Hummingbird Cake with Painted Floral Buttercream

Today I’m sharing a high altitude recipe for a classic hummingbird cake, made with bananas, pineapple and pecans, frosted with sweet and tangy cream cheese buttercream. The cake is moist, flavorful and dense, with four layers of cake to fill with as much of the delicious buttercream as possible. And for a pretty and unique look for spring, I painted the cake with more buttercream in a whimsical floral pattern. Read on to find out how to make this spectacular cake that’s perfect for Easter, Mother’s Day, or spring and summer birthday parties.

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What is a Hummingbird Cake?

A hummingbird cake is a classic Southern cake. It’s a very moist, slightly dense cake, made with mashed bananas, crushed pineapple, and chopped pecans, and is usually frosted with cream cheese buttercream. The texture is very similar to a carrot cake. You can even add coconut flakes to the cake batter, which nicely complements the other tropical flavors. It’s also a very easy cake to make, since you only need to sift the dry ingredients and then whisk in the liquid ingredients to make the cake batter.

Hummingbird cake is thought to have been invented in Jamaica in the 60s, although the first printed recipe is attributed to Mrs. Wiggin, who supplied the recipe to Southern Living magazine in 1978. Some say the cake is named after a hummingbird since it’s sweet enough to attract hummingbirds (who only drink nectar).

The most popular way to decorate a hummingbird cake is with a sprinkling of chopped pecans on the frosting. But since hummingbirds love the nectar in flowers, I thought it only fitting to decorate my cake with a floral painted buttercream design.

Ingredients

Cake

• All-Purpose Flour. Gives the cake structure.
• Granulated Sugar. Sweetness and moisture.
• Cinnamon. A little spice complements all the flavors of the fruit.
• Baking Powder. Leavens the cake so it rises.
• Coarse Kosher Salt. Balances the sweetness.
• Vegetable Oil. Moisture. You can also use melted butter instead of the oil.
• Eggs. Add structure.
• Bananas. You’ll need over-ripe bananas with lots of brown spots for the best flavor in this hummingbird cake.
• Crushed Pineapple. Canned crushed pineapple with the juice adds moisture and flavor.
• Pecans. Chopped pecans add flavor, texture and crunch.
• Coconut. Not included in my recipe card below, but 3/4 cup of coconut flakes adds more texture and flavor to the cake.
• Vanilla Extract. Flavor.

Buttercream

• Cream Cheese + Unsalted Butter. The cream cheese gives the buttercream a wonderful tangy flavor, while the butter stabilizes the soft texture of the cream cheese.
• Powdered Sugar. Thickens and sweetens the frosting.
• Meringue Powder. Stabilizes and improves the texture of buttercream.
• Coarse Kosher Salt. Balances the sweetness.
• Vanilla Extract. Flavor.
• Pecans. Add some finely chopped pecans right into the buttercream, sprinkle between the cake layers, and/or sprinkle on top of the cake for garnish. I did not include the pecans in my buttercream since I did the painted floral design.

Instructions

Cake

• Preheat the oven to 350 F, and spray the bottoms of four 8-inch cake pans with non-stick spray.
• In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder and salt.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, eggs, mashed bananas, crushed pineapple with the juice, and vanilla extract.
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix just until moistened. Fold in the pecans.
• Divide the batter between the pans. Bake on the center oven rack for about 22-25 minutes, until the tops spring back when lightly touched and a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean.
• Set the pans on a cooling rack, covered with a clean kitchen towel, and cool completely.

Buttercream

• In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese and butter for one minute on medium speed until smooth.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, meringue powder and salt. With the mixer on low, add the sugar mixture by spoonfuls until combined, then add the vanilla.
• Increase speed to medium and whip for 4-5 minutes, scraping the bowl several times, until thick and fluffy. Turn down the speed to “stir” and mix for several minutes to get rid of air bubbles.
• Fold in the chopped pecans, or save them to sprinkle on the outside of the cake.
• Remove the cooled cakes from the pans. Place one cake layer on a cake board and frost with a layer of buttercream. Repeat stacking and filling the cake layers.
• Frost the cake all over with a very thin crumb coat of buttercream. Refrigerate for 45 minutes to set the crumb coat. Frost the cake all over with a final coat of buttercream, making it as swirly or smooth as you like.

