Last Thursday was my dad's birthday, and I drove down for the week to
visit (and clear fences, and clean gutters, and cut limbs, and...)
Anyway, my brother decided to make a Hummingbird Cake (famous cake
recipe from _Southern Living_ magazine) and he found the recipe online
and bought the ingredients. But then he wasn't feeling well and he
asked me to bake it. He gave me the recipe that he printed-out from
Saveur.com (I just found the link:
http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipe...ake-1000070102 )

He said that he found the *identical* recipe at several other recipe
sites, so he was pretty sure it was the original. He also said each
site claimed the recipe as their very own.

The instructions looked a little strange and hard to follow, but I did
my best with it, especially cooking in a strange kitchen where I
didn't know where everything was. I put the pans in the oven and set
the timer for 30 minutes to check on them and turn them. The recipe
said 50 minutes, which is an awfully long time to bake, but I thought
it might be right with all that fruit in the batter.

At about 28 minutes the house started smelling like cake, so I checked
on it and the cake was not just done but maybe a little overdone. I
took them out and put on a rack. When cooled enough to handle, I
turned them out and they had fallen and felt kind of rubbery. So I
made a chocolate sheet cake as a backup in case the HB cake was a
disaster.

The HB cake actually turned out good, and I would make it again -- but
I went to bookshelf and pulled out a Southern Living Annual Recipes
from the 1980's and looked for Hummingbird Cake. It was in there.
Slightly different ingredients (like 1/2 tsp less vanilla and all
white sugar instead of a mixture of white and brown), simpler
directions that actually make sense, and it said to bake about 25 minutes.

Apparently someone took the Southern Living recipe and tweaked the
ingredients slightly, then rewrote the directions to make the recipe
"theirs" and screwed up the cooking time. Then the flawed recipe was
stolen by other web sites.

I may send a link to this post to the editors of Saveur and see if I
get a response.

Bob

On Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:21:34 -0500, zxcvbob >
wrote:

> I may send a link to this post to the editors of Saveur and see if I
> get a response.

I doubt they will follow a usenet link. Why not adjust the post and
send it to them as a comment on the recipe?

--

Never trust a dog to watch your food.

"zxcvbob" > wrote in message
...
> Last Thursday was my dad's birthday, and I drove down for the week to
> visit (and clear fences, and clean gutters, and cut limbs, and...) Anyway,
> my brother decided to make a Hummingbird Cake (famous cake recipe from
> _Southern Living_ magazine) and he found the recipe online and bought the
> ingredients. But then he wasn't feeling well and he asked me to bake it.
> He gave me the recipe that he printed-out from Saveur.com (I just found
> the link:
> http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipe...ake-1000070102 )
>
> He said that he found the *identical* recipe at several other recipe
> sites, so he was pretty sure it was the original. He also said each site
> claimed the recipe as their very own.
>
> The instructions looked a little strange and hard to follow, but I did my
> best with it, especially cooking in a strange kitchen where I didn't know
> where everything was. I put the pans in the oven and set the timer for 30
> minutes to check on them and turn them. The recipe said 50 minutes, which
> is an awfully long time to bake, but I thought it might be right with all
> that fruit in the batter.
>
> At about 28 minutes the house started smelling like cake, so I checked on
> it and the cake was not just done but maybe a little overdone. I took
> them out and put on a rack. When cooled enough to handle, I turned them
> out and they had fallen and felt kind of rubbery. So I made a chocolate
> sheet cake as a backup in case the HB cake was a disaster.
>
> The HB cake actually turned out good, and I would make it again -- but I
> went to bookshelf and pulled out a Southern Living Annual Recipes from the
> 1980's and looked for Hummingbird Cake. It was in there. Slightly
> different ingredients (like 1/2 tsp less vanilla and all white sugar
> instead of a mixture of white and brown), simpler directions that actually
> make sense, and it said to bake about 25 minutes.
>
> Apparently someone took the Southern Living recipe and tweaked the
> ingredients slightly, then rewrote the directions to make the recipe
> "theirs" and screwed up the cooking time. Then the flawed recipe was
> stolen by other web sites.
>
> I may send a link to this post to the editors of Saveur and see if I get a
> response.

Well done you! My nose is always a good indicator of something being ready
too.


