Once again it manifests itself. This cooking - baking tandem. Beck made this wonderful hummingbird cake and I tried to eat it all. You can imagine how the treadmill creaked as I mounted it. As if I mounted it enough for it to remember how much I weigh. As if!

This cake has always been one that I would purchase from Whole Foods. It has always been an expensive indulgence, but oh so good. I actually learned about this cake from a woman I was dating. She brought me one and from that point on, I have been in love. I mean with the cake!

So I am sitting in my chair on one of my off Fridays and my wife walks in from her witch doctor chiropractic visit with all of these folded papers. I wonder, yet as a good husband, I say nothing. I am absolutely sure that she will explain. She unfolds the papers, she tells me that she has found a bunch of new recipes that she wants to try. I am a bit off guard here. So I say, “so now we’re stealing pages from the doctor’s periodicals!?” In the most nonchalant voice my sweetheart could use, she replies, “no, I didn’t steal them. I just tore them out.”

Hmmmm…okay.

I know very little nostalgia regarding this cake. I do know; however, that there’s no buzzing going one which would lead me to surmise that there aren’t any actual birds in it. At least I hope. I did read that the first time the recipe appeared in print was 1974, but that the cake has been a southern treat since early 20th century. Hey, I am from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, not Tennessee, and we eat bean pies there with quarts of chocolate milk. Well, strawberry milk on a good day.

Anyways…

This was a great cake. Beck is really getting this baking thing down. She used sweet potatoes in this! Wow. It was moist, dense, and oh so tasty. It really isn’t that difficult to make, coming from a spectator, but you will not be disappointed. Check it out.

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From my wife:

Makes 3 layers
For the cake:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup vegetable oil
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla
3 large eggs – room temperature – lightly beaten
2 cups mashed bananas
2 cups peeled, shredded, uncooked sweet potatoes
1 8 oz can crushed pineapple, drained

For the frosting:
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
½ cup plugra butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups confectioner’s sugar
½ cup chopped pecans - roasted

For the cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Grease 3 - 9 inch round cake pans. Line bottoms with waxed or parchment paper. Grease and flour the paper; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Stir in bananas, oil, eggs and vanilla until moist and thick. Stir in sweet potatoes and pineapple. Spread evenly in prepared pans.

Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes, turning the pans once half way through. Test the cakes with a toothpick for doneness. Remove from oven and let cool completely. Remove from pans, peel off paper.

To toast the pecans, spread onto baking sheet and bake about 10-12 minutes.

For the cream cheese frosting:
Mix together cream cheese, butter, vanilla, confectioner’s sugar, with electric hand mixer until smooth. Stir in pecans. Frost cooled cake.