Classic Hummingbird Cake

This classic Hummingbird Cake is packed with pineapple, banana, and pecans. Ultra moist cake layers with hints of cinnamon and nutmeg covered in a cream cheese frosting.

I’ve had a Hummingbird Cake on my radar for a while now, ever since I first had one on our trip to Walt Disney World a couple of years ago. It kept getting bumped by something or other.

Part of me wondered if the world really needed another Hummingbird Cake recipe. But, since a few of you have asked me for one lately who am I to refuse?? I hope this recipe lives up to your expectations. It has truly exceeded mine!

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What Flavor is Hummingbird Cake?

A hummingbird cake is a dense and moist cake consisting of pineapple, bananas, pecans, and spices paired with a cream cheese frosting. It is a very popular Southern dessert that originated in Jamaica in the 1960’s.

It is named after the island’s national bird and is also known as the Doctor Bird Cake (which is another name for hummingbird). 

The key ingredients are very simple: 

• pineapple
• banana 
• pecans 
• cinnamon

My very first experience with this cake was at Art Smith’s Homecomin‘ restaurant in Disney Springs.

The meal and dessert at Homecomin’ was the most memorable and our favorite by far. SO good. Naturally, I had to sample his famous Hummingbird Cake (I’d heard rave reviews) and it was every bit as delicious as I had hoped/expected.

If you’re ever in the Disney Springs area, do yourself a favor and go to Homecomin’. You honestly will not regret it. There are many restaurants to choose from when you’re in WDW, and we sampled many, but this one truly was just the best. 

This Hummingbird Cake Recipe I bring you today, is my modified version of Chef Art Smith’s recipe.

Art Smith’s cake is completely delicious as is, but I thought that adding brown sugar, some extra spices & flavorings, and some more chopped pecans would make it even better (spoiler alert: it did!).

How to Make Hummingbird Cake

The mixing method for this cake is different than your typical cake recipe. It does not involve creaming butter and sugar. In fact, it’s recommended that you don’t use a mixer at all so that you don’t overmix the ingredients.

It’s really a super simple recipe that anyone can make:

1. Whisk dry ingredients together.
2. Whisk wet ingredients together.
3. Fold dry ingredients into wet.
4. Gently fold in pecans.
5. Bake!

I recommend sifting your dry ingredients together and whisking them well. This will help make sure everything is properly dispersed.

The batter will be quite thick and doesn’t rise a ton. The resulting cake is deliciously dense and moist and truly just heavenly. The added brown sugar and extra spices give this cake a delicious flavor.

I chopped my banana vs mashing it as I wanted some larger banana pieces in there, to go with the pineapple pieces and the pieces of pecans. This almost has the consistency of a fruit cake in that regard (but a good one) — extremely moist with chunks of fruit and nuts.

If you don’t love that you can totally mash the banana and even puree the pineapple a bit, but I love the texture as is.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream cheese frosting is notoriously difficult to work with. Though I love the flavor pairing with certain cake recipes, I don’t like working with it as I find it too soft and difficult to decorate with. I don’t like it to be overly sweet either, so don’t want to add a ton of powdered sugar in there. 

For this frosting recipe, I used softened (but still cool) butter and cream cheese. Not room temperature as I find them too soft. You can add more or less powdered sugar if you like, and more or less salt to cut the sweetness. It’s pretty forgiving in that regard, but will not be as firm as an American buttercream or Swiss meringue buttercream.

The slightly chilled butter and cream cheese helped (as did the cooler temperatures – finally!). Also, I always sift my powdered sugar. This is not critical, but mine is always super lumpy so I just sift it. 

As with all my cream cheese frosting cakes, I tend to stick to a more rustic manner of decorating. I just don’t want to fuss with crisp, smooth edges or piping. Plus a rustic frosting just goes perfectly with this Hummingbird Cake I think.

I tried to do something pretty and fancy with the fruit on the top but failed miserably. Literally probably an hour of cutting, placing, moving, removing the fruit until I just gave up and did a pecan border around the top and placed some fruit slices on the top.

I don’t love how it looks, but whatever, it tastes like heaven!!

This truly is a delicious cake. I like to think of it as a Fall cake, even though it has summer fruits in there because it’s just perfectly comforting. If you’re a Hummingbird Cake fan, I hope you give my version a try!

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Hummingbird Cake

5 from 10 votes

This classic Hummingbird Cake is packed with pineapple, banana, and pecans. Ultra moist cake layers with hints of cinnamon and nutmeg covered in a cream cheese frosting.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 2 hours hours

Cook Time 35 minutes minutes

Total Time 2 hours hours 35 minutes minutes

Servings 16

Calories 704kcal

Author Olivia

Ingredients

 

US CustomaryMetric

 

1x2x3x

Hummingbird Cake:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar packed
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups chopped bananas 5 medium, overripe
• 1 cup crushed pineapple lightly drained
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs lightly whisked
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans toasted,165g, tossed in 1 Tbsp flour

Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter room temperature
• 6 cups powdered sugar sifted
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups cream cheese 12 oz, chilled, full fat, block (not tub)
• 1/4 tsp salt

Assembly:

• chopped pecans toasted
• pineapple slices optional
• banana slices optional

Instructions

 

Hummingbird Cake:

• Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour three 8" cake rounds and line with parchment.
• In a large bowl, sift flour, baking soda, sugars, spices, and salt. Whisk until well combined. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, combine bananas, pineapple, oil, eggs,vanilla. Whisk until well combined.
• Gently fold dry ingredients into wet. Fold in chopped pecans. Batter will be quite thick.
• Spread batter evenly among the pans and bake for 30-35 mins or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean and the middle of the cake springs back when pressed.
• Remove from oven. Place cakes on wire rack to cool for 10 mins then turn out onto wire rack. Allow cakes to cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

• Using a stand mixer or hand mixer beat butter until pale and creamy.
• Reduce speed to low. Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time and mix on low until well blended. Increase speed to medium and beat for 3 minutes. Add vanilla and salt and continue to beat on medium for 1 minute.
• Slowly add chilled cream cheese one cube at a time (about 1 tablespoon at a time). Beat well until blended and ensure no lumps of cream cheese remain.
• If needed, add cornstarch or meringue powder 1 tablespoon at a time to stiffen the frosting (I didn't but this is an option).
• Run mixer on low for a couple of minutes to remove any air bubbles.

Assembly:

• Place one layer of cake on a cake stand or serving plate. Top with about 1 cup of buttercream, spread evenly. Repeat with remaining layers and apply a thin coat of frosting all over the cake to crumb coat. Chill for 20mins.
• Frost the cake with a rustic pattern using the remaining buttercream. Sprinkle chopped pecans around the top (or along the bottom) and top with fresh pineapple and banana slices if desired.

Calories: 704kcalCarbohydrates: 100gProtein: 6gFat: 33gSaturated Fat: 16gPolyunsaturated Fat: 3gMonounsaturated Fat: 11gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 90mgSodium: 259mgPotassium: 241mgFiber: 3gSugar: 76gVitamin A: 883IUVitamin C: 4mgCalcium: 52mgIron: 2mg

The nutritional information and metric conversions are calculated automatically. I cannot guarantee the accuracy of this data. If this is important to you, please verify with your favorite nutrition calculator and/or metric conversion tool.