The Best Crucian Johnny Cake Recipe - Shhh... It's Top-Secret! (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.

Johnny cakes were first mentioned in print in 1793 in Amelia Simmons' American Cookery. They are traditionally made with ground flint corn and consist of ground cornmeal, boiling water and salt.

Johnny cake, also known as hoe cake, is essentially a cornmeal flatbread. Some say the name hoe cake is a reference to cooking the cakes on the blades of a garden hoe; others believe it's because the griddle used to cook the cakes was called a “hoe.”

There are 134 calories in 1 piece of Johnnycake. * The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet.

Making a moist cake starts with the cake mix. If a recipe calls for all-purpose flour, opt for cake flour instead to create a more moist, tender crumb. Additions like sour cream, buttermilk, or applesauce can also infuse moisture and prevent a dry cake.

"They were used for survival, but they have maintained their place in Rhode Island because they are delicious," says Ben Drumm, co-owner of Kenyon's Grist Mill in Usquepaug, Rhode Island. The mill has ground the cornmeal used in jonnycakes and another traditional regional dish, Indian pudding, since 1886.

This cake originates with the Shawnees, who would cook a corn patty on a hot stone, that they would then take with them on day-long expeditions. Upon meeting them, European settlers noticed that this snack could keep for several days and was easily enough to feed a man on long journeys.

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.

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.

It turns out, "hoe cake," or "hoecake" and "Johnny cake," or "jonnycake," are regional names for the same dish. They differ from pancakes only in one ingredient – they are made with cornmeal rather than flour. Early recipes called only for ground cornmeal, salt and boiling water. The mix was then fried into cakes.

What is a Johnny cake slang? ›

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

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 Americans to a cake made of Indian corn (maize)."

*These Johnny Cakes have 300 calories and 3 grams of sugar per serving compared to the full-sugar version which have 310 calories and 6 grams of sugar per serving.

Drake's Devil Dogs, Creme Filled Devils Food Cakes (2 cakes) contains 55g total carbs, 53g net carbs, 15g fat, 3g protein, and 370 calories.

Now my cake is too dry

Maybe you've over baked it, or didn't use enough liquid/ not enough eggs, if the recipe says use large eggs and you haven't got large, use an extra egg, size matters! Using too much raising agents will also make for a dry cake.

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.