--
--
https://www.shop.helpforheroes.org.uk/

"zxcvbob" > wrote in message
...
> Last Thursday was my dad's birthday, and I drove down for the week to
> visit (and clear fences, and clean gutters, and cut limbs, and...) Anyway,
> my brother decided to make a Hummingbird Cake (famous cake recipe from
> _Southern Living_ magazine) and he found the recipe online and bought the
> ingredients. But then he wasn't feeling well and he asked me to bake it.
> He gave me the recipe that he printed-out from Saveur.com (I just found
> the link:
> http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipe...ake-1000070102 )
>
> He said that he found the *identical* recipe at several other recipe
> sites, so he was pretty sure it was the original. He also said each site
> claimed the recipe as their very own.
>
> The instructions looked a little strange and hard to follow, but I did my
> best with it, especially cooking in a strange kitchen where I didn't know
> where everything was. I put the pans in the oven and set the timer for 30
> minutes to check on them and turn them. The recipe said 50 minutes, which
> is an awfully long time to bake, but I thought it might be right with all
> that fruit in the batter.
>
> At about 28 minutes the house started smelling like cake, so I checked on
> it and the cake was not just done but maybe a little overdone. I took
> them out and put on a rack. When cooled enough to handle, I turned them
> out and they had fallen and felt kind of rubbery. So I made a chocolate
> sheet cake as a backup in case the HB cake was a disaster.
>
> The HB cake actually turned out good, and I would make it again -- but I
> went to bookshelf and pulled out a Southern Living Annual Recipes from the
> 1980's and looked for Hummingbird Cake. It was in there. Slightly
> different ingredients (like 1/2 tsp less vanilla and all white sugar
> instead of a mixture of white and brown), simpler directions that actually
> make sense, and it said to bake about 25 minutes.
>
> Apparently someone took the Southern Living recipe and tweaked the
> ingredients slightly, then rewrote the directions to make the recipe
> "theirs" and screwed up the cooking time. Then the flawed recipe was
> stolen by other web sites.
>
> I may send a link to this post to the editors of Saveur and see if I get a
> response.
>
> Bob

I'd send the 'tweaked' (aka 'screwed up') version to FoodBanter.
-ginny

"Ophelia" > wrote in message
...
>
>
> "zxcvbob" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Last Thursday was my dad's birthday, and I drove down for the week to
>> visit (and clear fences, and clean gutters, and cut limbs, and...)
>> Anyway, my brother decided to make a Hummingbird Cake (famous cake recipe
>> from _Southern Living_ magazine) and he found the recipe online and
>> bought the ingredients. But then he wasn't feeling well and he asked me
>> to bake it. He gave me the recipe that he printed-out from Saveur.com (I
>> just found the link:
>> http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipe...ake-1000070102 )
>>
>> He said that he found the *identical* recipe at several other recipe
>> sites, so he was pretty sure it was the original. He also said each site
>> claimed the recipe as their very own.
>>
>> The instructions looked a little strange and hard to follow, but I did my
>> best with it, especially cooking in a strange kitchen where I didn't know
>> where everything was. I put the pans in the oven and set the timer for
>> 30 minutes to check on them and turn them. The recipe said 50 minutes,
>> which is an awfully long time to bake, but I thought it might be right
>> with all that fruit in the batter.
>>
>> At about 28 minutes the house started smelling like cake, so I checked on
>> it and the cake was not just done but maybe a little overdone. I took
>> them out and put on a rack. When cooled enough to handle, I turned them
>> out and they had fallen and felt kind of rubbery. So I made a chocolate
>> sheet cake as a backup in case the HB cake was a disaster.
>>
>> The HB cake actually turned out good, and I would make it again -- but I
>> went to bookshelf and pulled out a Southern Living Annual Recipes from
>> the 1980's and looked for Hummingbird Cake. It was in there. Slightly
>> different ingredients (like 1/2 tsp less vanilla and all white sugar
>> instead of a mixture of white and brown), simpler directions that
>> actually make sense, and it said to bake about 25 minutes.
>>
>> Apparently someone took the Southern Living recipe and tweaked the
>> ingredients slightly, then rewrote the directions to make the recipe
>> "theirs" and screwed up the cooking time. Then the flawed recipe was
>> stolen by other web sites.
>>
>> I may send a link to this post to the editors of Saveur and see if I get
>> a response.
>
> Well done you! My nose is always a good indicator of something being
> ready too.

I was just going to say the same thing. I used to bake and decorate wedding
cakes and I'd check them the first second I could smell cake.

sueb wrote:
>
> Why is it called Hummingbird cake?
>
> Susan (can you tell I'm not from the South) B.


Nobody knows. :-) The etymology has been lost.

Bob

On Fri, 3 Sep 2010 12:18:22 -0700 (PDT), sueb >
wrote:

> Why is it called Hummingbird cake?

