Hummingbird Cake

A Southern classic: the Hummingbird Cake is a cousin of the Carrot Cake but instead of carrots it's full of pineapple, pecans, and bananas.  It's got a creamy, tangy cream cheese icing and is great as-is, but you're welcome to color it a festive Robin's Egg Blue for a spring get-together.

Hummingbird Cake

Ingredients

Cake

• 2 2/3 cup cake flour
• 1 cup pecans, chopped and toasted
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 8 oz. can crushed pineapple
• 12 tsp. apple pie spice
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil

• Frosting

• 16 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 12 Tbsp. butter, cubed, at room temperature
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• teal gel food coloring (or with regular food coloring use 7 drops blue and 2 drops green for every cup of icing - scale up or done as needed - or blend to your desired blue color)
• brown food coloring (or with regular food coloring, mix one drop of each color until you about 1/2 tsp. of coloring)
• fresh pink flowers, for decoration

Serves 12
Cook time: 1 hour 

To make the cake: preheat the oven to 350. Grease or butter two 8" cakes tins.
Toss pecans in a little flour just to coat them. Whisk the flour, apple pie spice, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Beat the eggs and  sugar in a separate bowl with a mixer on high speed until thick and light, 5 minutes. Gradually beat in the vegetable oil; mix in the pineapple and mashed banana.  Gently mix the flour mixture into the egg mixture, being careful not to over mix.  Fold in the pecans and transfer the batter to the prepared pans. 
Bake until the cakes are firm and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, 50 to 55 minutes. Cool in the pans on a rack, 25 minutes, then invert the cakes onto the rack to cool completely.
Make the frosting: beat the cream cheese with a mixer until fluffy, then gradually beat in the butter until combined, then beat in the powdered sugar. Add the lemon and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy.  Add teal food coloring one drop at a time until you achieve your desired color.
Place one cake layer on a serving plate. Spread about half of the frosting on top, then cover with the other cake layer. Spread the remaining frosting over the top and sides of the cake.  Put the brown food coloring in a small bowl and dip just the tips of a brush into the color; using your wrist, flick the brush all over the cake until you get brown speckles all over.  I would wait until shortly before serving the cake to do the brown food color, it can bleed if done too far in advance; I also recommend doing a few test flicks on a paper towel till you get the hang of it.  
Decorate with fresh pink flowers.