Hummingbird Cake

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 large eggs, beaten
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 (8-ounce) can crushed pineapple, undrained
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 2 cups chopped bananas
• Cream Cheese Frosting
• 2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 2 (16 ounce) packages powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Combine cream cheese and butter; cream until smooth.Add powdered sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Stir in vanilla.

Preparation

1. Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl; add eggs and oil, stirring until dry ingredients are moistened. (Do not beat.) Stir in vanilla, pineapple, 1 cup pecans, and bananas.
2. Pour batter into three greased and floured 9-inch round cakepans. Bake at 350° for 25 to 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes; remove from pans, and cool completely on wire racks.
3. Spread Cream Cheese Frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake; sprinkle 1/2 cup chopped pecans on top. Store in refrigerator.

 Humming Cake History

It's a southern delight that gives you the essence of the tropics with it's bananas and crushed pineapple. Restaurants from the east coast to the west coast have made this delightful cake for it's southern transplant customers. The cake has won many awards, The Kentucky Derby Cook Book[Kentucky Derby Museum:Louisville KY, 1986] contains a recipe for Hummingbird Cake on p. 204.A note printed in this book states "Hummingbird Cake. Helen Wiser's recipe won Favorite Cake Award in the 1978 Kentucky State Fair."
Cooks in 1978 baked the cake when they had overipened bananasit was the perfect way to use the bananas.The recipe and the cake has many names.Never Ending Cake is the name turned in by Pauline Isley. A Benton respondent supplied Jamaican Cake,a title that might not be far afield considering the ingredients.Ella Sheets knows it as Granney's Best Cake.Nothing Left Cake is the name supplied by Patricia H. Downes of Jacksonville, who, with her 8-and 11-year-old sons, prefers it sans icing.
More than 75 copies of the recipe have been received, most of them identical. The variations _ notably in mixing directions,oil measurement and additional fruits _ are incorporated in the recipe that follows. Cake That Won't Last." ---Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock, AR), April 3, 1985

Here is the 1978 recipe

Mrs. Wiggins' recipe [1978]
"Hummingbird cake

• 3 cups all-pupose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 1/2 cups salad oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple, undrained
• 2 cups chopped pecans or walnuts, divided
• 2 cups chopped bananas

Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl; add eggs and salad oil, stirring until dry ingredients are moistened. Do not beat. Stir in vanilla, pineapple, 1 cup chopped pecans, and bananas. Spoon batter into 3 well-greased and floured 9-inch cakepans. Bake at 350 degrees F. For 25 to 30 minutes; remove from pans, and cool immediately. Spread frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake. Sprinkle with 1 cup chopped pecans. Yield: one 9-inch layer cake.
Cream Cheese Frosting

• 2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 2 (16 ounce) packages powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Combine cream cheese and butter; cream until smooth.Add powdered sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Stir in vanilla.