Southern Mini Hummingbird Bundt Cakes are moist, tender little cakes. They're filled with ripe bananas, crushed pineapple, toasted pecans, and a hint of cinnamon. Each individual cake is topped with a swirl of cream cheese frosting for a classic Southern dessert that's as pretty as it is delicious.
After revisiting my original 2019 recipe, I discovered that using about 40 grams of batter per cavity yields a much better-proportioned mini Bundt cake. I also updated the cream cheese frosting and reduced the overall recipe size. The result is an easy mini dessert with the perfect level of sweetness.
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Quick Look at the Recipe
- Yield: About 31 mini Bundt cakes
- Pan used: Nordic Ware Brownie Bundt Pan
- Batter per cavity: 40 grams
- Baking temperature: 350°F
- Baking time: 16 to 18 minutes per pan
- Difficulty: Easy
- Make-ahead friendly: Yes
- Freezer friendly: Yes, unfrosted
What is Hummingbird Cake?
The recipe for Hummingbird Cake was first submitted to Southern Living over 40 years ago. Since then, it has become Southern Living's most popular cake recipe of all time, and for good reason. It uses simple ingredients, is easy to make, and is delicious beyond imagination. It tastes somewhat like banana bread but is much more moist. However, like carrot cake, it's finished off with a luscious cream cheese frosting.
No one really knows why it's called Hummingbird, though. Perhaps it originated during the summer when the hummingbirds were hungrily feeding on sugar nectar. Or maybe it was so named because of its sweetness or the originator's fondness for hummingbirds. Whatever the origin, Hummingbird Cake is truly a Southern classic. These mini-bundtlettes will quickly become your classic!
Ingredients for Southern Mini Hummingbird Bundt Cakes
How to Make the Mini Cakes: Step-by-Step
- Dry ingredients: Whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon in a large bowl.
- Wet ingredients: Add the eggs, bananas, crushed pineapple, oil, and vanilla. Beat until well combined.
- Toasted pecans: Fold in the toasted pecans.
- Portion: Spray the pan cavities with nonstick spray. Then use a 2-tablespoon scoop to add 40 grams of batter to each cavity in the pan.
- Bake and cool: Bake the mini cakes in a preheated 350°F oven for 16 to 18 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from the oven. Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Then, transfer the cakes to a wire rack to cool completely.
How to Make the Frosting and Finish the Cakes
- Ingredients: Cream cheese, unsalted butter, confectioners' sugar, fine sea salt, and clear vanilla.
- Make the Frosting: Beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add the salt and vanilla and beat until well incorporated. Then, gradually add the confectioners' sugar, beating well after each addition. Continue beating until the frosting is smooth, creamy, and pipable.
- Frost the cakes: Transfer the frosting to a piping bag with a #4B open star tip. Pipe a swirl of frosting onto each cooled mini cake.
I ended up with 31 of the cutest, most amazingly delicious Southern Mini Hummingbird cakes you could imagine. The banana-flavored cakes were moist beyond imagination and filled with chunks of pineapple and toasted pecans. The yummy cream cheese frosting swirled on top perfectly complemented the not-too-sweet cake. Yum!
PudgeFactor's Test Kitchen
When I first published this recipe in 2019, I used a ¼-cup scoop to fill the pan, which turned out to be way too large. When I retested the recipe, I compared three amounts of batter: 22 grams, 40 grams, and 65 grams.
The 22-gram cake was too small, and the 65-gram cake was too large. The 40-gram cake was perfect, as shown in this photo.
The total batter weighed 1242 grams, which mathematically worked out to just over 31 cakes. The actual yield was 31.
I also found that the cream cheese frosting became unusually soft and silky after prolonged beating while I was filming. It still held its shape, but chilling the filled piping bag for about 30 minutes before piping produced the sharper ridges. If your frosting seems too soft, try chilling it before adding more confectioners' sugar.
I always weigh my ingredients to ensure perfect results each time I make a recipe. For best results, weigh your ingredients. If you don't have a kitchen scale, do yourself a favor and purchase one. They're inexpensive. I use mine daily!
In Case You Were Wondering
I used the Nordic Ware Brownie Bundt pan, which incidentally produces perfectly sized Nothing Bundt Cake Bundtinis!
I used Flared Brioche Cupcake Liners.
Yes. The frosted cakes can be made up to 24 hours in advance if refrigerated. The unfrosted cakes can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.
The biggest change from my original 2019 recipe is the amount of batter used in each cavity. The smaller 40-gram portion produces a much more attractive mini Bundt cake and fits beautifully into the flared brioche liners.
Other Mini Bundt Cakes
Mini bundt cakes are perfect for after-school snacks, parties, showers, and also make awesome gifts. Here are some of my favorites.
