Sweet Potato Hummingbird Cake

Poole's: Recipes and Stories from a Modern Diner

Holy moly, this is a heavy cake!

It's not actually hard to make, but there are a LOT of ingredients to prepare and put together. Shelling the peanuts, chopping the pineapple, roasting bananas, grating sweet potatoes...it's just a lot...and doesn't include the icing. But it makes a huge, dense, heavy cake that will feed a crowd!

I've been wanting to make this since at least this time last year, but getting the raw, green peanuts is difficult when they are out of season. If you can't find them, feel free to replace them with unsalted roasted peanuts, or really any other nut of your choice. I just try to make the recipe as close as I can to what is printed, so I waited.

I found this recipe here, which is almost the same as in the book but has twice as many bananas in it: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1018328-sweet-potato-hummingbird-cake

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with heather today
[00:08]: i'm going to be working out of the pools
[00:09]: diner cookbook which i haven't worked
[00:11]: from in quite a while but this was i
[00:14]: think the last recipe that i had already
[00:16]: marked that i've been wanting to make
[00:18]: for
[00:19]: at least the past year
[00:22]: but it requires
[00:24]: a well
[00:25]: it's optional you can use something else
[00:27]: but it
[00:29]: to be true to the recipe it requires a
[00:31]: very very seasonal ingredient
[00:34]: um
[00:35]: only available about like end of summer
[00:39]: so
[00:40]: end of august beginning of september
[00:41]: sort of that time
[00:43]: raw green peanuts
[00:46]: so basically fresh out of the ground
[00:47]: peanuts which you can only get about
[00:49]: this time of the year
[00:51]: um so
[00:52]: i managed to get some
[00:54]: uh this week
[00:56]: so we're gonna finally make this recipe
[00:58]: we are going to be making a sweet potato
[01:01]: hummingbird cake so a hummingbird cake
[01:04]: is really sweet it's usually i think
[01:05]: classically bananas and pineapple
[01:08]: she also adds um
[01:11]: the uh
[01:14]: sweet potatoes to this
[01:16]: and
[01:16]: uh there's some currants in this and
[01:19]: it's there are a lot of ingredients and
[01:21]: a lot of steps to this
[01:23]: so we're gonna get started and the very
[01:26]: first thing we have to do
[01:27]: is to roast some bananas
[01:30]: in their skins
[01:31]: i think we've done this i think we did
[01:33]: this for her banana
[01:36]: creme caramel i think i'll link that up
[01:39]: there
[01:40]: very similar we've got a baking sheet
[01:43]: with parchment paper
[01:45]: bananas on it our oven is set to
[01:48]: 420 400 degrees convection
[01:53]: 400 degrees convection or 425 regular
[01:56]: and we're gonna roast these for about 25
[01:59]: minutes until she says they are black
[02:02]: and slightly deflated so these are going
[02:04]: to be
[02:05]: um
[02:08]: almost liquefied i think by the time
[02:11]: we're done but so we're and then we're
[02:13]: going to let them cool so we're going to
[02:14]: put these in for about 25 minutes i'll
[02:16]: set a timer and then we'll show you what
[02:17]: they look like
[02:19]: bananas are roasting i've remembered to
[02:20]: set a timer so we're good there
[02:23]: and the next thing i'm going to do is
[02:24]: cut up a pineapple
[02:27]: here
[02:28]: so i'm going to cut up a pineapple now
[02:30]: she wants diced pineapple in this
[02:35]: she doesn't say
[02:37]: canned or fresh and so i've got a fresh
[02:39]: one because that's usually what you
[02:41]: would see in this kind of cookbook
[02:44]: but fresh versus canned can make a
[02:46]: difference in your recipes so i know
[02:48]: that if you are trying to make a sort of
[02:52]: a jello salad with pineapple
[02:54]: fresh pineapple might make your jello
[02:57]: not set so you usually use canned in
[02:60]: that on purpose because
[03:02]: there's something in a fresh pineapple
[03:04]: that will sort of denature proteins and
[03:07]: not let them set up which is basically
[03:09]: what gelatin is right
[03:12]: so
[03:13]: i'm just gonna cut this up dice it you
[03:15]: probably won't see this whole thing
[03:17]: but i'm gonna peel it dice it and
[03:20]: measure what i need in this container
