Hummingbird Cake Recipe

This delicious Hummingbird Cake is an old fashioned favorite. It is wonderfully moist and bursting with flavor from ripe bananas, crushed pineapple, pecans, and a hint of cinnamon. The cake is filled and frosted with luscious cream cheese frosting- if you are looking for a great go-to hummingbird cake recipe, this is it!

We LOVE classic cakes that incorporate fruit for an added boost of flavor, texture, and moistness (like our Carrot Cake Recipe, Italian Cream Cake and German Chocolate Cake just to name a few!)

Whether you are searching for birthday cake ideas, banana cake recipes, holiday cakes, or a delicious recipe "just because", this moist hummingbird cake recipe is the perfect choice.

Today's cake has been our go-to Hummingbird Cake recipe for years, and it is based on a classic Hummingbird Cake recipe that first appeared in the Southern Living Magazine in the 1970s.

How to Make Hummingbird Cake

Unlike most of our cake recipes, there's no need to drag out the stand mixer for this one!  You'll be doing a little stirring for a change with this one-bowl recipe.

*You can find the full, printable recipe card for hummingbird cake further down in this post. Here is a quick look at our steps!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour three 8-inch round pans. I also like to add a circle of parchment paper to the bottom of each pan.

• First, in a large mixing bowl, combine the all purpose flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon and whisk to blend. 

• Next, add the room temperature eggs and vegetable oil, stirring with a spoon until the dry ingredients are moistened. Add the vanilla extract, crushed pineapple, chopped pecans, and mashed ripened bananas and stir until incorporated. That's all there is to it!

• Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula and divide batter between the three prepared 8-inch round pans.

• Bake at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.

• After baking, we like to cool the cake layers on a cooling rack for about 5-10 minutes while still in their pans. You can then flip them out. Allow the layers to cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Every good Hummingbird Cake should be dressed in the most delicious cream cheese frosting recipe, and as far as we are concerned, you can never have too much!

For today's recipe, we are using our Pipeable Cream Cheese Frosting recipe which is slightly thicker than our usual  Cream Cheese Buttercream frosting, but both recipes would work well with this Hummingbird Cake!

Cream cheese frostings couldn't be easier to make. It is just a matter of combining softened butter and cream cheese, confectioners sugar, and flavorings!

Don't let the simplicity fool you- Cream Cheese Frosting may be easy to make but the flavor is amazing! We love it with so many recipes, from our Spice Cake to Red Velvet Cake, Elvis Presley Cake and more!

Assembling the Cake

• Place the first layer on your cake stand or cake platter. Spread with cream cheese frosting. Follow with the second layer and repeat.

• Top with the final cake layer and crumb coat (apply thin coat of frosting). I decorated my hummingbird cake with lots of piping around the sides of the cake using a star tip 21 but decorate however you like! If at any time your cream cheese frosting seems too soft, chill it for several minutes to thicken up the consistency.

• Also, if your cake layers are shifting or sliding as you frost the cake, pop it in the freezer for about 15 minutes or so to firm things up and then continue.

Recipe FAQs

I think that stirring a hefty bowl of cake batter counts as a mini-workout, don't you? Reward yourself with a big ol' slice of this deliciousness.

We hope that you love this Hummingbird cake recipe as much as we do! It has become a trusted southern classic, right up there with Banana Cream Cake, Coconut Cream Cake, and Buttermilk Pound Cake!

If you love pineapple cakes, don't miss our homemade pineapple cake, piña colada cake, and pineapple coconut pound cake!

More Banana Cakes

One of the star flavors of this hummingbird cake recipe is banana! If you are a fan of banana cakes like we are, don't miss these other delicious recipes! Some of our favorites are Banana Pudding Cake, Banana Split Cake, and Banana Pudding Bundt Cake. We also have a great cake mix version for Hummingbird Cupcakes!

More Hummingbird Cake Options

Make sure to check out our Coconut Hummingbird Cake Recipe (pictured below), as well as our Hummingbird Bundt Cake, and a delicious Hummingbird Doctored Cake Mix Recipe! These recipes are guaranteed to be the hit of any birthday party, potluck, or gathering of friends!

Thanks so much for stopping by! We hope that you enjoy this hummingbird cake!

Don't miss our favorite cake recipes from scratch as well as our cake mix recipes! We even have a roundup of favorite cake recipes with pecans! Don't miss our full collection of recipes in our Cake Recipes section!

Also, if you'd like to learn about cake decorating, we have hundreds of cake decorating tutorials to share with you!

Hummingbird Cake

BY Melissa and Bebe

With flavors of banana, pineapple, pecans, and cinnamon, this amazing Hummingbird Cake recipe is sure to become an instant favorite!

Prep Time: 20 minutes mins

Cook Time: 30 minutes mins

Course: Cakes and Cupcakes

Servings: 15 servings

RATE THIS RECIPE

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Ingredients

For the Hummingbird Cake

• ▢ 3 cups (363g) all purpose flour
• ▢ 2 cups (400g) granulated sugar
• ▢ 1 teaspoon (5g) baking soda
• ▢ ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
• ▢ 1 teaspoon (3g) ground cinnamon
• ▢ 3 large eggs, room temperature lightly beaten
• ▢ 1 cup (215g) vegetable oil
• ▢ 1 ½ teaspoons (6g) vanilla extract
• ▢ 1 8 oz (227g) can crushed pineapple, undrained.
• ▢ 1 cup (100g) chopped pecans
• ▢ 1 ¾ cup (392g) mashed ripe bananas (4 large)

For the PIpeable Cream Cheese Frosting

• ▢ 2 sticks (226g) unsalted butter, softened (do not soften in microwave)
• ▢ 24 oz cream cheese, (total 678g), softened (We used three 8 oz packages- full fat.)
• ▢ 3 cups (343g) confectioners sugar
• ▢ 2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla extract

Instructions

For the Hummingbird Cake

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, Grease and flour three 8 inch pans. (We like to line with parchment paper also.)
• Combine the first 5 ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Whisk to blend. Add eggs and oil, stirring with a spoon until the dry ingredients are moistened. Do not beat the mixture. Add the vanilla, pineapple, pecans, bananas and stir until combined.
• Spoon batter into three 8 inch greased and floured cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.
• Cool in pans 10 minutes on cooling rack and remove from pans.
• Makes 6 cups of batter.

For the Pipeable Cream Cheese Frosting

• Put the softened butter in the bowl of your mixer and mix until smooth.
• Add the pieces of softened cream cheese to the mixing bowl. The cream cheese should be soft enough that it combines easily into the butter/powdered sugar mixture. Beat on low/medium speed about 1 minute or until the cream cheese is blended in.
• Add the powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat on Medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes (a bit longer if using a hand mixer). Scrape the bowl mid way through. Do not over beat.
• Makes 6 cups
• Use immediately or refrigerate. If beaten too long it my become too soft. If this happens, just refrigerate a short time and let it firm up.

Loved This Recipe?!

Check out @mycakeschool for more!