I recently made a couple of hummingbird cakes to show of some gorgeous nasturtium blossoms that were blooming in my springtime garden.  I made one cake with cream cheese frosting, shredded coconut, and orange nasturtium flowers; and a second cake decorated with yellow nasturtiums, pecans and edible leaves and flowers.

In this post I would like to share with you the second hummingbird cake I made with yellow nasturtium flowers, toasted pecans, edible pansies, scented geraniums, and mint leaves.

Hummingbird Cake:

from Allrecipes.com Hummingbird Cake
with a few modifications

Ingredients: makes two 9 inch cakes

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1 tsp pumpkin spice
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups canola oil
• 3 eggs
• 1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained
• 2 cups mashed bananas from 2 bananas
• 1 cup chopped black walnuts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9-inch cake pans.  I use parchment paper at the bottom of the cake pans and then greased and floured them. This will assure that the cake comes out when cooked.

Sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon powder, allspice, nutmeg, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the oil, eggs, pineapple, bananas, vanilla, and nuts. 

Add the liquid mixture to the flour mixture and mix together by hand.

Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in center of each pan comes out clean, about 50 min – 1 hour. Remove from oven and allow to cool on racks for 1 hour before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

For the cream cheese frosting I chose the recipe from Food Network’s Paula Deen’s Hummingbird Cake Cream Cheese Frosting .  But I cut the sugar in half and used half the butter, as I found the taste to be too sweet and buttery.  Here is my modified recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 stick butter, softened
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Prepare the frosting by blending together the cream cheese, butter, sugar and vanilla until smooth. 

Decorate the Hummingbird Cake: 

Make the Hummingbird Cake in two 9″ cake pan and cool for 1 hour.  Spread the cream cheese frosting evenly all around the cooled cakes.

In a bowl set aside 1 cup chopped toasted pecans. Pick pansies, mint leaves, scented geranium leaves, and a few yellow nasturtium blossoms.

Pansies

Using your hands gently press chopped pecans all around the sides of the cake.

Decorate the top of cake with pansies, scented geraniums, mint leaves and yellow nasturtium blooms. Place a flower at the center and then start adding blooms in circles around the center bloom.

The best presentation for the nasturtium bloom is to lay them on the cake upright rather than flattening the blooms. This gives the flowers a chance to stay fresh longer on the cake.  Hummingbird Cake with Toasted Pecans and Edible Pansies is Ready!

These hummingbird cakes with nasturtiums blooms make amazing statement desserts.  Try making them at your next dinner or lunch gathering and see your guests be wowed by the gorgeous presentation. Not only are these cakes beautiful to look at, this favored southern banana and pineapple cake is delicious as well.

Mother’s Day Tip 💝

Impress your Mom, sister, Aunty and your lady friends with these gorgeous edible flower hummingbird cakes on Mother’s Day.

Allrecipes.com Hummingbird Cake.

Food Network’s Paula Deen’s Hummingbird Cake Cream Cheese Frosting