The Vintage Cake From The '60s That Deserves A Big Resurgence

While some old-school recipes are a product of their time and call for rare ingredients and unusual preparation methods, many can still be used to create amazing baked goods. In fact, one vintage cake from the '60s deserves a revival. Hummingbird cake, which became popular throughout the southern U.S. in the '60s and '70s, is a rich, spice-infused layer cake featuring banana, pineapple, and pecans. 

Most versions of hummingbird cake call for three layers, each covered in a tart, smooth cream-cheese frosting. Its taste is somewhere between a nutty, subtly sweet banana bread and a pineapple upside-down cake, with heavy notes of warming spices. Its texture is dense, like a carrot cake, and the large pieces of fruit provide bursts of flavor and help the cake retain moisture after baking. 

Because it is a simple cake to make, yet has such a striking presentation, it's the perfect dessert to bring to an office party, family dinner, or potluck. Guests will think that you spent hours making it, yet the recipe start to finish shouldn't take more than an hour. Plus, its tropical flavors are surprising, and perfectly balanced by the tangy cream cheese frosting. 

The recipe is also easy to customize based on personal preference or baking expertise. For instance, if you find layer cakes challenging, you can make a sheet cake using the layer cake's recipe. If you're looking for something even simpler, our hummingbird loaf cake recipe only takes 30 minutes to prep, and includes a cup of spiced rum, turning it into a tropical, boozy banana-bread upgrade. 

The invention of hummingbird cake has more than one explanation, but most say the real story of its conception has roots in 1960s Jamaica. Back then, the country's tourist board wanted to highlight the flavors of island cooking and baking as part of a brand awareness campaign to boost tourism. It decided to use the country's national bird as inspiration — enter the swallow tail hummingbird, aka the doctor bird — and published a recipe for doctor bird cake in Jamaican newspapers. The delicious recipe was quickly shared with media outlets in the U.S. and became known as hummingbird cake.

Despite the fact that the recipe became incredibly popular, its primary ingredients are actually not typical of traditional Jamaican recipes; the sponge cake and frosting were likely inspired by colonial British recipes of the time. In 1978, Southern Living published a recipe for the cake, adding toasted pecans to the original ingredients list. This classic Southern twist might be the reason hummingbird cake became one of the most beloved cakes in the South. Though it may have remained a favorite dessert in that part of the country, we think it's past due for a comeback across the U.S.