Hummingbird Vs Lumberjack Cake: What's The Difference? - Tasting Table

Hummingbird cake is a vintage 1960s dessert with multiple layers and a cream cheese frosting. It gets sweetness and moisture from ripe bananas and canned pineapple, and it is flavored with warm spices such as cinnamon and sometimes allspice. Pecans add texture and nutty richness. Sweetened shredded coconut may appear occasionally but is not required. Lumberjack cake is fruit-based but differs in appearance and structure, forming a squat, dark cake without cream-colored frosting or multiple layers. Apples and dates are softened with boiling water and baking soda, then folded into the batter for a dense, fruitcake-like texture. No spices are added, and the topping provides much of the character. Hummingbird cake has roots in Jamaica and was named after the national bird, the Doctor Bird, promoted in the 1970s.

"Hummingbird cake has a bit of everything, and you could think of it as if carrot cake and banana bread had a tropical baby. A hummingbird cake, which usually has multiple layers, gets its unique flavor profile from sweet, ripe bananas and canned pineapple, along with warm spices like cinnamon and sometimes allspice, and pecans lend a bit of texture as well as rich, nutty notes to the flavor. These moist cake layers are accompanied by a cream cheese frosting, which is where the carrot cake comparison is usually drawn from."

"Occasionally, hummingbird cake will include sweetened shredded coconut, but it's not necessary and isn't traditionally used. Hummingbird cake is generally thought of as a Southern dessert, but it actually has roots in Jamaica. Thanks to a promotional idea from the Jamaica Tourist Board in the 1970s, the cake showcases Caribbean produce and was named after Jamaica's national bird, the Doctor Bird, a type of hummingbird."

"Lumberjack cake is different from hummingbird cake in multiple ways. First, it's visually dissimilar, as lumberjack cake is not enveloped by cream-colored frosting nor does it have multiple layers, so it's a squat, dark cake compared to the tall, layered, and frosted hummingbird cake. In terms of base ingredients, apples and dates make up the bulk of the cake, which are softened with boiling water and baking soda before folding into the cake batter, giving the cake a more dense, fruitcake-like texture. There are no spices added, but it's the topping that really makes the lumberj"

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