The Famous Hummingbird Cake! A very popular soft and moist cake with pecans, bananas, pineapples, and a delicious vanilla cream cheese frosting too! You may have heard or tried hummingbird cake before and wondered how to make it yourself.
Here we have the recipe, with the classic flavors and ingredients you would expect in the hummingbird cake.
Table of Contents 📋 hide
1) Prep time
2) Baking time
3) Serving size
4) Equipment
5) Ingredients
6) Top tip
7) Instructions
8) How to make a small size hummingbird cake
9) Recipe Card
10) Hummingbird Cake
11) Celebration Cakes
What is in a Hummingbird Cake?
It's definitely tropical. The cake uses crushed pineapple, bananas, and pecan nuts. What a delicious combination!
The pineapple and bananas make the cake soft and tender, full of flavor and moist. Add to that a sprinkle of cinnamon spice, you have the perfect flavor combination for the everso famous hummingbird cake. To top all that, this cake recipe has 3 layers, sandwiched between vanilla cream cheese frosting as well as an outer coat of frosting.
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It's an indulgent cake, and fit for a celebration, perhaps a birthday, anniversary or large gathering.
Can I make a smaller Hummingbird Cake?
This recipe makes a large cake, making 10 portions. For convenience, I've made up the recipe suitable for 2 portions, so it's a small version of this cake. Some of you had difficulty reducing the ingredients to the right ratios for a smaller cake.
At the end of this recipe, I've added the ingredients and instructions to make a mini hummingbird cake which will be perfect if you just wanted to have a taste to see what it's like, or perhaps if there's just one or two of you at home and you want a small cake.
This delicious recipe has been generously shared by one of our great cooks, Carina. She's always coming up with great recipes that she either invents herself or adapts from various cookbooks to make her own.
So let's get straight to the recipe and see how we make this classic Hummingbird Cake. Please enjoy!
AT THE END OF THE RECIPE I HAVE GIVEN MEASURES TO MAKE THIS CAKE CUT DOWN TO ⅓ IN SIZE FOR THOSE OF YOU WANTING A SMALLER CAKE.
Recipe by Carina Duclos
Prep time
20 - 30 minutes
Baking time
25 minutes
Serving size
10 Plus Persons
Equipment
three 9 inch x 13 inch(23 cm) layer cake pans
*** Please note, this is a big cake!
Ingredients
1 cup / 235 ml sunflower oil
21/4 cups / 280 g flour
11/4 cups / 250 g white sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
3 eggs beaten
1 cup / 110 g chopped pecans plus extra to decorate
1 cup / 150 g mashed ripened bananas (about 3)
3 oz or 85 g canned crushed pineapple plus 4 tbsp of the juice from the can
Frosting
¾ cup / 170 g cream cheese
4 tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 ½ cups / 420 g confectioners sugar
Top tip
This cake is very sweet, if you don't have a particularly sweet tooth, reduce the sugar in the cake ingredients list by a third.
Instructions
1. Preheat oven 350F or 180C or Gas 4
2. Grease three 9 x 13 inch(23 cm) layer cake pans
3. Stir flour, sugar, cinnamon, and baking soda in a large bowl. Add the beaten eggs, oil, pecans, bananas, pineapple with the juice and stir until evenly well mixed.
4. Divide the batter among the pans spreading evenly
5. Bake in preheated oven for about 25 minutes
6. Remove and let cool down
7. Prepare the frosting by beating together cream cheese, butter, and vanilla,...then add the sugar
8. Sandwich the cake together with half of the frosting, spread the remaining over the cake and decorate with pecans.
If you can,...wait a day! It is MUCH better the day after
How to make a small size hummingbird cake
Please find below measures to make this cake A THIRD of the original size. If you have digital scales, the measures will be more accurate.
I used a single swiss roll bake pan measuring 12 inches by 7 inches.
When the cake was cooked, I cut the cake in to 3 equal pieces. So I had the cake facing me horizontally, then cut 3 vertical pieces.
The sugar amounts in my 'cut down' version are a little less as I did not want it too sweet.
Theoriginal recipe is a very sweet cake, so feel free to reduce more sugar if you wish.
Cake cook time will be less, check for doneness after 13 minutes. It may take a little longer, depending on your oven
The Cake
⅓ cup / 80 ml sunflower oil
¾ cups / 94 g flour
⅓ cups / 70 g white sugar
⅓ tsp cinnamon
⅓ tsp baking soda
1 egg beaten
⅓ cup / 35 g chopped pecans plus extra to decorate
⅓ cup / 50 g mashed ripped bananas (about 1)
1 oz or 30 g or 2 1/1 Tablespoons canned crushed pineapple plus 1 ½ tbsp of the juice from the can
Frosting
¼ cup / 55 g cream cheese
1 ⅓ tbsp butter
⅓ tsp vanilla extract
1 cup / 140 g confectioners sugar
We'd love to hear from you and what you thought of our recipe. Did you make any changes or add some other ingredients? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for reading and happy cooking!
Recipe Card
Hummingbird Cake
Yield: 10 +
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes
The Famous Hummingbird Cake! A very popular soft and moist cake with pecans, bananas, pineapples, and a delicious frosting too!
Ingredients
- 1 cup / 235 ml sunflower oil
- 21/4 cups / 280 g flour
- 11/4 cups / 250 g white sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 3 eggs beaten
- 1 cup / 110 g chopped pecans plus extra to decorate
- 1 cup / 150 g mashed ripped bananas, about 3
- 3 oz or 85 g canned crushed pineapple plus 4 tbsp of the juice from the can
Frosting:
- ¾ cup / 170 g cream cheese
- 4 tbsp butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 ½ cups / 420 g confectioners sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven 350F or 180C or Gas 4
- Grease three 9 x 13 inch(23 cm) layer cake pans
- Stir flour, sugar,cinnamon and baking soda in a large bowl. Add the beaten eggs, oil, pecans, bananas, pineapple with the juice and stir until evenly well mixed.
- Divide the batter among the pans spreading evenly
- Bake in preheat oven for about 25 minutes
- Remove and let cool down
- Prepare the frosting by beating together cream cheese, butter and vanilla,...then add the sugar
- Sandwich the cake together with half of the frosting, spread the remaining over the cake and decorate with pecans,....
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 10Serving Size: 10
Amount Per Serving:Calories: 776Total Fat: 42gSaturated Fat: 10gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 30gCholesterol: 85mgSodium: 243mgCarbohydrates: 97gFiber: 2gSugar: 71gProtein: 7g
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