Anyone Can Cook!: Hummingbird Cake

A sweet southern favorite, Hummingbird cake! This cake is sweet, moist and topped off with a traditional cream cheese frosting. Hummingbird cake is a pretty simple cake to make, doesn't take much time and is definitely a crowd pleaser. I opted for baking today because for the past 5 days I have been sick. I think I'm pretty much out of the feverish stage, but I'm still not feeling one hundred percent better and having a warm sweet cake to enjoy with all the hot tea I've been guzzling sounded like a good idea.

So what is hummingbird cake and where did it come from? Funny thing is no one really knows. The earliest printed recipe of hummingbird cake was published in 1978 in Southern Living Magazine by a woman known as Mrs. L.H. Wiggins. Many think the cake got its name because of its sweetness, some believe it may have originated in Jamaica, what we do know is, this cake is delicious! I turned to my favorite southern cook Paula Deen, and followed a recipe of her's I found on Martha's website. I must say it turned out just right!

Yield: One 9-inch 3 layer cake

Here's a look at some of the main ingredients. For a complete list of ingredients click on the link below.

View the full recipe here.

Although the recipe doesn't require you drain the crushed pineapple, I opted to do so. Even drained, the pineapple retains much of it's juices.

Using a food processor finely chop 1/2 a cup of pecans.

Place the pecans in a bowl and set aside. Add 2 bananas to the food processor and pulse until mashed.

Next, prep your baking pans using butter and flour. You can also line with parchment paper if you like.

Here's the easy part about Hummingbird cake, you can start combining all your ingredients into one bowl at once. No muss, no fuss. It took a lot of strength for me to fight the urge to combine the wet ingredients then the dry as is often done when baking.

I started with the flour and sugar...

Then added the remaining ingredients, pecans, bananas, pineapple, eggs, cinnamon, oil and vanilla. Stir to combine. I also added a 1/2 tsp. of allspice.

Divide the batter into your prepared pans evenly and bake at 325 degrees for about 25-30 minutes. The batter will be lumpy.

Remove cakes from the oven when an inserted knife comes out clean. Cool cakes completely.

Meanwhile prepare the cream cheese frosting and set aside.

Once your cakes have cooled, you can begin to assemble the final cake. Begin by placing the first cake on a flat surface and using a serrated knife cut the crown of the cake making the top flat and even.