Heavenly Hummingbird Cake

By: Amanda Formaro for FaveSouthernRecipes.com

Comments (0)

This image courtesy of favesouthernrecipes.com

This moist and sweet hummingbird cake is a wonderful old-fashioned dessert to share with friends and family. This recipe for Heavenly Hummingbird Cake includes the classic hummingbird cake ingredients, such as pineapple, bananas, and chopped pecans. The three beautiful layers of homemade cake are also frosted with a rich and luscious cream cheese icing that is made from scratch. The finished cake is topped with pretty pecan halves for the perfect presentation. You will love sharing this amazing layer cake with your loved ones.

If you like this recipe for Heavenly Hummingbird Cake, be sure to check out our collection of 20 Classic Southern Cake Recipes

Ingredients

3 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup canola oil
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 (8-ounce) can crushed pineapple packed in juice
1 1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted, plus extra for garnish
2 ripe bananas, peeled and chopped
For the Frosting:
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
16 ounces cream cheese, cut into 8 pieces, softened
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch salt

Instructions

For the Cake

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour three 9-inch cake pans.
Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in the bowl of your mixer.
Whisk the oil, eggs, and vanilla in a medium bowl. Add to the flour mixture, and beat on low until combined. Batter will be very thick, almost the consistency of taffy.
With mixer on low, add in the pineapple (with the juice), pecans, and bananas. Increase speed to medium until well combined.
Divide the batter evenly among the prepared pans and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool the cakes in the pans for 10 minutes, then turn out onto racks to cool completely.

For the Frosting

With a mixer at medium-high speed, beat the butter until creamy. Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add powdered sugar. Increase speed and beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the cream cheese, one piece at a time, and beat until smooth. Beat in the vanilla and salt.
Spread about 1 1/2 cups of the frosting on one cake layer. Top with a second cake layer and another 1 1/2 cups frosting. Top with the final cake layer and spread the top and sides of the cake with the remaining frosting.

For more delicious cake recipes, download a copy of our free eCookbook, Heavenly Southern Desserts: 9 Easy Cake Recipes