And we loved Michael Arnovitz’ “Hummingbird Cake” so much that we’re giving him a jar of relish too.

Thanks to everyone who participated!

HUMMINGBIRD CAKE

I’ve got my eye on those jars of sunchoke relish, so I’m pulling out all the stops!
I just made this a few weeks ago, and it’s ridiculous.

I was invited to a birthday party for a friend with southern roots. By which I mean the Carolinas. Her hair is fine. Anyway, I was asked to bring the dessert. I knew I wanted to bring something southern, and I also knew that I didn’t want to do something typical like a pecan pie. I almost did a coconut cake, but then I found this cake online. I have to admit that I had never heard of Hummingbird Cake before, and that alone made me want to try it out. By the end of the evening there was nothing left but scattered crumbs and glazed eyeballs.

First a little background:
Hummingbird Cake is a southern favorite, but not an old one. As far as anyone can tell the first published version of the recipe only dates to 1978, when it appeared in the February edition of “Southern Living” magazine. As for the cake’s history before that not much is known. There seems to be good evidence that the cake came to the south in the late 60’s by way of Jamaica, but it’s impossible to be sure. In any case the cake went on to become the most requested recipe that Southern Living had ever published, and remains a perennial southern favorite.

Fair warning on a number of points:
First – bananas are the star here, so if you don’t like bananas you will want to skip this cake. Of course if you don’t like bananas you don’t deserve cake, but that’s another issue altogether.
Second – pecans play a strong support role here as they do in many southern desserts, so if you don’t like pecans or are allergic to nuts then move along – nothing to see here.
Third – this cake is very intense, very sweet, and weighs only slightly less than your average bowling ball. If you prepare it as shown below, you will need 8-12 people to polish it off, and about half of them will have to lie down afterwards. Don’t try this with a small group. I’m not kidding, I don’t care how much time you just spent with your bong; you and two buddies will not polish off this cake. And if you try, medical attention may be required.

But I digress. Let’s make some cake!
Here’s the recipe:

* FOR THE CAKE:
* 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
* 3 cups flour, plus more for dusting
* 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (maybe more)
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup chopped pecans
* 1 ½ cups sugar
* 1 cup packed light brown sugar
* 3 eggs, beaten
* 1 8-oz. can crushed pineapple, juice reserved
* 2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 4-5 bananas)
* 1 cup canola oil
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1) Preheat your oven to 350.

2) Roast the pecans in the oven for 5-8 minutes to wake them up (don’t burn them!), and then set them aside and let them cool down.

3) Get your cake pans ready. Line the bottom of three 9″ round cake pans with parchment, lube up each pan with a knob of butter, and then dust them with a little flour so that it coats evenly. Then set them aside. And yes this is a bit of a pain in the ass, but don’t skip this part unless you enjoy trying to glue together hot, shredded cakes.

4) In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt; stir in the pecans and set aside. (Personally I think you can up the amount of cinnamon a bit, and next time I make this cake I will probably do this. I also might get crazy and add a little clove. No guts, no glory.)

5) Buy 4-5 bananas ahead of time and let them get really ripe. Did you forget this part? You’re hosed. Sorry, but you can’t half-ass this bit. When bananas get ripe they don’t just get softer. They get sweeter and have more banana flavor. You need that for this cake. You can speed up the process by sealing the bananas in a paper bag along with an apple or a tomato and leaving them for a day or so. But you’re still going to have to do this in advance. And yes I know that many people find really ripe bananas to be a little disgusting, but you’re not putting them on your cereal, you’re using them as a cake ingredient. Trust me – it will work out.

6) In your mixing bowel beat the sugar, brown sugar and eggs on high until smooth. Turn to low, and mix in the crushed pineapples (along with their juice), the mashed bananas, oil and vanilla until combined. (As a side note, brown sugar is not part of the classic version of this cake. But I find that it adds a nice touch. If want to skip this, or don’t have any brown sugar, just use a TOTAL of 2 cups of white sugar. Also, I think the pineapple tends to get a bit lost in this cake, so I’m tempted to buy rings next time and just chop them up rather than using crushed. Your mileage may vary.)

