Hummingbird Cake

Last week was my Grandmother's 81st Birthday. Pretty amazing huh? 81 years on this earth is an accomplishment in and of itself. Since Grandma pretty much has everything she wants {81 years of birthdays will do that for you} Ozzie and I decided to make her a special cake for her birthday this year.

I always wanted to try Martha Stewart's Hummingbird cake and thought this was the perfect occasion. The cake is really easy to make which is not typical of Martha; her recipes can be complicated. The dried pineapple flowers however required patience patience patience. They took three times longer to dry at 225 degrees in my oven than the 30 minutes per side as stated on the recipe. But since it was for Grandma, I held on and resisted the temptation to yank those puppies out of the oven and toss them in the garbage!

The pineapple flowers really are pretty neat when they are done. But if we're being honest, they don't taste too great. I guess like most cake decorations they are there for the aesthetics more than adding any flavor.

The cake itself is very sweet, hence the hummingbird label. It basically tastes like a sweet banana bread. The walnuts really make the cake so don't opt out of those if you try it.

It was fun to try but may be a one hit wonder in my kitchen thanks to those darn pineapple flowers. The good news is Grandma liked it {although I bet she wouldn't of said otherwise}. Happy Birthday Grandma! Thanks for all you do for everyone!