Hummingbird Cake

This is a recipe I got from Paula Deen's website.  It should be called banana bread cake though!

 

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
3 large eggs, beaten
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
3 ripe, mashed bananas
12 oz. crushed pineapple, with juice
1 and 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Frosting:
8 oz. package cream cheese at room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter at room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
1 pound confectioners’ sugar


Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350º F. Grease and flour three 9-inch round cake pans.  (I have one pan that is shaped like a sunflower, so I just did one pan.  Paula's recipe uses 3 pans and then you put icing in the middle of each layer.  Feel free to do it however you want).

2. Stir together the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add the eggs and oil and stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Just mix it, don't "beat" the dough. Stir in the banana, pineapple and its juice, nuts, and vanilla. Put the batter into your 3 small pans and cook 23-28 minutes, OR in your larger pan and cook for about 35-40 minutes, (until tooth pick in center comes out clean). Cool for 10 minutes in pan, then turn out onto racks to cool completely.

3. While the cake cools, blend together cream cheese and butter. Gradually add the powdered sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla. Stir in the pecans or walnuts, or reserve them to sprinkle over the frosted cake (like I chose to do). Fill and frost the cake if you did 3 pans, or simply ice the top if you did one big pan.