Hummingbird cake is made with pineapple, pecans and bananas. It is a southern recipe with Jamaican influences, but still considered American.

I feel the cake was too sweet for my taste, but I liked it a lot. I would make some small changes to the recipe, less oil, less sugar in the sponge and more fruits and also less icing. I will take pictures of the modified recipe when I’ll make it.

Ingredients for 8 servings:
– 250g plain flour
– 250g sugar
– 100g crushed pecans
– 1 teaspoon of baking soda
– 100g mashed pineapple
– 2 bananas
– 200 ml oil
– 3 eggs
– 100 ml pinapple juice

Ingredients for the icing:
– 50g butter
– 200g full fat soft cheese
– 400g icing sugar
– 1 spoon of vanilla paste

Crush the fresh pineapple with a fork.

Mix the flour, sugar, crushed pecans and the baking soda.

Add the mashed pineapple, the mashed bananas, the oil and the 3 eggs beaten. Also add 100ml pineapple juice.

If you use canned pineapple, add juice from the can. I’ve used shop bought fresh pineapple juice without any added sugar or from concentrate.

Mix the batter by hand. Divide the batter in 3 and pour it in identical cake trays. Bake the sponge at 180C for 30 minutes. If you have a fan assisted oven, bake it at 160C fan.

For the icing mix the soften butter with the soft cheese. It’s easier to mix it by hand.

Add the icing sugar and the vanilla paste and mix with the mixer until it’s smooth. If you want, you can mix it by hand, but it’s faster with the mixer.

Add a third of the icing on the first sponge. Continue with the other layers of sponge and cream.

Add some pecans to decorate and the cake is ready to be served.

Enjoy!