Sometimes only cake will do. You know what I mean – a craving that only a homemade cake will satisfy. I think the Southern USA has it totally right when it comes to comfort foods – fried chicken, mac n cheese, pie, cobbler, the classic Red Velvet and this hit-the-spot Hummingbird cake. All some of my very favourite foods. It seems appropriate then, that my craving for cake came by watching Jamie Oliver’s new Comfort Food series. It was totally gorgeous. It looked very simple. Obviously I had to make it.

I had actually never made a Hummingbird cake before, even though I just knew I’d love the combination of banana, pineapple and pecans. Because I followed the recipe quite closely, I will just link to the original from Jamie’s website.

It was really easy to make, although mine took a little longer to bake than the recipe said. The major change I made was to halve the quantities from Jamie’s original and make a 3 layer cake in a mini 12cm cake tin, which turned out very cute. I also used fresh pineapple instead of canned and added a little shredded coconut to the cake.

I left out the pecan brittle, mostly because it was a super hot day when I made this and I wasn’t sure it would turn out successfully. I’m sure that extra crunchy textural element would be great, but this cake is already amazing! The cream cheese icing has a little zing from some added lime juice and zest, and I think it would also be delicious with a little lime curd swirled into the cream cheese icing between the cake layers.

I was going to decorate it very simply until I found some edible flowers at the local grocer and thought I’d try them for something quite different from my usual style. They really turn it into something special, I’m completely in love with the pretty spring-like look they give to this cake. It was so fun to photograph and share with friends. If you’re after a dessert that delivers on the wow factor but is actually very simple to make…this is it!