Hummingbird Cake

Hi friends– Made this cake for Mothers Day with the whole big family clan– lots of aunts and uncles, great grandparents and those little cousins running around underfoot.

I enlisted my grand-girls, Charlotte and Maryann to help me bake.  They got really excited when they heard it was a “hummingbird cake!”  I’m not sure why.  And don’t worry.  No hummingbirds were harmed in the making of this cake.

It has the fruity banana taste, sweetness of the pineapple and all those pecans!  It’s an old southern recipe and the Mothers loved it (and other people as well).  I think you would too.

HUMMINGBIRD CAKE
3 bananas, mashed
1 1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 cup crushed pineapple, drained
1 tsp. vanilla
3 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 cup pecans

Smash the bananas in the bottom of a large mixing bowl.  Then stir in the oil, 2 sugars, eggs, pineapple and vanilla.  When that is blended mix in the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and pecans.  Stir until blended.

Spoon the batter into 3 9″ cake pans that have been sprayed with cooking spray.  Pop them in the oven at 350 degrees for xxx minutes.

FROSTING:
12 oz. cream cheese (1 1/2 blocks)
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tab. milk
1 cup pecans, chopped

With an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter together.  Then with the mixer on low (so you don’t get a cloud of powdered sugar in your face), add the sugar, vanilla and milk.  Beat until it’s all well combined.

Spread between layers and around and about the cake.  Then carefully attach the pecans to the sides of the cake, patting them on by small handfuls.

You can top with flowers if you like.–I used these nasturtiums, that are currently running riot in the yard–any non-toxic flowers will do.

Serve it to moms or anyone else you’d like to share cake with…