This Hummingbird Cake post was originally published on May 14, 2012. It’s been updated and refreshed with new photo.
This weekend, I attempted to make a Hummingbird Cake. It has pineapple, bananas, walnuts, and lots of sugar! I first had hummingbird cake from Magnolia at work. I fell in love.
Since then, I’ve wanted to try to make one. So what better time to try, than for Mother’s Day! After making a fabulous breakfast, I went back into the kitchen to try to make this cake before heading down to the shore for more fun.
Hummingbird Cake for the start of summer, carrot cake at the end.
Sometimes hummingbird cake uses raisins. Nope, nope, nope. Sorry, that’s one of the few things I will never use in a cake. The easiest way to make this cake is to use canned pineapple. When I first published this post, I used fresh pineapple. It was a mess. In this one, I used canned pineapple and it was so easy. I saved four bananas for this. However, one mysteriously disappeared so I ended up with one and half cups of bananas. I liked this better since it didn’t taste like a banana bread and left room for the pineapple to come through. I updated that in the recipe below. However if you want more banana punch, then add in all two cups.
The Frosting
As for the frosting, it’s very cream cheesy and will melt easily. Make sure the cake is cool before you frost and the air conditioning is on. Otherwise it will start to fall off. Start adding the confectioner’s sugar gradually until you get a desired stiffness. However, it won’t be stiff like the Elderflower Cake buttercream, but it will be close.
This is a great summer dessert. I’m not a fan of fruit in dessert. However, this hummingbird cake is my exception. Let me know what you think!
Hummingbird Cake
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups canola oil
- 3 eggs
- 2 cups white sugar
- 1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained, or one cup or mashed, fresh pineapple
- 1 /12-2 cups mashed bananas (about 3-4 bananas)
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
For the frosting:
- 1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) of butter, softened
- 2 1/2-3 cups confectioner’s sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Grease and flour 3, 5 inch (or 2, 9 inch) cake pans.
- Mix the flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the oil, eggs, sugar, pineapple, bananas and nuts.
- Slowly add flour mixture and mix together by hand.
- Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for about an 30-60 mins (depending on the size of the pan) or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow them to cool before removing them to the racks.
- Prepare the frosting by whipping together the cream cheese, butter, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Start with 2 cups of confectioner’s sugar and continue to add more until desired texture.
- After the cake has cooled, frost it. Garnish with more nuts on top.