Floral Painted Buttercream

If you’re feeling creative, try your hand at painting some flowers on your cake with buttercream! I have a few tips to get you started, and the rest is up to you! If it doesn’t look perfect, don’t worry. It should be whimsical and dreamy, like a field of wildflowers.

What You’ll Need.

• Buttercream. You’ll need about 1 – 1 1/2 cups of extra buttercream for painting the flowers, and you’ll end up using less than you’d think. I usually use my standard vanilla Perfect American Buttercream for this type of cake decorating project, rather than cream cheese frosting. The consistency shouldn’t be too stiff, since you want it to glide and swirl easily when you spread it on, so thin it with a small amount of milk or cream.
• Gel Food Coloring. Water-based liquid food coloring will thin your buttercream too much, so use gel food coloring to get vibrant colors without excess moisture.
• Sugar Pearls. Sugar pearls in various sizes, or even nonpareils, add lovely texture when used as the centers of your painted flowers.
• Small Icing Spatulas and Palette Knives. In addition to a small, offset icing spatula for creating the larger flower petals, I recommend a palette knife set like this one. The variety of shapes and sizes will let you get really creative with adding little details to your cake.
• Tweezers. For applying the sugar pearls.
• Paper Towels. For wiping off your knives in between colors.

Best Practices for Painting Buttercream.

• Start with a well chilled cake. After filling and frosting your cake with a final coat of buttercream, refrigerate it for at least 2-3 hours so that the frosting is very firm. It’s much easier to paint onto cold, firm frosting than on a soft, squishy cake.
• Make a sketch. With cake decorating, it always helps me to have a plan. With a project like this, I will always sketch it out on paper first so that I know where I want the big and smaller flowers to be, and where I might add other details.
• Choose a complementary color palette. Although color is very subjective, choose colors that complement each other. I chose a simple palette of lemon yellow, leaf green and a little pink for interest and contrast. Deep blues and purples would look beautiful together. Or a blend of various shades of pinks and reds. I love the idea of a cake with just white and cerulean blue.
• Tint your buttercream. After you choose your colors, divide your buttercream into small bowls and tint each one, making sure to keep some of the buttercream white.
• Begin with the bigger designs, and work smaller. Start by swiping on the petals of the largest flowers, working from the outside towards the middle. Then start adding smaller flowers and leaves around the bigger ones.
• Let the colors mix. Flowers in nature are not one solid color, so it will look prettiest if you let your colors blend together. You’ll notice that I painted my flowers with yellow buttercream, and then added more layers on top with white and a little pink. This layering of color adds interest and dimension.
• Embrace imperfections. If you hate how something looks, just carefully scrape it off and try again! But flowers in nature aren’t perfect, and your cake won’t be, either.
• Add the little details. Once you’re happy with how your flowers look, you can add all the other little details. A few leaves peeking out from under the flowers, a few stray petals here and there, and the sugar pearls in the center of the flowers.

Frequently Asked Questions

What if I don’t have four 8-inch cake pans?

You can certainly divide the batter between three 8-inch cake pans instead of four. If you only have two pans and you want to split those into four layers, they need to have tall 3-inch high sides so the batter doesn’t overflow. You can also divide the batter between two or three 9-inch pans.

Can I cut this recipe in half for a smaller cake?

Yes, you can easily make half the batter, and divide it between three or four 6-inch cake pans.

What’s the best frosting for this cake?

Cream cheese buttercream is the classic choice for a hummingbird cake, but a vanilla bean buttercream would also be great.

Does hummingbird cake need to be refrigerated?

The sugar in buttercream acts as a preservative so that the dairy ingredients don’t spoil when a cake is left sitting at room temperature for several days. However, with cream cheese buttercream, I will always refrigerate the leftover cake, then let it sit out for several hours before serving.

Can I make this cake recipe if I don’t live at high altitude?

You sure can! If you’re at a lower altitude, you may need to make a few minor adjustments, such as decreasing the flour by a couple of tablespoons and increasing the baking powder a little. Refer to this article for guidelines on specific adjustments.

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