Never made one but have eaten it and it's always been a layer cake.
Linda C

I agree - always done as a layer cake.
Teresa

I've never had this cake before but it looks good. I Googled & found almost all of them called for layers but here's one that's baked in a Bundt/tube pan.

/tricia

Here is a link that might be useful: Hummingbird Cake

I've only seen it in layers. For the most gorgeous pineapple flowers on a hummingbird cake, visit this blog from Finland, which just goes to show how far a recipe can travel.

The recipe is the Southern Living one.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Hummingbird Cake

The only time I ever had this was about 15 years ago when a friend's mom made it for a party. She made it as a bundt cake and it was dusted with powdered sugar. The recipe came from her mom's mother.

Joanne

I have made it and I made it in a bundt pan, not iced, but dusted with powdered sugar. It's a very moist cake.

Great link, readinglady!! I'm going to a party later in May, and I needed a desert to bring. I think I'll make that cake :) Christy

I've never heard of a Hummingbird Cake....I went to the website that Carol posted, it sounds really good. It will have to wait for a while....
I just started a diet this week and DH is joining in too.
As of today I've lost 4 pounds. Yeah

Linda

Thanks everyone for your help --- I guess I'll try the layer pans -- readinglady those pineapple flowers are amazing - I'm saving this for another event when I have more time.

Hummingbird Cake is one of my favorite cakes in the world! Carol posted her SL recipe but mine is a little different. I have both the Annual that it was posted in plus the Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook. Yes, it is in layers and that is the only way that I have had it. If it's humid in the house the day you make and ice - it can be difficult.

Hummingbird cake

Food historians generally cite Mrs. L.H. Wiggin's recipe published in the February 1978 issue of Southern Living magazine (p. 206) as the first printed reference to "Hummingbird Cake." Mrs. Wiggins did not offer an explanation of the name. Evidence strongly suggests this cake was popular in the south and known by several different (and equally interesting) names.

Why is this delicious cake named such? Our investigation of historic food reference sources, magazines and newspapers confirm theories abound, but did not uncover an authoritative answer. One article we found suggested the humming referred to the fact people hummed when they eat this cake. This, of course, is possible, but it seems an unlikely source for the name of this cake.

How old is Hummingbird Cake? An investigation of ingredients firmly places this dessert in the 20th century. Pineapple was actively promoted in the early decades of the 20th century.

This is what the food writers say:
"But the sweetest import from below the Mason-Dixon line might be hummingbird cake, which has started popping up at popular baking spots around town with little fanfare - fine Southern upbringing indeed. To many Southerners living in New York, the concoction of mashed banana, pineapple, pecans, and cream cheese icing weighing more than your average one-year-old serves as a sweet, immediate reminder of home. The impressive looking three-layer treat seems like it would be tough to make, but is, in fact, quite easy; it can be whipped up in a little more than an hour. The exact origin of the cake remains a mystery. In 1978, a Mrs. L.H. Wiggins of Greensboro, N.C., submitted the recipe to Southern Living magazine, the Southern belle bible of gracious hostessing, and the cake became renowned. "It is still our most requested recipe," says Donna Florio, a senior writer at the magazine."
---"The Recipe for Hummingbird Cake, Food & Drink," ELIZABETH SCHATZ, The New York Sun, November 13, 2002 , Pg. 1

"IT SEEMS as if just about everyone but yours truly had a recipe for the Cake That Doesn't Last. Then a reader clued me with a December 1972 date and I found our copy in the older files. Meanwhile we have been swamped with telephone calls and letter, far too many to credit individually. Be assured, however, that all assistance was appreciated. Elizabeth Bartlett of North Little Rock, the first to reach us via telephone, said that the cake also is known as Hummingbird Cake. The bird connection puzzles me, just as it does Juliet Macy of Bull Shoals, who describes the cake as very rich and heavy. Macy also said it is a delicious cake, an evaluation with which everyone seems to agree. Virginia Raney of Russellville, who has made the cake many times, said, " Sure enough, it doesn't last!' Pat Jefferson of Paron, noting that it is a family favorite, added that it has replaced fruit cake at their holiday table. 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

We wonder if hummingbird cake was named in reference to how these birds eat. These tiny creatures are drawn to intensely sweet food sources. They engage the food source quickly and disperse when sated. Some of the descriptions we read regarding how this cake attracts people and is consumed quickly reminds us of hummingbirds eating patterns. PLEASE NOTE: This is our theory, not a documented fact.

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
Cream cheese frosting (recipe follows)
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. Yield: enough for a 3 layer cake.--Mrs. L.H. Wiggins, Greesnboro, North Carolina"
---"Making the most of bananas," Southern Living, February 1978 (p. 206)

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."

I found a recipe that was excellent on the Nestle website that gave me the best hummingbird cake I have ever had. It is a recipe that someone submitted to their site, not a Nestle recipe.

Mostly, I have had it in layers with a cream cheese frosting or a frosting like red velvet cake frosting.

