Celebrate with Hummingbird Cake {#FRD2014}

One of September's challenges for the Jamie Oliver Food Revolution Ambassadors (I'm the Monterey #FRD2014 rep!) is to celebrate!

Celebrate...with cake!

Late last year, my kitchen elves wanted to help me for a blogging event and voted for cake. Hummingbird Cake. Since Jamie will be sharing his, I decided to share mine. One of the boys had ordered a slice of Hummingbird Cake somewhere at sometime. I did some reading about Hummingbird Cake and a friend who lives in Tennessee sent me an article along with a recipe. Hummingbird cake is a spiced banana pineapple cake with cream cheese frosting that's been a southern favorite since the mid-19th century.

The first known publication of the recipe was in the February 1978 issue of Southern Living. Click to see: the original recipe. That same year, it won the 'Favorite Cake' award at the 1978 Kentucky State Fair.

Here's our version...

Ingredients
Cake

• 2 C white whole wheat flour
• 1/2 C chestnut flour
• 1/2 C ground almonds
• 1 t baking soda
• 2 C organic coconut sugar
• 1 t ground cinnamon
• 1/2 t ground nutmeg
• dash of ground cardamom
• dash of ground ginger
• 3 large eggs, beaten
• 1 C olive oil
• 1 t pure vanilla extract
• 1 t allspice liqueur
• 2 C fresh pineapple, diced
• 2 mashed, ripe bananas
• 1 C chopped raw pecans

plus spiced pumpkin butter, for filling the cake

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 8oz cream cheese
• 8oz marscarpone
• 16 T softened butter
• splash of pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 C ginger syrup
• 2 C organic powdered sugar
• 1/2 C raw sunflower seeds

plus marzipan and food dye

Procedure

Beat the cream cheese frosting ingredients - except for the sunflower seeds - together until smooth. Set aside. Combine first 5 cake ingredients in a large bowl; add eggs and oil, stirring until dry ingredients are moistened. Stir in liqueur, spices, pecans, and bananas. Fold in the pineapple. Then pour batter into buttered baking pans.

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.

To assemble, spread pumpkin butter between the two layers. Then spread cream cheese frosting on top and sides of cake; sprinkle 1/2 cup chopped pecans on top. Store in refrigerator.

The boys made marzipan flowers and leaves. Riley said he wanted red blossoms because hummingbirds are attracted to red. Makes sense to me. Dylan was in charge of the greenery.

They were really pleased with the result...and it tasted great.

And we definitely like to celebrate with cake...here are a few more cakes we've made for friends' birthdays.

Stella's Piggy Mud Bath Cake

Darth Gaber's Birthday Cake