Hummingbird Celebration Cake

I'm not sure where this recipe originated. It's handwritten into the recipe book I left home with way back when. It's essentially a banana and pineapple cake with a relentlessly moreish cream cheese frosting. For such an impressive looking and tasting cake, it sure is easy. And it makes a great alternative to the stock-standard butter cake for when you want to layer up a tower of deliciousness to celebrate something wonderful…like a birthday, a christening, or the launch of a Very Bloggy Morning Tea.

For the cake, you will need:


3 cups plain flour
2 cups caster sugar
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp bicarb soda
2 mushy bananas, mashed
440g tin crushed pineapple in natural juice


Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Throw all the ingredients in a bowl and beat with mixers. Distribute evenly between 3 or 4 greased and lined 20-22cm cake tins. If you've only got two matching tins like I do, do it in two lots.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

For the cream cheese frosting, you will need:

125g butter
250g cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla essence
500g icing sugar mixture

Soften butter and cheese in the microwave for one minute. Beat until smooth. Add vanilla and icing sugar and beat until well combined. Try to resist eating huge spoonfuls of it straight from the bowl. Layer cakes with frosting between each layer, then smother the entire thing with more frosting.

Serve fat slices on tiny plates, and when you're done, go back for seconds.

Donate to my Very Bloggy Morning Tea here. Check out the great giveaway here. Did you see Vanessa's beautiful cakey tale back here? Go on, it deserves a read.