When I've made it for Bake Sales, I make them in the little tea cake tins and frost them with cream cheese frosting. I haven't done a bake sale in about a year or more, but would make this again. They are a BIG seller item, and were sold at two dollars for each little rectangle brick.

The recipe gave me 8 tins and I make it three times for a grand total of 24 little tins.

You can cut a bundt cake into layers too, and frost it. But, I think the cake is so rich, tasty and moist, that just a bundt and powdered sugar would be perfect too.

Best made with really ripe bananas.

I always figured that it was called Hummingbord Cake because it was so intensely sweet and hummingbirds drink nectar (and sugar water). Someone should clue the blogger from Finland in on the fact that the Southern US probably hold's the world's record for biggest sweet tooth. I've seen people put sugar on banana sandwiches, in vegetables, and our iced tea can double as IV glucose in an emergency. :D

But, yes, it's traditionally a layer cake. That way you can squeeze more sweet stuff between the layers. LOL!

My DD found those cute little dried pineapple flowers at Trader Joes called "Dried Baby Sweet Pineapple... unsweetened & unsulfured." This would be a whole lot easier and a lot more energy efficient than drying in the oven for 12 hours like I did.

The recipe Deborah posted sounded so good, I now have it in the oven! We are having visitors tomorrow and needed to bake something anyway.

As I don't have the pineapple flowers, my plan is to sprinkle it with fresh coconut. Pineapple, bananas and nuts, thought coconut would work.

I'll let you know tomorrow!

One look at the cake pictured in the link posted by Carol (reading lady) and I fully understand the name. I can just see a hummingbird flitting around and attempting to drink the nectar of those flowers.

This recipe was in the Washington Post a few years ago. I've made it a few times and it's good!

Hummingbird Cake

(12 to 14 servings)

This Southern specialty is a very moist banana, pineapple and pecan cake good enough to serve without any frosting at all. Toast the pecans in a 325-degree preheated oven for 8 minutes to enhance their flavor.

Butter for the pans

For the Cake:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
5 ounces (1 stick plus 2 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups (about 3) mashed ripe bananas
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 scant cup (8-ounce can) crushed pineapple in its own juice, drained
1 cup rough-chopped toasted pecans

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
6 ounces (1'/z sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1 cup rough-chopped toasted pecans

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter bottoms and sides of two 9-inch, 2-inch-deep cake pans. Line pan bottoms with parchment or wax paper and butter the paper.

For the cake: Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together and set aside. Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl on high for about 3 minutes until fluffy. You will have small crumbs of butter. Add the eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat for 1 minute. Add the vanilla and mashed bananas, mixing until no large pieces of banana remain. On low speed, add half the flour mixture, mixing just until it is incorporated. Add the buttermilk, mixing just to incorporate it. Then mix in the remaining flour, stopping as soon as it is incorporated. Use a large spoon to stir in the pineapple and pecans.

Divide the the batter equally between the prepared pans. Bake for about 35 minutes until a toothpick withdraws clean from the center. Cool the layers for 5 minutes in the pans. Loosen the sides of the cake from the pan. Invert the layers onto a wire rack and discard the paper liner. Turn the cake layers right-side up to cool completely, about 1 hour.

For the frosting: Beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla in a large bowl on medium speed until smooth and thoroughly blended. On low speed add the confectioners' sugar 1 cup at a time. Beat until the frosting is smooth, about 1 minute.
Put one of the cake layers top-side up on a cake plate. Spread about 1 cup of the frosting evenly over the top of the cake layer. Top with the second cake layer. Spread the remaining frosting over the top and sides of the cake. Sprinkle the pecans over the top. Refrigerate for up to 3 days and serve at room temperature.

Per serving (based on 14): 630 calories, 6 gm protein, 76 gm carbohydrates, 36 gm fat, 113 mg cholesterol, 16 gm saturated fat, 220 mg.

We had the cake last night and it was wonderful! My daughter even had some for breakfast this morning (oh, to be 13 and eating cake for breakfast).

I made Deborah's recipe (Mrs. Wiggins). I made the mistake of putting all the nuts in the cake instead of saving some for the top, oops - but it was wonderful anyway! I also subbed some applesauce for some of the oil and used fat-free cream cheese for the frosting - this I do NOT recommend. Not because of the flavor, the cake, as mentioned above would be great without any frosting; however, the fat-free cheese I think is too soft for the frosting. It kept wanting to ooze out between the layers. I chilled it in the fridge and it was a little better. So, my cake wasn't exactly 'beautiful' and I didn't present it to the guests, I served it from the kitchen. It was quite pretty on the plate and the taste made up for it's less than stellar presentation. I will certainly make this cake again. The coconut on top was also a very good substitue if you can't get the pineapple flowers.

I made the Mrs Wiggins hummingbird cake for our food fest tomorrow. I thought I'd ressurect this post and include a picture of my cake!