For a cake so easy and delicious, Hummingbird Cake sure has a long and tangled story behind it. It’s main ingredients – tropical banana and pineapple – give a clue as to its origins. The story goes that it was first invented in Jamaica in the late 1960’s where it was known as “doctor bird cake.” (The national bird of Jamaica is the Red-billed Streamertail, a type of hummingbird, and it has been nicknamed the “doctor bird” because the way it pokes its beak into a flower reminds people of the prodding and poking they get at the doctor’s office.) Supposedly, the Jamaican tourist board sent out press kits to the United States with a few recipes to entice people to come visit, and they included one for their Doctor Bird Cake, adapted for American bakers.
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