Dr. Bird Cake
This cake, with it’s strange name and all, is easily one of the yummiest I’ve had in a while. It’s perfectly nostalgic, kinda coffee-cake-ish, kinda banana bread-ish, with a yummy pourable butter frosting coating the whole thing!
I know this cake sounds weird. I get it.
And to be honest I don’t love the name at all. Because I don’t really enjoy going to doctors. And I sincerely despise birds.
Like for real hate hate hate.
They are so swoopy and pecky and dude they fly.
THEY FLY…
It’s creepy!
Plus, around here there are like buzzards and things and they’re just waiting for you to die so they can peck your eyeballs out.
Hungry yet?
AND there are birds that can talk. It basically defies the laws of nature.
Once I got close to a bird and it said “Hola” to me. I swear it happened. So nevermore will I be close enough to a bird that I can hear it speaking to me and then inevitably having it peck my eyeballs out. Never.More.
But this cake. Despite the name it rules the world.
Dr. Bird Cake.
I didn’t invent this one. It’s apparently been around for ages. I got the recipe in one of my mom’s old-timey compilation recipe books…
But after doing a little research I found that Dr. Birds are another name for Hummingbirds.
So essentially this is a Hummingbird Cake.
I tweaked the recipe ever so slightly and then made it in a 9×13 pan.
Cakes made in 9×13 pans always seem easier to me. Like a perfect weeknight or Sunday dessert. Right?
Anyhow, this cake has banana…
And also some crushed pineapple. Yep, it’s good.
I whisked my dry ingredients together…
And combined them with the wet ones to make a batter.
After I baked it it looked like this…
You could certainly stop there. Or you could dust it with powdered sugar. OR you could whip up some cream cheese frosting…
But I decided to make a butter glaze frosting. Because I love a frosting that gets all crusty when it sets.
Seriously, look how good…
Such a classic and yummy recipe!
Description
serves 12
Ingredients
- 3 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 1/2 cups vegetable or canola oil
- 1 (8 oz) can crushed pineapple, undrained
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 3 eggs, whisked
- 2 large bananas, diced (scant 2 cups)
Icing
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 5 Tbsp milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°
- Spray a 9×13 baking pan with cooking spray and set aside.
- IN large bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and sugar. Set aside.
- In bowl of stand mixer mix oil, pineapple, vanilla, whisked eggs and diced bananas until lightly combined. With mixer on lowest setting add in the dry ingredients until batter just comes together.
- Pour batter into prepared pan.
- Bake for 45-50 minutes.
Icing
- Combine powdered sugar, melted butter and milk in a bowl and whisk until all lumps are gone.
- Pour icing onto warm cake and allow to cool completely.
Notes
store airtight for up to 3 days
Here’s another strangely named dessert, that is to-die for!
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I wasn’t sure what to expect with a cake named that, but it looks great! Love that icing! 🙂
I love hummingbird cake, but I never knew it could be called that! Way cooler name, IMO 🙂
Totally reminds me of a Hummingbird Cake. I bet that’s where the name is from. It looks amazing!!
Birds are from the devil. Straight up, I don’t doubt it for one hot second.
Wow, what a fun cake! Bananas, pineapples, and frosting…count me in! Pinned 🙂
The name is so intriguing! You convinced me – I gotta try it!
Looks DELICIOUS!!! I have to tell you I absolutely love all of your recipes!!!! Thank you for all the time you take to share them with us!!!! Do you think a Brown Butter Frosting would be good on this???
Brown Butter Frosting would be good on just about anything! Great idea!! And thank you so so much 🙂
Ooh I just love hummingbird cake! This looks lovely and light.
The Toledo Mudhens are a “farm” baseball team in Ohio.
As a PhD whose dissertation work was in songbirds…I HAVE to make this, LOL! Plus I love the idea of a cake with both crushed pineapple and bananas.
That looks so good! I love the name 🙂
Yes. Please!
And I agree on the crusty frosting
Looks delicious! I love rediscovering old recipes.
Dr. Bird…. totally expecting it to have Dr. Pepper and maybe some sort of bird in it. lol! I much prefer your version rather than what my mind made up. 😉
I plan to make this today, but I’m not sure which pineapple to use. I bought 1 can of crushed pineapple in 100% pineapple juice and 1 can in heavy syrup. Which would be better? Thank you!
pineapple juice for sure!!
Hummingbird cake is one of my all-time favorites, and this version looks just wonderful!
This cake looks so good! I like banana and pineapple in this cake 🙂
This cake is delicious, no matter what it’s called…we use cream cheese icing mostly ….birds are awesome creatures! Most are so pretty, and the pet types can be so sweet and loving. Now, as far as flying, and being evil? BATS, I tell ya!! lol
★★★★★
I tried this recipe yesterday and it tasted great! Bananas, pineapple and cinnamon was certainly a combination I had never baked before. I especially loved how all of these flavors came together.
Thank you for the lovely recipe!
★★★★★
Thank you!!
Can you use unsweetened applesauce instead of oil?
You can use applesauce instead of eggs, but I have never replaced oil with applesauce.