Hummingbird Cake

Hummingbird Cake - made September 1, 2011 from Tate's Bake Shop by Kathleen King

Once upon a time, this is exactly the sort of cake I would never eat, much less bake.  I like banana cakes, I like coconut cakes, I like pineapple upside-down cakes.  But all three flavors in one cake?  Why???  But I've seen various renditions of Hummingbird Cake in a number of cookbooks and since I got over my aversion to pineapple bits in a muffin from the Pineapple Upside Up muffin recipe, I thought I could take my daring one step further and do a banana-pineapple-coconut cake.  In for a penny, in for a pound.  Or probably a few pounds since this is an oil-based cake and I don't want to calculate how many calories are in this thing.

This had the added advantage of using up not only the leftover crushed pineapple I had from the muffin recipe but also the overripe bananas I had in the freezer.  I made it as a 9 x 13 cake instead of a 2-layer 9-inch round cake, mostly because it's easier to slice up and give away as a rectangular single-layer cake.  This is another easy cake to put together and it turned out pretty well.  I have to say though, I would consider this mostly a banana coconut cake and it could've done without the pineapple.  Not that the pineapple was bad but it really didn't add anything to the cake.  The banana flavor took over as the primary flavor and the coconut was good for the chewiness but you could hardly taste the pineapple and this time the tidbits of crushed pineapple didn't play as well as it did in the pineapple muffins.  This was good but next time I'd omit the pineapple and just enjoy a good banana cake.

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon salt

1 ¼ cups vegetable oil

1 ¾ cups sugar

3 large eggs

2 cups mashed very ripe bananas

1 8-ounce can crushed pineapple, drained

1 cup unsweetened desiccated coconut

¾ cup pecans, chopped

1 tablespoon vanilla

1.   Heat the oven to 350˚F.  Grease two 9 x 2 inch round cake pans.  Line the bottoms with waxed paper.

2.   In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

3.   In another large bowl, mix the oil and sugar.  Add the eggs and mix them well.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Stir in the bananas, pineapple, coconut, pecans and vanilla.  Stir in the flour mixture.

4.   Spoon the mixture evenly between the prepared cake pans.  The pans will be full but this batter doesn’t rise much.

5.   Bake the cake for 40 to 45 minutes or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

6.   Cool the cake for 10 minutes in the pans and turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

7.   Frost with cream cheese frosting recipe of your choice.