Hummingbird Cake for Nonna's 75th #FoodieReads

Around the time of my mom's 75th birthday, I was reading The Secret to Hummingbird Cake

by Celeste Fletcher McHale. And I was inspired to make the eponymous cake for her birthday luncheon with friends.

On the Page

The Secret to Hummingbird Cake by Celeste Fletcher McHale is a tale about lifelong friends Carrigan, Ella Rae, and Laine who have been besties since kindergarten. They have seen each other through first loves, marriage, infidelity, and, now, a cancer diagnosis. Their connection is a reminder of why female friendships are crucial and deserve to be nurtured. I know that I relish the time with my three best friends. These are from our recent birthday celebration for Pia. We lunched; we shopped for Korean groceries; then we painted wine glasses. It was a fabulous day.

Though we haven't had to deal with any catastrophic losses in our inner circle, we have each lost a parent within the last few years. And I wouldn't have been able to make it through my grief and the on-going journey of dementia with my mom without these ladies.

There was plenty of food mentioned on the pages. Lots of Southern foods...

"'Now, who wants to guess what’s for supper?' Tommy perked up. 'Frog legs?' Ella Rae poked him in the ribs. 'Shrimp and grits'."

"I didn’t know how they did things in the rest of the country, but in the South when somebody died, you cooked for three days. I watched them trail in, one after the other, and knew somewhere in all those containers there lurked pecan pies, fried chicken, rice and gravy, cornbread, every fresh vegetable and dessert imaginable, and a whole lot of sweet tea."

But I decided to actually make a hummingbird cake after reading this...

The first bite was everything I knew it would be. Pineapple, banana, the faint taste of cinnamon and something . . . something I just could never put my finger on. But today I wasn’t going to try. Today I was just going to enjoy this cake. Period.

Hummingbird Cake

If you're unfamiliar with hummingbird cake, here's what I found when I delved into its history and its recipe. The cake’s key ingredients are bananas and pineapple. It is named for its home country, Jamaica, where the hummingbird is the national bird. From what I read, it was originally called 'Doctor bird cake,' a nickname for a Jamaican variety of hummingbird called the Red-billed Streamertail. Some say the cake was named after the bird because it was sweet enough to attract hummingbirds whose only food is nectar.

Mine isn't a traditional cake, but more a combination of several recipes along with whatever I had in my pantry. But it was well-received and enjoyed by Nonna and her friends.

Ingredients

Cake

• 2 cups flour

• 1/2 cup chestnut flour

• 1/2 cup ground almonds

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 cup organic coconut sugar

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• dash of ground cardamom

• dash of ground ginger

• 3 large eggs, beaten

• 1 cup olive oil

• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

• 1 teaspoon allspice liqueur

• 2 cups fresh pineapple, diced

• 2 mashed, ripe bananas

• 1 cup chopped raw pecans

• 1/2 cup golden raisins

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 8 ounces cream cheese

• 8 ounces mascarpone cream

• 1 cup (16 Tablespoons) salted butter, softened

• splash of pure vanilla extract

• 1/2 cup ginger syrup

• 1-1/2 cup organic powdered sugar

• pecans, chopped

Procedure

Cream Cheese Frosting

Beat the cream cheese frosting ingredients - except for the pecans - together until smooth. Set aside.

Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and line pans with parchment paper.

Combine first 5 cake ingredients in a large mixing 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 in preheated oven 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.

Once the cake layers have cooled completely, use a serrated knife to cut the layers flat. Spread a generous amount of cream cheese frosting between each layer and place them on your serving platter.

Smooth the frosting over the top and along the sides. Press pecan pieces into the side. I also decorated with some edible butterflies and flowers.

This was a hit!

I tried to add this post to the November #FoodieReads link-up. But the widget isn't working. Oh, well.