It's probably a variation on "eat like a bird". My mom used to say "I
eat like a bird, a peck at a time". To understand the joke, you'd
have to remember that there are four pecks to a bushel.

--

Never trust a dog to watch your food.

On 9/3/2010 8:25 PM, Stu wrote:

> Hey Janet, when is your next cruise?

Hi Stu,

We are cruising out of Galveston in January on Voyager. We're
celebrating our 25th anniversary.

Cruise after that is in June 2011 and we'll be on a river barge on the
Volga from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Thinking of doing a Celebrety from
San Diego to Hawaii in 2012. Considering doing an on board booking in
January so we can get the perks on Celebrity.

When's yours?
--
Janet Wilder
Way-the-heck-south Texas
Spelling doesn't count. Cooking does.

On Fri, 3 Sep 2010 13:09:40 -0400, Virginia Tadrzynski wrote:

> "zxcvbob" > wrote in message
>>
>> Apparently someone took the Southern Living recipe and tweaked the
>> ingredients slightly, then rewrote the directions to make the recipe
>> "theirs" and screwed up the cooking time. Then the flawed recipe was
>> stolen by other web sites.
>>
>> I may send a link to this post to the editors of Saveur and see if I get a
>> response.
>>
>> Bob
>
> I'd send the 'tweaked' (aka 'screwed up') version to FoodBanter.
> -ginny

tee-hee.

your pal,
blake

Janet Wilder > wrote:

> Cruise after that is in June 2011 and we'll be on a river barge on the
> Volga from Moscow to St. Petersburg.

Heh. We (generic "we") used to discuss this particular geography:
<http://groups.google.com/group/rec.food.cooking/msg/b76ad74fa2dd60e0>.

Try to get a good sterlet dish out there somewhere. Sterlet, a
sturgeon, is probably the most highly prized freshwater fish of them
all, whether by itself or in a clear fish soup (ukha). The Volga is
overfished, though, and outlawing all commercial fishing there is
apparently being seriously considered.

Victor

On 9/4/2010 11:24 AM, Stu wrote:
> On Fri, 03 Sep 2010 22:16:14 -0500, Janet Wilder
> > wrote:
>
>> On 9/3/2010 8:25 PM, Stu wrote:
>>
>>> Hey Janet, when is your next cruise?
>>
>> Hi Stu,
>>
>> We are cruising out of Galveston in January on Voyager. We're
>> celebrating our 25th anniversary.
>>
>> Cruise after that is in June 2011 and we'll be on a river barge on the
>> Volga from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Thinking of doing a Celebrety from
>> San Diego to Hawaii in 2012. Considering doing an on board booking in
>> January so we can get the perks on Celebrity.
>>
>> When's yours?
>
>
> We've tossed around the Sept. 2011 sailing of the MS Nikolay
> Chernyshevsky from Moscow to St. Petersburg celebrating Kath's
> retirement, haven't decided yet.

What company is that? We looked at Viking but their pricing is so
hokey. They make you think that you are getting a two for one bargain
when it's their regular price. They also charge xtra for wine unless you
pay the whole bill in advance on their schedule. When we learned of the
newly rebuilt boat that AMA was putting on the Volga next year, we
decided to take it. Cabins are quite large and this boat is being
rebuilt from the metal hull on up. You have to look carefully at the
Russian boats. Many of them have really tiny cabins with bunks in the
wall and teeny bathrooms with wet baths.
But we are booked on the Miracle
> from Ft. Lauderdale with stops in GrandTurk, Catalina Island,
> Dominican Rep, Aruba, Curacao , and back to Ft Lauderdale in Feb. 2012
> (8 days). Because we usually go Carnival we've already got bumped from
> inside to a balcony.

that sounds great. You have to do over 10 cruises with Carnival for the
lowest status, right? You must have a bunch of Carnival cruises under
your belt.

> I've been told that a flight fron LA to Hawaii is $99 one way, $209
> return, first we'd have to get to LA then connect to the hawaii
> flight. My sister has been there about a dozen times so she knows
> where all the reasonable spots to stay are.
>

We can fly from home to San Diego on Southwest. The ship comes back to
San Diego so it would be a round trip. We were in Kauai in 2001 and
loved it, but we wanted to see the other islands and I'm a huge sucker
for days and days at sea. My favorite cruise was the transatlantic fro
Barcelona to Galveston we did last year.

Carnival is running a San Diego to San Diego to Hawaii in April of
2012,also. Our friends are going on it.

--
Janet Wilder
Way-the-heck-south Texas
Spelling doesn't count. Cooking does.