Hummingbird Cake

Hummingbird Cake is made up of bananas, pineapples and nuts topped with buttery cream cheese frosting!

When I received my latest Cooking Club magazine, I wound up chomping at the bit to try this recipe. So much so that I whipped out bananas from the freezer to thaw the next day, sure that I'd be baking this cake immediately. That wasn't the case.

I'm not even a fan of bananas, which constitute a good portion of the recipe, but was intrigued by the fact that we had almost, almost everything to make this cake! Plus it would utilize a number of bananas we have stowed in the freezer. Putting it off until I went to the grocery store to get the last item, a can of pineapple chunks in juice, I was finally able to get started on it.

Hummingbird Cake

3 c sifted all-purpose flour
2 c sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 c mashed ripe bananas
1 c chopped pecans
3 eggs, beaten
3/4 c canola oil
1 (8-oz.) can crushed pineapple in 100% juice
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 c cream cheese (4 oz.), softened
3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
2 c powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 c finely chopped pecans

Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 13x9-inch baking pan with cooking spray. Sprinkle with flour, tapping out excess.

Really bang on your 9x13 with the palm of your fist while holding it inverted over your sink.  This was excess I later banged out.

Whisk flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in large bowl.

Gently stir in bananas, 1 cup pecans, eggs, oil, pineapple with juice and 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla until blended (batter will be thick).


Spread in pan.

Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out with some moist crumbs attached, top is deep golden brown and cake just begins to pull away from sides of pan. Cool completely in pan on wire rack (or in microwave overnight).

Look at night-time cake vs day-time cake!

Beat cream cheese and butter in large bowl at medium speed 2 to 3 minutes or until smooth and creamy.


Beat in powdered sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla until well-blended.


Stir in 1/3 cup pecans. Or not.

Spread frosting over cake. Sprinkle nuts over frosted cake if you forgot to stir them into the frosting.


Store in refrigerator. Serve at room temperature.


Assuming you are the chef or master-baker in your household, chances are you have served up items much classier than this one such as flaming goods or foods made completely of sugar. But if you aren't a chef or master-baker or cook-extraordinaire of any means, get some of this before you are left with this:

The Last Bite.

You'll regret it if you don't because this cake is good even if you aren't a banana fan.

Cost:

• bananas: $1.20 (a hefty SWAG)
• eggs: $0.43
• crushed pineapple in juice: $0.89
• cream cheese: $0.75

Total: $3.27, but this doesn't take into account the pecans, oil, sugars etc. So I'll add in another $2, no $3, bringing total cost for this cake to $6.27. That makes each of 16 servings $0.39. Yep, thirty-nine cents.

NOTE: the thawed age of bananas did not detract at all from this recipe.  If anything, the juicy-leaky banana component ADDED to the moistness of the cake, which is something I've observed in banana bread.  And now there is another experiment to be executed: fresh ripe bananas vs frozen ripe bananas recently thawed vs frozen ripe bananas thawed and sitting the fridge a good while.  This may take a lab notebook and interns to execute well unless Voters clue me in and save me from doing this myelf.*

*I realize full well that I'll be executing this personally one day but recently realized I enjoy writing as though I have millions of readers willing to do my suggested bidding.

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