7) Add the pecan mixture from step 3 and mix on low until combined.

8) Divide the batter evenly into the three prepared cake pans, smooth the tops with a spatula, and then throw those bad boys in the pre-heated oven.

9) How long should you cook the cake layers? Until they are DONE. You know the drill – stick a toothpick in the center of the cake, and if it comes out clean you’re good. In fact take it from me, when it comes to cakes you should always consider recipe times nothing more than a suggestion. My suggestion for this cake is that you should start checking at about 30 minutes. Sometime between then and 50 minutes your cake will probably be done. When they’re done let them cool on racks until you can frost them.

* FOR THE FROSTING:

o ½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
o 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
o 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
o 4 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
o 1 cup chopped pecans

The frosting recipe above is, in theory, enough for this cake. Except I don’t think it really is.
Now perhaps I just suck at frosting cakes, but I ALWAYS run short on frosting. So if you’re one of those people who like to bust out the frosting tips and make stars, ribbons and macramé on your cake – then you might want to think about doubling this frosting recipe, or at least increasing it by half.

1) Take your room temperature butter, drop it into you mixing bowl (with the paddle attachment), and beat the butter until it gets nice and creamy. Then take your room temperature cream cheese, add it to the butter and beat again until the mixture is creamy. By the way, you did remember to take your butter and cream cheese out of the fridge ahead of time so that they would be room temperature, right? Good luck doing this first part if you didn’t. (If you did forget do NOT try to warm your butter up in the microwave. I don’t want to go all Harold McGee on you, but this does things to butter which are not good for the baking process.)

2) Add your vanilla extract (the good stuff please) to the butter/cream cheese mixture, and then begin to add the sifted, powdered sugar. Yes I said sifted, and no you can’t skip that part. Add only a half cup or so at a time; don’t try to rush this part. And turn down the mixer to LOW each time before you add the sugar, unless you enjoy looking like a Japanese Kabuki performer. Each time you add the sugar turn up the speed a bit once it incorporates, and then down to low again as you add more. Once you’ve got all the sugar in there then put the spurs to it and mix on medium-high until the frosting is light and fluffy.

3) Now take about half to two-thirds of the frosting, and mix in those pecans. You remembered to toast these too, right? The next thing you want to do is…wait a minute, are you reaching for some shredded coconut? Stop it. No, just stop it. Listen, we all love coconut, and yes that’s a very popular southern cake too. But that’s a DIFFERENT cake. So put the coconut away for another day. Really.

4) Where were we? OK – when assembling your cake, use the frosting with the toasted pecan bits for between the cake layers, and the sides. You can use it for the top too, but I like to use frosting without pecan bits for the top, and then place half pecans around the outside of the cake. It’s a nice look, but that’s just cosmetic so feel free to riff on that part as you see fit.

That’s it!
This cake goes great with ice cold milk or hot black coffee. And maybe about 20 units of insulin.
Enjoy!

As a primer – stuffing is cooked inside the turkey, while dressing is cooked in a pan.

Dot’s Cornbread Dressing

Ingredients:
1 9 inch pan of cornbread, cooled (2 cups cornmeal, 1 and 1/3 cups
buttermilk, 1 egg, 3 tablespoons bacon grease; bake at 450F for 20-25
min.)
8 slices toasted bread
1 cup broth from turkey stock (stock made from boiled neck and giblets)
1 cup yellow broth from cooked turkey (fatty, collected from bottom of
roasting pan)
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 large vidalia onion, chopped
3 eggs
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
1 can mushroom soup

Preheat oven to 375F. In a large bowl, crumble cornbread and tear bread into small pieces. Add remaining ingredients and mix by hand, adding more broth if mixture is too dry. Transfer to a 9×13 pan and bake for 1 hour.

Deanne Tibbitts
Portland, OR

It’s also really good if you just chop it up fine, then stir fry it with mined onions in a heavy frying pan. Add some hot chili powder and salt. Not slimy at all.

And yes, Joel: Gumbo!

See you Sunday.