Hummingbird Cake

Alright, so I made my hummingbird cake this morning and it looked scrumptious! It was a little chunky, but I don’t really see any way to avoid that. I got to taste a little sliver that I had to cut off (what a shame… :P). It was very moist like banana bread, but had the nice coconut, nut, and pineapple textures. I used Art Smith’s Hummingbird cake recipe. He’s a chef at some shmancy restaurant in LA or something.
My problems started with the frosting, though. The cream cheese frosting was very tasty, but I had a VERY hard time getting it smooth. If anyone has any suggestions for how to frost cakes smoothly I would love them. When I did the cream cheese frosting, I did the crumb coat and refrigerated for 20 min, but it didn’t seem to set up very much. So when I did other layers of frosting, you could still see the cake underneath. I don’t think I had enough frosting, but I’m sure there are other things I could to avoid these problems. You can look at my pictures to get an idea what I’m talking about.
I made gumpaste flowers and put one in the middle along with some toasted coconut [YUM!].

-Natalie

Cake:

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups chopped ripe bananas
1 cup drained crushed pineapple
1 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs , beaten
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup (4 ounces) finely chopped pecans
Icing:

8 ounces cream cheese , at room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter , at room temperature
1 pound confectioners’ sugar (about 4 1/2 cups sifted)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
To make the cake, position racks in the center and bottom third of the oven and preheat to 350°. Lightly butter two 9″ round cake pans, sprinkle evenly with flour and tap out the excess. (If you wish, butter the pans, line the bottoms with rounds of parchment paper, then flour the pans and tap out the excess.)

Sift the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt into a bowl. In another bowl, stir or whisk the bananas, pineapple, oil, eggs and vanilla until combined. Do not use an electric mixer. Pour into the dry mixture and fold together with a large spatula just until smooth. Do not beat. Fold in the pecans. Spread evenly into the pans.

Bake until the cake springs back when pressed in the center, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer the cakes to wire racks and cool for 10 minutes. Invert the cakes onto the racks (remove the parchment paper now if using). Turn right side up and cool completely.

To make the icing: Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat the cream cheese and butter in a large bowl until combined. On low speed, gradually beat in the sugar, then the vanilla, to make a smooth icing. Note: I found this frosting to be too thick to spread on a cake, so I added some probably around 2-1/2 tablespoons of milk and 1 more oz. of cream cheese.

Place 1 cake layer, upside down on a serving platter. Spread with about 2/3 cup of the icing. Top with the second layer, right side up. Spread the reaming icing over the top and sides of the cake. The cake can be prepared up to 1 day ahead and stored, uncovered in the refrigerator. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour before serving.