Old-Fashioned Hummingbird Cake Recipe

This Old-Fashioned Hummingbird Cake Recipe is very popular down here in the South. But with two banana and pineapple-flavored moist cake layers topped with a delicious cream cheese icing, what’s not to love?

Hummingbird Cake has been a popular dessert in the southern United States since the 1970s. With banana and pineapple flavors, it’s no surprise it originated in the Caribbean – Jamaica to be exact. 

While it looks like it takes a lot of ingredients to make this Old-Fashioned Hummingbird Cake recipe, rest assured a lot of them are pantry and fridge staples you probably already have on hand. What else do you need? Well, just some overripe bananas, a can of crushed pineapple, and chopped pecans.

You slowly mix all the ingredients together and in no time at all, you have your Hummingbird Cake. Thanks to the addition of vegetable oil, this cake is so delightfully moist.

People often say Hummingbird Cake tastes like a cross between banana bread and carrot cake and they’re not wrong! If this sounds like your kind of cake, let’s get baking!

Recipe Ingredients

Old-Fashioned Hummingbird Cake Recipe

• softened unsalted butter
• vegetable oil
• light or dark brown sugar
• sugar
• large eggs, lightly beaten
• 3-4 overripe bananas 
• can of crushed pineapple (don’t drain)
• vanilla extract
• all-purpose flour
• baking soda
• baking powder
• ground cinnamon
• salt
• chopped pecans (or any nuts you like)

Cream Cheese Frosting

• Powdered sugar
• Softened butter
• Softened cream cheese (check out our easy-peasy homemade cream cheese recipe)
• Vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 350F and lightly grease the sides and bottoms of two 8″ or 9″ pans.

Mix together the butter, oil, and sugar in a large bowl. You can do this by hand, but I use an electric mixer. (Now don’t shame me y’all! 🙂 ) Beat that up until well combined.

Add eggs and keep mixin’!

Continue adding the following ingredients: bananas, canned crushed pineapple, and vanilla extract. Stir that up really well.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.

Fold the dry ingredients into the bowl of wet ingredients. Use a spatula and not the mixer for this step.

Then add the pecans to the cake mix. Stir all of it until completely combined. However, make sure you don’t over-stir. Just combine the ingredients and that’s it.

Get your lightly greased cake pans ready and pour the cake batter into them.

Put in the preheated oven and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Use a toothpick to poke the middle and when it comes out clean they are done.

Every oven is different so start checking at 25 to 30 minutes, especially if you are using 8-inch cake pans.

Allow to cool in the baking pan for 5 minutes and while still warm, remove the cakes onto a wire rack.

You can jiggle them a bit to loosen the cakes and flip. I tend to run a knife around the edges and then carefully flip them out onto a cooling rack to cool all the way through.

While the cake is cooling prepare the icing.

Mix cream cheese icing ingredients together until smooth.

How to Assemble the Hummingbird Cake

Place one layer of the cake on a serving dish. Top with cream cheese frosting and spread evenly.

Top with second cake.

Frost top and sides of the cake and serve.

Storage

• Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
• You can freeze tightly-wrapped slices of un-iced cake in the freezer for up to 2 months. The frosting doesn’t freeze well, so you’ll want to add it after the frozen slices have thawed overnight in the fridge.

Recipe Notes

• If you like, top your cake with additional chopped pecans, other chopped nuts of your choice, or a sprinkling of coconut flakes.
• For a more spiced cake, add a teaspoon of nutmeg along with the cinnamon.
• You can also make Hummingbird Cake muffins instead! Divide the batter evenly among paper-lined muffin cups and fill each 3/4 full. Then bake at 350 for 18 to 22 minutes and top with the cream cheese icing.

Recipe FAQs

Can I use fresh pineapple in this Old-Fashioned Hummingbird Cake Recipe?

If you’d prefer to use fresh pineapple instead of canned pineapple, you will need 1 cup of fresh crushed pineapple plus 3 tablespoons of water to make up for the pineapple juice.

How do I ripen my bananas more quickly?

To ripen bananas faster for your classic hummingbird cake, store them in a paper bag alongside an apple and place them in a warm place. It sounds weird, but it works!

Why do they call it Hummingbird Cake?

Well Jaime Oliver explains that all right here.

But the quick version is it used to be called “Doctor Bird Cake” and people think it graduated to “Hummingbird”  because the cake was sweet enough to attract hummingbirds. I’ll let you decide after you taste it 🙂

More scrumptious cake recipes:

Pecan Pie Cheesecake

Peach Dump Cake Recipe (3 Ingredients Only)

Pumpkin Praline Cake With Cream Cheese Icing

Vegan Sweet Potato Cake With Maple Cashew Icing

S’mores Poke Cake

Yellow Cake with Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Icing