Hummingbird Cake

Mom wanted to make dessert, she acted like we NEVER have sweets. This from the same woman who claimed we were all getting "fat" from all the sweets I make. (We have all actually lost weight lately! HA!) I was craving something with pineapple and coconut, and came across this recipe stumbling around on the net this evening. I just had to try it!! Mom ended up actually making the cake and I played kitchen manager. (I just sat at the kitchen table and told her what ingredients she needed and such.) I did make the icing myself, but icing is so easy I don't think it counts for very much. Oh, and since it's just the 3 of us here, and we really don't want to get fatter, we only made half the recipe for one 9" cake. The cake kinda reminded me of a cross between banana nut bread and cake. It is really yummy.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup pecans, chopped
  
• 1/2 cup crushed pineapple
  
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 3 dollops sour cream or 3 egg replacer equivalent
• 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 8 or 9-inch round cake pans and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Spread the pecans on a baking sheet and bake until fragrant and toasted, about 4 minutes. Chop the pecans an mix them with the bananas, pineapple, and 1/2 cup flour.

Mix the remaining 2 1/4 cups flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger in a bowl. Mix the sour cream (or egg replacer), sugar and oil in a large bowl.
Add the flour mixture to the sour cream mixture, mix well, and then fold in the fruit mixture.

Spread the batter into the cake pan, and bake until the cakes are firm and toothpick inserted in to the middle come out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Let the cakes cool for 10 minutes then remove them from the pans and let finish cooling about an hour. Once they are cool you can frost them. I made coconut butter frosting, but most people use a cream cheese frosting on this cake. My frosting recipe is below.

Coconut Butter Frosting

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 cup coconut fake or shredded coconut

Fluff the butter with a knife and slowly mix in the sugar.
Add milk, vanilla and coconut and mix until there are no sugar lumps left.
If the icing is too thick add a little milk 1 teaspoon at a time until it is to your liking.