Hummingbird Cake

Posted Mon, 2010-03-22 17:04 by Emily Caryl

Hummingbird Cake is one of my favorite cakes.  It's easy.  It's moist.  It tastes like a cross between banana bread and a spice cake.  And, when I take it to a potluck, people always ask if it really has hummingbirds in it.  "Yes," I reply emphatically, "and those little boogers are hard to catch!"

This is another one of my mom's recipes.  It comes from her Presbyterian church cookbook.  I'm no Pioneer Woman either, so I hope you're not expecting a step-by-step photo montage.  I will, however, share the recipe:

Hummingbird Cake

4 hummingbirds, plucked and skinned (if you can catch them)
3 cups plain flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups Crisco oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
8 oz can crushed pineapple, undrained
2 cups bananas, chopped
1 cup pecans, chopped

Frosting:
8 oz cream cheese
1 stick oleo
1 box powdered sugar (3 1/4 cups)
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup pecans, chopped

DO NOT MIX WITH MIXER, MIX BY HAND.  Combine flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.  Add beaten eggs and oil and stir until dry ingredients are moistened.  Stir in vanilla, pineapple (with juice), bananas, and pecans.  Bake at 350° for 25 to 30 minutes in three greased and floured pans.

For frosting:  Soften and combine the cream cheese and oleo, then add sugar, vanilla, and pecans (save some to sprinkle on top).

The recipe really does insist - in all capital letters - that the cake must be mixed by hand.  I don't know what would happen if you mixed the batter in a KitchenAid mixer on low.  I'm pretty sure the Earth would immediately stop spinning on its axis.  So for goodness sake, please mix by hand.

Here are a few areas where I deviate from the original recipe:

• I don't think "Crisco" oil is a requirement.  I use bulk soy oil from The Coop and that seems to work just fine.
• I use mashed bananas instead of chopped.  I'll let you in on my little banana secret.  When I have a couple brown bananas, I mash them up with a potato masher, put them in a pint jar, and stash them in the freezer.  One pint jar holds two cups of mashed bananas (or two cups of anything for that matter).  Then when I want to make banana bread (or hummingbird cake) I place the frozen jar in a pot of nearly-boiling water until the bananas thaw.  Viola!  The exact amount of mashed banana necessary for bread or cake.
• I only make two cake layers instead of three.  I don't happen to own three cake pans of the same size.  For two layers, you'll need to increase the baking time by about ten minutes.
• "Oleo" is butter.  I called my mom and asked.
• I don't actually mix the pecans in with the frosting.  It seems like that would make it really difficult to spread.  Instead, I just sprinkle a few handfuls on top.

The finished cake (drum roll please):

Yummy!

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