Hummingbird Cake

This is an old recipe that I got from one of my first cookbooks many, many years ago. Hummingbird Cake is basically a banana-pineapple-nut cake. It’s moist, delicious, and absolutely addictive. I usually bake it in a bundt pan and serve it plain, but you could also bake it in three round cake pans and frost each layer with a cream cheese frosting. Either way is delicious and will have you humming with delight!

HUMMINGBIRD CAKE

• 3 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 3 eggs
• 1½ cup vegetable oil
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 can (8 ozs.) crushed pineapple in juice, undrained
• 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Generously grease a bundt pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon with a wooden spoon.
3. Add the eggs, oil, vanilla, bananas, pineapple, and nuts, and stir together well.
4. Pour into prepared pan.
5. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (In my oven, 50 minutes is perfect, but depending on your oven, this could take up to 70 or 80 minutes.)

NOTE: If desired, cake may be baked in three 9-inch round cake pans. If using three cake pans, bake at 350°F for 25-30 minutes. Allow to cool completely, then frost with cream cheese frosting.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

• 2 pkg. (8-oz. each) cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup salted butter or margarine, softened
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract

1. With an electric mixer set on medium-low speed, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth.
2. Add powdered sugar little by little, beating at low speed until blended.
3. Stir in vanilla.
4. Increase speed to medium-high, and beat until fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes.

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Super Moist Banana Bread

When Spunky was born, I hired a girl named Angela to help me around the house. She came from war-torn Nicaragua where she grew up in an orphanage run by nuns. She didn’t cook, but there was one thing that she did make and that was this banana bread. Angela told me that the nuns taught her how to make it and she shared the recipe with me. It’s the simplest recipe to make and the bread turns out super moist and delicious.

SUPER MOIST BANANA BREAD

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 2/3 cup butter or margarine
• 1/3 cup water
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp. vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8×4-inch loaf pan.
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and cinnamon together in a large bowl.
3. In a small bowl, melt butter and water together in microwave.
4. Pour into flour mixture and mix well.
5. Add mashed bananas, beaten eggs, and vanilla, stirring until well combined.
6. Pour into prepared loaf pan.
7. Bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

NOTE:  Old Goat always wants nuts in his banana bread. If you want nuts in yours, feel free to stir 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans into the batter. This bread is also good with 1/2 cup chocolate chips stirred into the batter before baking.

Banana Cream Pudding

When “Walking Dead” season starts, we have dinner at my sister and brother-in-law’s house every Sunday night. Helen, Anthony, Old Goat Honey, and I are huge fans of “The Walking Dead.” Unlike Helen, Anthony, and Old Goat, however, I never liked zombie movies. In fact, I don’t really like horror movies at all! At least not the gory ones. I made the mistake of watching “Friday the 13th” once when I was younger (if you can call peeking between my fingers “watching”) and I had nightmares for weeks afterwards! But for some reason, “The Walking Dead” has drawn me in just like thousands of other fans. So during the season, Old Goat and I trek faithfully over to Helen and Anthony’s house every Sunday where we all have dinner and then sit down to watch the show together.

Dinner preparations are usually a combination affair. Helen makes some of the dishes and I make the others. This Sunday, I offered to be in charge of the entrée and the dessert. Since I was going to be making the main entrée, I thought I should do something simple for dessert. I used to make this banana pudding for my kids all the time when they were little. It’s one of those dishes on my list of “Comfort Foods.” And what could be more fitting when you’re watching a scary movie than a comfort food dish?

BANANA CREAM PUDDING

• 1½ cups cold water
• 1 (14-oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 box (5.7 oz.) instant vanilla pudding mix
• 3 cups heavy cream
• 1 box Lorna Doone shortbread cookies or vanilla wafers
• 6-8 bananas, sliced (depends on how big your bananas are)

1. Mix together the water, condensed milk, and pudding mix until smooth.
2. Refrigerate for 5-10 minutes or until it sets up.
3. Whip heavy cream until soft peaks form.
4. Working in thirds, fold the whipped cream into the pudding mixture until well incorporated.
5. In a trifle bowl, layer vanilla wafers, sliced bananas, and pudding mixture; continue until you’ve used up all the pudding mixture.
6. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving.
7. If desired, sprinkle some crumbled cookies and add some fresh banana slices on top for garnish right before you serve.