Recipes

Smoky Mountain Hummingbird Cake

Dessert 

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup Buttermilk
• 1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 (8 oz.) can crushed pineapple, undrained
• 1 cup coconut
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1-3/4 cups mashed bananas
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• Cream Cheese Frosting

Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl; add eggs, buttermilk and oil, stirring until dry ingredients are moistened. Do not beat. Stir in vanilla, pineapple, coconut, raisins, 1 cup pecans, and bananas. Pour batter into 3 greased and floured 9-inch round cake pans. Bake at 350° for 25 to 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove from pans, and let cool completely on wire racks. Stir 1/2 cup pecans into Cream Cheese Frosting, if desired, or reserve them to sprinkle over top of frosted cake. Spread frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake.

I don't know why it's called a hummingbird cake. But this came down in our family from way back in the Cove in the Smokies. The Clouses were Wheelrights there. Pineapples, coconuts & bananas was a rare treat then, so if you were luck to get them, you made this cake. Pecans grew in the yard. Lard was use instead of veg, oil. And a boiled white frost or a sugar glaze was a treat.