Hummingbird Cake

"This is Southern Living's most requested recipe."
 
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photo by Jonathan Melendez photo by Jonathan Melendez
photo by Jonathan Melendez
photo by Marg (CaymanDesigns) photo by Marg (CaymanDesigns)
photo by chefchick66 photo by chefchick66
photo by Marg (CaymanDesigns) photo by Marg (CaymanDesigns)
photo by LK Devildog photo by LK Devildog
Ready In:
50mins
Ingredients:
16
Serves:
16
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ingredients

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directions

  • Combine first five ingredients in a large bowl; add eggs, and oil, stirring until dry ingredients are moistened.
  • (Do not beat) Stir in vanilla, pineapple, 1 cup pecans, and bananas.
  • Pour batter into 3 greased and floured 9" round cakepans.
  • Bake at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
  • Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes; remove from pans, and cool completely on wire racks.
  • Spread Cream Cheese Frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake; sprinkle 1/2 cup chopped pecans on top.
  • Store in refridgerator.
  • Cream Cheese Frosting: Beat cream cheese and butter at medium speed, with an elelctric mixer until smooth.
  • Gradually add powdered sugar, beating at low speed until light and fluffy.
  • Stir in vanilla.
  • Yield: 3 cups.

Questions & Replies

  1. The recipe says to use three 9" pans, but the photo looks like a two layer cake. Please explain.
     
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Reviews

  1. Excellent recipe! In case anyone is interested, I made this with half apple sauce and half oil. I think if you like the heavy oily texture like a carrot cake, then stick with the oil. Surprisingly though, most tasters much preferred the lighter texture of applesauce. so there you go (^o^) thanks for posting bev!
     
  2. Simply wonderful! I made this tonight to take to my family reunion, I just know everyone will love it! I took a couple of liberties with it: For starters I have to travel a couple hundred miles with it, in a car, so a three layered cake was out of the question. I have nothing to carry it in for that long. So I made it in a 13x9 pan. Just as someone else said, it baked for a bout an hour. The cake is fairly dense, but extremely moist. Also, a full cup of oil sounded too much. I replaced half of that for applesauce. Next, I was more interested in the pineapple flavor, so I only chopped up one banana, it looked to be a little less than a cup. I then used 3/4 of a 20 oz can of pineapple. I substituted walnuts for the pecans. I also added a couple handfuls of shredded coconut. The final result is amazing. And the fact that all of that was actually easy, i wish I could give it more than 5 stars!
     
  3. I had baked several different recipes of this cake without success (one was a bundt recipe). I didn't have three 9" pans, so I baked it as a 9x13 layer cake. It was so horrible, I threw it away. I bit the bullet and ordered a third layer pan and then proceeded to follow the directions exactly. It was absolutely delicious and turned out perfectly. The secret is the three layers-- they aren't so thick as to not get completely done. I made this last weekend and it was our "Goodbye to summer" cake for the Labor Day Weekend. Bev, thank you so much for posting the recipe!
     
  4. AMAZING! i halved the recipe to make 12 big cupcakes...halved the oil and used coconut replacing it with a 1/2 cup chopped banana & an additional 1tsp pumpkin pie spice. Frosting, i made with 1/2 the butter, and added lemon zest powder...TRUELY DIVINE, my husband cant get enough, and i saved some for me un iced so i can have them for breakfast...YUM, thank you forever!
     
  5. For many years, my husband and I had a slice of this cake with our coffee on Christmas morning. We would watch our children with their new found treasures, drink coffee and have "coffee cake" (we preferred it without any icing)It is the best!!
     
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Tweaks

  1. Incredibly moist and very tasty! Similar to carrot cake or spice cake. Everyone really enjoyed it. You really can't taste the pineapple, so even people who don't care for pineapple liked the cake. We made the cake exactly as written. For the icing, I used neufchatel cheese instead of cream cheese. It is a little softer, so I ended up using more confectioner's sugar to get the correct frosting consistency. I also put the chopped pecans on the sides of the cake instead of the top just to make it look a little fancier. Thanks for posting, Bev!
     
  2. Simply wonderful! I made this tonight to take to my family reunion, I just know everyone will love it! I took a couple of liberties with it: For starters I have to travel a couple hundred miles with it, in a car, so a three layered cake was out of the question. I have nothing to carry it in for that long. So I made it in a 13x9 pan. Just as someone else said, it baked for a bout an hour. The cake is fairly dense, but extremely moist. Also, a full cup of oil sounded too much. I replaced half of that for applesauce. Next, I was more interested in the pineapple flavor, so I only chopped up one banana, it looked to be a little less than a cup. I then used 3/4 of a 20 oz can of pineapple. I substituted walnuts for the pecans. I also added a couple handfuls of shredded coconut. The final result is amazing. And the fact that all of that was actually easy, i wish I could give it more than 5 stars!
     

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I joined Food.com when the site was RecipeZaar, April 24, 2001. This site has been a favorite with me for many years now with its unique features and especially for the many, many dear friends I have met here. If you are a new visitor, I hope you will stop for a while and check us out. I hope you will find it as special as I have.
 
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