycakes. '

A molasses cornbread topped with agave. Barbara Robinson. PASTRIES - Cakes.

cornbread usually cooked pancake-style on a griddle (chiefly New England)

The settlers took it all over the islands of the Caribbean, and after several linguistic and cultural modifications, it became also just as well-known under the name of Johnny cake. Historians also believe that “janiken”, a Native American word meaning “corn bread” could also be at the root of this cake.

What is a fun fact about Johnny Cakes? ›

The word is likely based on the word Jonakin, recorded in New England in 1765, itself derived from the word jannock, recorded in Northern England in the sixteenth century. According to Edward Ellis Morris, the term was the name given "... by the [American] negroes to a cake made of Indian corn (maize)."

Traditionally coming from the island of Antigua and Barbuda, you'll find the Caribbean Johnny cakes being eaten for breakfast, served alongside an Antiguan-style 'full English'. Lunch is also popular as they are great for dipping into soups and curries or as a sandwich with cheese for a British twist (mature is best).

In the Caribbean, our traditional wedding cakes would be made with fruit and laced with rum. Chocolate, carrot, ginger, passion fruit, lemon, red velvet – wedding cake flavours are now boundless and certainly reflect the characters and tastes of the couple.

Usually the bottom and/or edges tend to get hard if a cake is overbaked. You can also try using simple syrup to soak the cake layers or top of the cake to make it little soft. Poke holes in top with a toothpick. The drizzle heated brandy or whiskey over the top.

Over mixing acts on the gluten in flour and will make cakes hard instead of the lovely soft spongy texture we associate with a good cake. Insufficient creaming of sugar and eggs will also make a tight texture because there isn't enough air trapped in the mix to give it a lift.

How do you moisten a dry cake? If your cake turned out a bit dry, consider brushing it with a simple syrup glaze, adding your favorite frosting, coating it with fresh whipped cream, or filling your cake with a moisture-rich addition like jam, mousse, or pudding.

If you mix incorrect measurements of sugar, butter, and eggs, the cake will become rubbery. You will notice that you have overmixed, the batter when the dough produces a smooth or watery texture. When the dough is overmixed, the air bubbles trapped in the mixture will be lost.