DESSERT: HUMMINGBIRD CAKE

I come from a long line of folks that enjoyed the afternoon air and lazy conversation. Most of Momma’s relatives had some type of porch attached to their houses way out in the country. Most of the homes were framed and off the ground with concrete steps leading up to the front door. I stayed a bit puzzled because different relatives called their porches different names. I remember veranda and gallery often used. They all had a roof so inclement weather was not a problem. There was a variety of chairs and some were rockers. It didn’t take long to learn that the homeowners had specific seats and they weren’t offered to the company. I usually sat on the steps anyway unless there were other children around and then we would be off playing.

Lining the porches would be a variety of colorful camellia or azalea bushes, lilies, confederate roses, and Bee Balm. Birds and butterflies were in abundance darting in and out with no regard to the folks sitting around. We never left any house up there without a sackful of seeds, cuttings or full plants. Daddy would know that they would have their work cut out for them when they got home. How she did keep Daddy busy!

I remember driving down Great -Aunt Vanna’s long drive and bumping over those cattle guards. Next to her white-framed house was a big pasture and a small airfield and hangar for a cropduster. That was fun to watch. There were a variety of cows there, too, that we liked to pet through the fence. I always wondered how the plane dodged the cows trying to go airborne. Aunt Vanna had a big barn out in the back full of hay bales. I remember playing in that barn with her grands, my second cousins. We didn’t waste time on the porch or walking around admiring her flowers.

Momma and Daddy decided they needed a porch. It was built off the ground and had a railing. Immediately, birdhouses and birdfeeders went up. There was a birdbath out in the front yard surrounded by blooming vines. Daddy grumbled the countless times he had to fill the hummingbird feeder and getting a second one did not help. Momma was a nature lover so she planted flowering bushes everywhere to attract birds and butterflies. When she had completed her chores or decided it was time for a break, she would get in her rocker, light up a Winston and just admire her yard and watch the birds and cars fly by. Life was good she would remark. Then she would get up, go in the house and most often bake a cake or pie. She always had something for the company when they dropped by. She believed that an idle mind was the devil’s workshop so no one around our house was idle. And if you intended to be idle, you did not let her know it. When they downsized a couple of times in their last years, birdhouses, birdbaths and feeders were as important as her furniture.

When I see a birdhouse or pretty flowers growing outside, I think of Momma. She was not one to cut flowers and make bouquets. She loved things in their natural state. Occasionally she would cut a few Camillas or Gardenias and put in a mason jar. She sometimes would pick some of those small yellow blossoms that smelled like bananas and lay them in a dish. Now if I think my mind is idle, I go ahead and bake something. I have many friends and neighbors that enjoy sweets. And it gives me such pleasure to provide it to them.

I have made this Hummingbird cake in Momma’s honor. She made so many in her time. I read this cake was named for Jamaica’s national bird or that’s what Mr. Google told me. It is a delicious, moist spice cake with bananas, pineapple, and nuts. The cream cheese frosting just adds more deliciousness! If you like these flavors, this is the cake for you. The added plus is you only use a mixer for the frosting. The cake is just stirred together. How easy is that?

So, Momma, I do remember these little things that you perhaps thought, held little meaning for me all those years ago..birds, butterflies, and baking.

Yield: 15 slices

HUMMINGBIRD CAKE

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Spice cake with banana, pineapple and nuts. Topped with a Cream Cheese frosting.

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Additional Time 10 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Ingredients

CAKE

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• pinch salt
• 3 eggs, slightly beaten
• 3/4 cup Crisco vegetable oil
• 3 large, ripened bananas, mashed
• 1 can Dole crushed pineapple, 8 ounce (including juice)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup chopped pecans

FROSTING

• 1 package 8 ounce Philadelphia cream cheese, room temp
• 1 stick butter, room temp
• 1 box confectioners sugar (3 1/2-4 cups)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Instructions

CAKE

Preheat oven 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 8" cake pans.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, soda, cinnamon, and salt,

Add the slightly beaten eggs and oil in a small bowl and pour into the flour mixture, stirring until combined.

Stir in the mashed bananas and pineapple with juice. Add vanilla.

Pour into the three pans. Bake 25 minutes. Check for doneness with a wooden toothpick.

Cool 10 minutes before turning them onto a cooling rack.

Cool completely. Frost cake.

FROSTING

With a mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth. With the mixer on low speed, gradually add sugar beating until fluffy. Scrape down the sides. Add vanilla. Stir in pecans. May garnish with additional pecans.