One of our favorite neighborhood restaurants is Art Smith’s Blue Door Kitchen. They make great fried chicken! The only problem is that it’s a little too good and we never have room for left for their Hummingbird Cake. It's their signature dessert, and one day we'll try it. But for now, here's a recipe for the famous Southern cake.
My Version of Hummingbird Cake
I've always used the Southern Living recipe, but these days I do things a little differently. I mash the bananas, drain the pineapple and make the cake 2 layers instead of 3 for a good ratio of cake to frosting.
Cutting the Oil
I used to cut the oil back slightly, but now I leave it at the full 1 ½ cups. It makes the cake flakier and less like banana bread. Plus, it cuts the sweetness. The amount of oil may seem like a lot, but its offset by a large amount of flour, sugar, and eggs, so it's not as bad as it seem. My suggestion is if you've never made Hummingbird Cake, go with the original amount of oil.
Recipe
Hummingbird Cake
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour 13.5 ounces
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- About a teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 ½ cups cup vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 8-ounce can crushed pineapple, drained
- 2 cups diced ripe banana mashed after measuring (10 oz)
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
- 8 tablespoons 4 oz butter (unsalted, softened)
- 2 cups powdered sugar sifted, plus more if desired
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch or two of salt – omit if using regular salted butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 2 9x2 inch round cake pans.
- Stir flour, baking soda, salt, sugar and cinnamon together in a large mixing bowl; add eggs, vegetable oil and vanilla, stirring until dry ingredients are moistened. (Do not beat.) Stir in mashed bananas and pineapple.
- Pour batter into cake pans and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire rack for 10 minutes; remove from pans, and let cool completely on wire racks.
- Prepare cream cheese frosting. Beat cream cheese and butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating at low speed until light and fluffy - taste after adding 2 cups. Add more sugar if you prefer it to be sweeter. Beat in vanilla. Add a pinch of salt if using unsalted butter.
- Spread Cream Cheese Frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake; sprinkle ½ cup chopped pecans on top.
Anna says
Cynna, thanks for posting the review! And I'm glad to hear it was still good with the reduced sugar.
Cynna says
I made the cake and it was amazing--everyone loved it! My only, minor changes: I cut the sugar by half a cup, and topped the finished cake with toasted and crushed walnuts.
Anna says
Desserts almost always taste better at home, but there are some restaurants where it's totally worth ordering dessert. Interesting about the Hummingbird Cake. Now I really want to try it so that I can compare the two!
Anonymous says
I've had the hummingbird cake at Table52 another Smith restaurant, and honestly did not find it to be that good. The Southern Living recipe makes a better cake IMO.
Cynna says
Thanks! I like the idea of more banana flavor. The ingredients are on my shopping list!
Anna says
I'd say it leans more toward banana. IF you want more pineapple flavor, just double the amount. If you do use more pineapple,make sure you drain it really well. Another thing you might try is adding pineapple extract. I haven't tried it, but I think it would be good. But overall I'd say it's more like a banana cake.
Cynna says
I've always wanted to make th9, and I think I will this week!
Does the end result taste more like banana, or pineapple?
Sandra says
This looks delicious! The finished cake reminds me of an Italian Cream cake.
Sue says
Your cake and recipe look delicious. I haven't made a cake like that in over 30 years. The ingredients sort of tie in with something I've been craving for a couple of weeks. Sunshine muffins.
Sometime you should head over to Blue Door Kitchen just for the cake. Just because it would be fun.
Sonya says
This cake seriously looks SO good!
d says
This sounds amazing!! I'm going to try it next time I have bananas that need to be used up.
Anna says
Sonya, thanks! Don't worry about pasting it. I'll find it in one of my CCs. I have used twice as much pineapple before, but haven't tried adding baking powder. Does their recipe really use 2 cups of oil? Okay, I found it. Looks like they reduced the oil to 1 cup, but they did some other tricks to improve texture. Seems like a good one to try!
Sonya says
Mmmmm, this looks (and sounds) positively scrumptious!!! Personally I'd never heard of Hummingbird Cake until I saw a recipe at http://www.cookscountry.com, and it did turn out delicious! Their recipe (April/May 2014) uses twice as much pineapple, adds 2 tsp baking powder (keeping the soda as well), an extra 1/2c vegetable oil, and uses 1.5 cups pecans in the cake itself. If you're interested I can paste the recipe below.