Facts About Hummingbird cake
Hummingbird cake is a banana-pineapple spice cake common in the Southern United States. Ingredients include flour, sugar, salt, vegetable oil, ripe banana, pineapple, cinnamon, pecans, vanilla extract, eggs, and leavening agent. It is often served with cream cheese frosting.
History
Created on the island of Jamaica, hummingbird cake was named after the island's national bird, where it is also known as the Doctor Bird cake (Doctor Bird is another name for the island's national bird). In 1968, the Jamaica Tourist Board exported the recipe for hummingbird cake, along with other local Jamaican recipes, in media press kits sent to the USA. The marketing was aimed at American consumers to get them to come to the island. As printed in the March 29, 1979 issue of the Kingston Daily Gleaner (Jamaica), “Press kits presented included Jamaican menu modified for American kitchens, and featured recipes like the doctor bird cake, made from bananas.”
One of the first known publications of the recipe in US print, as written by L.H. Wiggins, was in the February 1978 issue of Southern Living. The cake won the Favorite Cake Award later that same year at the Kentucky State Fair.
It was selected Southern Living's favorite recipe in 1990 and was noted as the most requested recipe in the magazine's history. The cake typically has two or three layers with pecans (or walnuts), mashed bananas, crushed pineapple and cream cheese frosting.
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