I have two sweet little wooden boxes sitting here on my desk in my home office/prop room/cookbook library. They are each filled with recipes that belonged to our grandmothers. One box use to sit in my grandmother’s kitchen and it holds handwritten and newspaper clipped recipes from my Ma (my dad’s mother) the other is on “temporary loan” from my husband’s Aunt and it belonged to his grandmother, Grandma Mary (who was my husband’s Dad’s Mom). Like Ma’s recipe box, Grandma Mary’s small wooden box of recipes holds little index cards with typed recipes, hand scribbled recipes that she jotted down and recipes that she had clipped from various places.
Out of all the cookbooks that I have the recipes in these two little boxes are by far the most important. These are recipes that at some point, stood out to our grandmothers! Our grandmothers held these in their hands and used them in their kitchens while making meals for their/our families.
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| Grandma Mary’s Recipe for Humming Bird Cake — Mine is slightly adapted from this one and another |
You see I’ve been working on scanning and copying down all of Grandma Mary’s recipes so that everyone in the family can have copies of them.Some are written out on scrapes of papers, some of the recipes are clipped from magazines, some are typed out on little index cards like the one above and she even had some of mine from my blog printed out and stuck in a recipe binder.
So, what is Hummingbird Cake? It’s basically a spice cake loaded with pineapples, bananas and pecans. It’s also layered and frosted with a thick cream cheese icing! PSSSTTTT If you’re allergic to nuts just leave the pecans out of this recipe! It’ll still be exceptional cake!
Hope you love it as much as I do!
HUMMINGBIRD CAKE
Hummingbird Cake
Hummingbird Cake is a spice cake loaded with pineapples, bananas and pecans. It's also layered and frosted with a thick cream cheese icing!
Ingredients
FOR CAKE
- 3 cups flour (all-purpose flour)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 sticks butter, temperature (1 cup)
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 4 eggs
- 2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 4 medium bananas)
- 8 ounces crushed pineapple (with the juices)
- 1/3 cup milk
- 2 cups pecans, chopped (I roasted mine)
- Nonstick baking spray
FOR FROSTING
- 2 sticks butter, room temperature (1 cup)
- 16 ounces cream cheese, temperature
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
FOR THE CAKE
Preheat oven to 350F.
Place the bananas (with the peels on) on a baking sheet. Roast in the oven for 10 minutes. Let cool. Peel and mash the bananas, set aside.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
In the bowl of a mixer, cream together the white and brown sugar with the butter. Add in the vanilla.
Mix in the eggs, bananas and pineapples. Mix in the milk.
Add in the flour mixture and mix until combined.
Mix in 1 cup of chopped pecans.
Divide batter evenly into 3 three prepared cake pans. (I sprayed mine with non-stick cooking spray and places a parchment circle in the bottom of each pan before filling)
Bake for 35 minutes. Test the cake by sticking the toothpick into the center of the cake, toothpick should be clean when you remove it if the cake is done.
Remove cakes from oven and let them cool completely.
Once cooled, carefully level the tops of the cakes with a serrated knife.
FOR THE FROSTING
In the bowl of a mixer, cream together the butter and cream cheese. Carefully mix in 2 cups powdered sugar. Add in the vanilla and mix well.
TO ASSEMBLE THE CAKE:
Stack the cakes on top of each other with a layer of frosting in between each layer. Frost the entire cake. Top with 1 cup chopped pecans.
If you make this recipe, snap a picture and share it on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter with the hashtag #bigbearswife — I love to see what your cooking from the blog!
Love it? Pin it!
My Nan’s recipes are prized possessions. Love that picture of the index card – the best! The cake sounds fabulous, too of course.
I have a friend who always talks about having had this cake growing up. I really need to try making it. thanks for sharing your recipe.
This is such a special recipe to you – thank you for sharing it with us all! I can see why it stood out to Grandma Mary. I will have to make this sometime 🙂
Well that is one gorgeous cake! It’s so wonderful that you have these family recipes. I’m always more in love with a recipe that goes way back!
How sweet of you to make copies for everyone. That is so special.
I love this cake, hummingbird cake is such a classic. I swear I think I’m part-Southern. I must be adopted.
Love that you’re preserving your family’s recipes. I think it’s so important to hand those things down to ones who come after us.
Hummingbird cake is a favorite here, too. Classic southern cake for sure!
Oh how i cherish the handwritten recipes of my grandmother! So precious to have these delicious treasures! Beautiful cake Angie!
You know this recipe is well loved just by looking at the recipe card! Angie what a beautiful cake, you did a stunning job and I bet your family will love this version of it.
I love recipes that mean something, especially ones that were handed down! What a beautiful cake!
I am not exaggerating when I say that I started salivating as soon as I say the insides of this cake. It looks so good! And you just can’t beat tried and true family recipes.
This looks like the most perfect cake! I love that it’s a recipe from your grandma Mary and that you have her original recipe card. What a treasure. I can’t wait to make this cake. It looks wonderful!
This looks delish! Pinned!
Angie,
I am not a very good baker so I have to ask, in your written recipe above, you don’t say when to add the dry ingredients. I am kind of confused as I really need explicit instructions. Also, it looks like the ingredients for the icing must be included in the ingredients for the cake and I don’t know what is what. This cake looks so good that I am sitting here wishing I had some bananas so I could whip this out at 9:30 at night!!! I really hope I can make it soon. Your pictures look amazing!!
I love this cake, but have never heard why its called “Humming Bird Cake”….can anyone tell me?
Thanks 🙂
I looked it up online and it says that Hummingbird cake was created in Jamaica and was named after the island’s national bird.