Hummingbird Bundt Cake

Hummingbird Bundt Cake-001

Hummingbird Bundt cake- No hummingbirds were harmed in the making of this cake 😀

I’m one of those people whose mind never shuts down. I don’t say this in the tone of “I’m so damn smart, my mind is always working”. On the contrary. I said it never shuts down. Work on the other hand is a totally foreign concept to my brain. If my brain were a person, it would be sitting on the couch in a holey wife beater, holding a beer, chips and the TV remote, burping and watching something like “Nude Alligator Hunters” while it said to my body “make me a sammich, bit**!”. My mind needs therapy.

Point is, my mind annoys me. It will be 3am and the rest of the world is sleeping (ok, the rest in my time zone…who aren’t working 3rd shift…and aren’t insomniac…or watching “Nude Alligator Hunters”. Crap, ok, while SOME other people are sleeping) and my mind is creating story lines that I will forget by morning and never write. Or it will be wondering if the cats are warm enough…or why Bates on Downton Abbey let his estranged wife blackmail him. Or why things have the names they have.

Case in point- this cake. Really? Hummingbird Cake? There is not a Hummingbird in it… not even a stray feather. I had seen the original recipe for the layer cake and I know it’s a fairly old recipe, stemming from at least the Civil War era. Maybe they put Hummingbirds in it then? 😛 As I was saying; I’ve seen the recipe (maybe I should say “the receipt” since this is an old cake) for the layer cake and while it intrigued me, I was always hesitant to make it because it just sounded too sweet, too rich. WAIT!!! Don’t leave! Yes, that was really me that just said the words “too sweet” and “too rich”.  because…well… it did. A fairly rich cake layered with an ultra sweet and rich frosting. Just…too much. So when I saw this recipe for a bundt cake version with the frosting as just a glaze on top, I HAD to try it. The combo of banana and pineapple along with a cream cheese glaze was too much to resist. And oh boy, is it hard to resist. Moist and tender with the tropical flavors blending so well. Then the cream cheese glaze. Really… can you ever go wrong with cream cheese glaze? Plus it goes together quickly. No beating for 90 minutes and alternate adding of ingredients.

I still think I should have put a Hummingbird in it though. But the birds weren’t falling for my sign that said “Free Bird Seed Here… Enter Box Here—>” My son on the other hand… we still need to figure out how to get the box off of his head.

This came from “Southern Living Comfort Foods”

Hummingbird Bundt Cake

  • Cake-
  • 1 1/2 cups pecans, toasted
  • 3 cups flour
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon (I used 2)
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1 1/4 cups mashed bananas (about 4 large)
  • 1 8 ounce can crushed pineapple, undrained
  • 3/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • Glaze-
  • 4 ounces cream cheese, room temp
  • 2 cups sifted powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 to 2 teaspoons milk
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 14 cup bundt pan. Sprinkle 1 cup of the pecans on the bottom of the pan, reserving the last 1/2 cup for sprinkling on the glaze.
  2. Stir together flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl.
  3. Stir in the eggs, oil, bananas, pineapple and vanilla. Stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened.
  4. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour to an hour and ten minutes or until golden brown and a wooden skewer inserted in center comes out clean.
  5. Let cool in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes, then turn out onto rack to finish cooling for about 2 hours.
  6. For glaze- beat cream cheese until light, then add powdered sugar and beat on LOW speed (unless you like being covered in sugar dust) until well mixed. Add in the milk, a teaspoon at a time, only adding the second one of you need to make it thin enough to pour.
  7. Pour glaze over the top of the cake. Sprinkle with reserved pecans.

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4 thoughts on “Hummingbird Bundt Cake

  1. I’ve never tried a hummingbird cake but it sounds delicious and I would at least lick off the cream cheese glaze! I hope your mind gets the help it needs and I’m sorry it annoys you. Have you considered filing a restraining order?

  2. My mind never stops either – I always say I wish there was some sort of switch! I love hummingbird cake! This looks so good and I’m all about that cream cheese glaze!

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