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Recipe: Cherokee blueberry honey cake

May 28, 2012 11 Comments Filed Under: American, Baking, Food, Gardens, Recipes, Road trips

 

I always played the Indian in the children’s game ‘Cowboys and Indians’. In movies, I wanted those underdogs to win. I learnt the evocative names of the tribes: Cherokee, Apache, Comanche, Navajo, Cheyenne, are just a few. They represented romance, rebellion, resistance, dignity, tradition, purity of culture. I used to see a Western every week at Saturday Morning Pictures. Do kids still play Cowboys and Indians?

One summer I backpacked around New Mexico, hitching a ride to visit the Acoma pueblo ‘mesa’, a 365-foot flat-topped mountain arising from the dessert. A few Native Americans live there all year round but thousands of tourists visit each year.

We looked around the traditional buildings, the people and the craft shops. In one shop a large friendly red-faced American tourist naively asked a tiny shrivelled Native American lady how old she was. Her reply was scathing “How dare you ask me how old I am. How dare you come here and insult me like this. You are talking down to me, this is typical of the white man, patronising us”. The hapless tourist gabbled apologies. It was embarrassing and awkward.

Her anger punctured our cheerful curiosity about their mesa village. We suddenly became aware that we were interlopers, that they didn’t like us, that we were there on sufferance, so that they could make money to survive.

I’m still fascinated by Native American life; I’d love to spend some time in a teepee, naff thought that might be nowadays. The architecture of the teepee is particularly feminine; many Native Indian tribes are matrilineal. The teepee field at Glastonbury always inspires and I often go there during the festival to have some chai, listen to guitar, by the fireside as dawn breaks.
For this Secret Garden Club I researched Native American food, starting with the planting trio ‘Three sisters’: corn, beans and squash. Foods they ate were mainly corn-based but also included tomatillos (husk tomatoes), berries (Sumac made ‘Indian lemonade’), acorn flour and oil, game and fish, wild potato, Yucca, Squash and zuccini, watermelon, turkeys, maple syrup and pinon nuts.
To find out more about companion planting such as the Three Sisters go here.

Menu:
Corn whisky (Jim Beam with coke)
Cornmeal tacos with marinated salmon, fresh and smoked
Cornbread in a skillet
Tomato and spring onion salsa
Succotash using @zia_mays home-grown borlotti beans
Roast squash with maple syrup and sumac
Cherokee blueberry honey cake
Here is the recipe for the Cherokee Blueberry Honey cake (sounds like the name of a pop stars progeny), it worked very well. The original recipe was with ‘huckleberries’ but those being rather thin on the ground in North-West London, I replaced them with blueberries. I was told by a guest that huckleberries* aren’t actually very nice!
Print

Cherokee Blueberry Honey Cake

Here is the recipe for the Cherokee Blueberry Honey cake, it worked very well. The original recipe was with 'huckleberries' but those being thin on the ground in North-West London, I replaced them with blueberries. I was told by a guest that huckleberries* aren't actually very nice! 
Course Afternoon Tea, Dessert
Cuisine Cherokee, Native American
Keyword Blueberry cake, Honey cake
Serves 10

Ingredients

  • 120 g butter, room temperature
  • 120 g caster sugar
  • 200 g honey
  • 3 eggs, beaten
  • 125 ml whole milk
  • 140 g white flour
  • 70 g wholewheat flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon of salt
  • 380 g. fresh blueberries

Instructions

  • Preheat your oven to 175c or bake in the Aga baking oven, bottom shelf.
  • Cream the butter, sugar and honey together.
  • Beat in the eggs and milk.
  • Once well combined, sift in the white flour, wholewheat flour, baking powder and salt. Mix well.
  • Dust the fresh blueberries with a tablespoon of flour then fold them in gently with the batter. I reserved a cupful and sprinkled them on top.
  • I tipped the mixture into a lined loaf tin and baked for 45 minutes. In a conventional oven it may take an hour.
  • Keep an eye to make sure the top isn't burning, if it is, cover it with foil.
  • It's done when you test with a metal skewer and it comes out clean.
  • This cake was beautifully moist and not too sweet.
  • Dust with icing sugar (I use a tea strainer as a mini sieve).

*Don’t make the mistake I once did in an American cafe and order a ‘dingleberry’ pie.

The next Secret Garden Club (workshop, supper and bouquet) is on the subject on edible flowers: how to grow them and which ones can you eat. Book here: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/157921 £45

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Chili products

    May 28, 2012 at 1:15 pm

    I love this yummy cake. This is really delicious. It is soft & can be made easily. Thanks for this sharing.

    Reply
  2. Pille

    May 29, 2012 at 5:17 am

    I love the colours of the first photo – almost out-of-this-world!!

    Reply
  3. Mamacook

    May 29, 2012 at 8:33 pm

    Would LOVE to go to Seville. On my list of places to go to very soon.

    Reply
  4. Katy

    June 26, 2012 at 8:00 am

    That looks absolutely delicious. I have bookmarked and will be attempting it soon. Thank you!

    Reply
  5. Pamela Takeshige

    April 25, 2015 at 5:52 am

    Huckleberries are like mini blueberries. And if they are ripe, they are very good. I have picked them on top of a mountain where they grow,… Wild. My brother carried a gun, because the Grizzlies eat them too. And often come to the spot where we were!!

    Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers aka MsMarmiteLover

      May 2, 2015 at 5:01 am

      Hi Pamela
      I've since seen huckleberries when I visited Alaska, Seattle and Portland and they do look very good. It sounds so romantic, grizzlies and wild huckleberries! Thanks for commenting

      Reply
  6. Karunesh Potdar

    April 15, 2020 at 11:55 am

    Hey…
    I tried this recipe in my home as your steps you write in this article and this is so easy to make this recipe. It is amazing to make and very interesting.
    Very useful and helpful for me to make recipes like that very easily in my home.
    Thank You!!!

    Reply
  7. Shawna

    November 16, 2020 at 5:00 pm

    I grew up, and still love in, huckleberry country. For me: blueberries are the tame, watered down cousin of the huckleberry. Blueberries are less expensive to buy and easier to obtain though.

    Reply
  8. Jenna

    November 17, 2023 at 1:40 am

    I bet the cake tastes fine but I don’t see the connection to the Cherokee people.

    Reply
    • msmarmitelover

      November 17, 2023 at 4:57 pm

      Did you read the post? The original recipe used huckleberries but you can’t find them in London.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Cherokee Tribe – Native American Culture Festival says:
    November 16, 2023 at 5:28 pm

    […] Blueberry honey cake: They used to gather many different types of berries, traditionally huckleberries and they would make a dough and bake it with the berries they found. […]

    Reply

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MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

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