Hummingbird Cake

Here it is, my signature recipe! Everyone who knows me or who has tried my baking asks for this cake... it is really that good! I came across this recipe while I was reading a book by one of my favortie authors, Sarah Addison Allen. I love her books because she incorporates just a little bit of magic into her captivating tales of love, mystery, and Southern small town life (if you're looking for a new book to read, pick up The Girl Who Chased the Moon, or any of her three other books, really).







recipe from Appalachian Heritage Literary Quarterly, thanks to Sarah Addison Allen

For the cake:
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 eggs, beaten
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 8 oz can crushed pineapple, drained
1 cup chopped pecans
2 cups chopped firm ripe banana

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour three cake pans.
Sift flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon together. Add eggs and oil to the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon just until ingredients are moistened. Stir in the vanilla, pineapple, and pecans. Add the bananas last and stir. Spoon the batter into the prepared cake pans and bake for 25- 30 minutes, or until a wooden pick insertred in center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting:
Ingredients:
1 pound cream cheese, softened
4 cups sifted confectioners'sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine cream cheese, sugar, and butter on low speed until mixed well. Increase speed to high and mix until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low and add the vanilla before raising the speed to high and mix.

I really hope you get to try this cake... if there is one recipe I'd suggest out of all the rest I've posted so far, it would be this one. This cake reminds me of everything proper and Southern (think tea parties, southern belles, yummy comfort food, country music, Paula Deen,... you get the picture)... and while I realize that in my head I've painted a totally idealized and possibly unrealistic picture of what I imagine the South to be, it makes me happy... so I'm okay with that. I'm absolutely enamored by everything Southern and British... you may or may not have already noticed my slight obession with England :)... remember this post?

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I'd love to hear of any recipes you'll be trying out this weekend!

❤Britt