Monday, August 3, 2009

Hummingbird Cake


This week we made Hummingbird Cake for the group My Girl, Paula. I've seen this cake made by other people but have never tried to make it myself. It has pineapple and banana in the batter, and since I love both, I was really excited to try it.

The cake was very quick and easy to put together. The worst part is dividing the batter between three pans, which I didn't have. I just had two pans, so I had to bake them in two batches. All of mine were done at the very minimum time - 23 minutes. And upon tasting, they seemed just a tiny bit on the dry side, as if they were overdone. So next time I'd check them a few minutes early.


The frosting is a typical cream cheese frosting, which reminded me of eating carrot cake. It was such delicious frosting and spread really easily. The cake was really good and totally gorgeous... and HUGE. Half of it is still sitting in my fridge and I'm not sure how it's going to get finished in the next few days. Guess I better get to work and have another piece, right? :-)


Hummingbird Cake
(from Paula Deen)

3 cups all purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
3 large eggs, beaten
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)
1 3/4 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 to 4 bananas)
8 oz. can crushed pineapple, with juice
1 and 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 pound confectioners’ sugar

Frosting:
8 oz. package cream cheese at room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter at room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350ยบ F. Grease and flour three 9-inch round cake pans.

2. Stir together the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add the eggs and oil and stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Do NOT beat. Stir in the banana, pineapple and its juice, pecans, and vanilla. Divide the batter among the prepared pans and bake for 23-28 minutes, or until tooth pick in center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in pan, then turn out onto racks to cool completely.

3. While the cake cools, blend together cream cheese and butter. Gradually add the powdered sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla. Stir in the pecans, or reserve them to sprinkle over the frosted cake. Fill and frost the cake.

9 comments:

Krystal said...

Looks beautiful! I love how moist this cake was.

and I had a slice for breakfast, because well, it was like eating banana bread! :)

Tina Butler said...

Looks good. I to did not have 3 round cake pans. I use the two I had and poured the remaining batter into my spring form pan, it worked out perfect. Your frosting looks so fluffy.

Anonymous said...

Your cake looks beautiful with those swirls of frosting! The pineapple and banana combo sounds delicious.

Pamela said...

Tough job, eating cake! But, someones gotta do it, right? Really, this cake looks so yummy!

Kim said...

Love the clean look of your cake with the swirls. It looks beautiful! Sounds like you and your family have to figure out a plan on how to eat up that cake! Darn, that's awfully tough ;)

Anonymous said...

Glad you liked it! Yours looks beautiful. We loved it at my house, too.

TeaLady said...

Love Hummingbird Cake. Have you ever tried Martha's?? It is great.

TeaLady said...

I forgot - yours looks delicious.

Donna-FFW said...

I am so out to try this cake. Yours came out beautifully!