Recipe
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Southern Mini Hummingbird Bundt Cakes
Equipment
- Large Bowl
- Electric Mixer
- 2 tablespoon scoop
- Nordic Ware Brownie Bundt Pan
- Piping bag with 4B open star tip
Ingredients
Hummingbird Mini-Bundtlettes
- 2 cups (10 ounces, 284 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 ¼ cups (8.75 ounces, 248 grams) granulated sugar
- ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon Kosher salt
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 large eggs
- 10 ounces (285 grams) mashed ripe bananas (about 15 to 16 ounces unpeeled) (See Tip 1)
- 6 ounces (170 grams) crushed pineapple, undrained
- ½ cup (4 ounces, 112 grams) neutral vegetable oil (See Tip 2)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup (3 ounces, 85 grams) toasted pecan pieces (See Tip 3)
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 ounces (227 grams) full fat cream cheese, room temperature (See Tip 4)
- ¼ cup (2 ounces, 57 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
- Pinch of fine sea salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons clear vanilla
- 3 cups (12 ounces, 340 grams) confectioners' sugar
Instructions
Mini Hummingbird Cakes
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray the cavities of the bundtlette pan with vegetable spray mixed with flour, like Baker's Joy. Set aside. (See Tip 5)
- Whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon in a large bowl.
- Add eggs, mashed bananas, crushed pineapple with its juices, vegetable oil, and vanilla. Beat ingredients until well incorporated.
- Fold in pecans.
- Fill cavities of prepared pan ¾ full. (See Tip 6)
- Bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 16 to 18 minutes, or until golden brown and cakes start to pull away from the sides of the pan. Remove from oven. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.
- Frost with swirls of cream cheese frosting using #4B open star tip. Yield: 31 Mini Hummingbird Cakes
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Beat together the cream cheese, cream, vanilla, and salt in a large bowl until creamy, about 1 minute. Add confectioners' sugar one cup at a time, beating on medium speed after each addition until creamy. When all of the confectioners' sugar has been added, increase the speed to high and beat until light and fluffy. Frost the mini-bundtlettes as desired. (See Tip 7)
Video
Tips/Notes
- Use overripe bananas (yellow peels splotched with brown flecks) for these cakes to achieve the depth of flavor and moistness.
- I used Canola vegetable oil. You could also use regular vegetable 0il. I wouldn't recommend using olive oil.
- Always toast the pecans for your baked goods. The toasting significantly enhances their flavor. To toast, spread in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake in a preheated 350° F oven for 8 to 10 minutes. Watch carefully to ensure that they do not over-toast.
- Avoid the temptation to use low-fat or fat-free cream cheese for this frosting. Both low-fat and fat-free cream cheese are more watery, which will impact the consistency of your frosting. If you have to use low-fat or fat-free cream cheese, increase the amount of confectioners' sugar to the desired consistency.
- Even if your pan is non-stick, spray the cavities liberally to ensure that the cakes do not stick. Alternatively, you can use a regular-sized muffin pan with or without cupcake liners. If you don't use cupcake liners, spray the cavities liberally with the non-stick spray.
- I used a 2-tablespoon ice cream scoop to fill the cavities. You could also just use a spoon to fill the cavities ¾ full.
- Since cream cheese needs to be refrigerated, these frosted mini-bundtlettes should be refrigerated. However, if your house is cool, they will be all right for a day without refrigeration.
Karen says
Your bundtini recipes are ALL outstanding, I really don't have a favorite flavor. You have inspired me to bake these little gems weekly! The bundtinis look as though they would be time consuming to make, in fact they are quite easy and when presented on a platter they appear quite elegant. The Nordic pan is a must in achieving that perfect copycat to the bundt chain establishment ones. Thank you Chula, the more bundtini recipes you create the more I'll bake them.
Chula King says
Thanks so much Karen!
Ali says
Great recipe but can not find that pan anywhere
Can u send me a link where u bought this pan
Thanks
PudgeFactor says
I used the Nordicware Bundt Brownie Pan (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000DE2QM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1). It worked like a charm!
Chula
Allie O. says
Chula, came to your site to get a printable version of the Hummingbird Mini-Bundtlette Recipe after reading it in the Tallahassee Democrat. I absolutely LOVE the detail of your step-by-step photos!
And, I just discovered how many vegetarian recipes you have, so I am a new and happy subscriber.
Thanks for all the time you put into making it easy to follow your recipes!
PudgeFactor says
Wow Allie. Thanks so much for your comments! My husband has decided that we should focus more on vegetarian type dishes, so there will be more to come!
Chula
Natalie says
YUM! These mini bundt cakes look so delicious!
PudgeFactor says
They really are delicious. My husband ate six in one sitting!