[03:24]: and then hopefully by the time i'm done
[03:26]: my bananas will be almost ready but they
[03:28]: probably won't be so anyway
[03:31]: there's a lot more to do so
[03:41]: so um my pineapple i've
[03:44]: peeled it and i've now sort of cut it
[03:46]: into
[03:48]: quarters and i'm coring it but
[03:51]: the last time i did pineapple i wanted
[03:53]: them in rings so you can see that in the
[03:55]: pineapple upside down cake that i made
[03:58]: from brown sugar kitchen
[03:60]: um but this time
[04:02]: i am
[04:03]: uh since i don't
[04:05]: need them in rings i'm looking for diced
[04:07]: it's much easier to cut the core out
[04:09]: after you order it so that's what i'm
[04:11]: doing this time
[04:15]: i'm gonna do that and then i'm gonna
[04:17]: just dice it up as small as
[04:19]: i think it should be
[04:21]: [Music]
[04:31]: okay so i talked about the green peanuts
[04:34]: that you need for this recipe
[04:36]: um i was going to show you this is how
[04:38]: we got them just from our produce box
[04:41]: um they are
[04:44]: fresh
[04:45]: we keeping them in the refrigerator
[04:47]: we're going to be using these pretty
[04:48]: soon you can make boiled peanuts which
[04:50]: i've made before on this channel
[04:53]: but these we had to show so we took this
[04:56]: shelled it got this many which is what
[04:58]: we need for the recipe and this is what
[04:60]: they're going to look like when we're
[05:01]: ready to use them i just want to let you
[05:03]: know we've already done that i made my
[05:06]: sous chefs in the back do that for me
[05:08]: the other thing that we're gonna need to
[05:10]: do
[05:11]: uh before
[05:13]: we are done with our cake batter
[05:15]: is to peel and grate these now i'm not
[05:19]: doing that until the very last minute
[05:21]: because
[05:22]: um so basically we'll have the cake
[05:24]: already done and then i will peel and
[05:26]: grate these i think she says on a um
[05:30]: let me look let me verify
[05:32]: on
[05:33]: the large holes of a box grater so
[05:37]: i'll be doing this after i put my cake
[05:40]: together because they do brown like uh
[05:44]: like white potatoes if you leave them
[05:46]: out the air will make
[05:48]: the cut parts brown
[05:50]: um and i don't want these to get super
[05:52]: brown and the way you deal with that is
[05:55]: you
[05:55]: sort of submerge them in water but i
[05:57]: also don't want to introduce a lot of
[05:59]: extra liquid into my batter so
[06:02]: this is going to happen at the very last
[06:04]: minute right before we're ready to stir
[06:06]: it into the batter so
[06:08]: we still have
[06:10]: about 15 minutes on our
[06:13]: bananas so i will probably
[06:15]: cut off the video for right about now
[06:17]: and just show you what they look like
[06:19]: when they come out of the oven because
[06:21]: we're not going to be able to do much
[06:23]: else until they come out and then cool
[06:26]: off
[06:27]: because we need to have those
[06:29]: in the very beginning to sort of make
[06:30]: our cake so
[06:32]: while all that's going on i'll be
[06:33]: measuring out all my dry ingredients um
[06:37]: and then we'll come back when we're
[06:39]: ready to make the cake
[06:40]: okay 25 minutes just took them out of
[06:42]: the oven and this is what they look like
[06:45]: so
[06:46]: we're just gonna let these cool to room
[06:48]: temperature before we do anything else
[06:49]: with them
[06:51]: our bananas were in for about 25 minutes
[06:53]: and they've been sitting until they are
[06:55]: room temperature
[06:57]: super black we're supposed to use a food
[06:59]: processor for this but i'm going to use
[07:02]: my ninja
[07:04]: smoothie cup thing again because it's
[07:06]: just so much easier to wash
[07:08]: but now i'm taking these out of
[07:13]: these skins
[07:16]: and putting them
[07:18]: in here and we're supposed to put them
[07:20]: in with all their juices so that's going
[07:22]: to be
[07:23]: interesting there are plenty of juices
[07:25]: on this but um i don't know how well
[07:27]: they will come off of the baking sheet
[07:31]: so i guess we'll see
[07:33]: okay so i've got all of
[07:36]: that out and i'm gonna try to get as
[07:38]: much of the
[07:40]: juice off of this pan as i possibly can
[07:46]: interestingly there must be a lot of
[07:48]: pectin in this
[07:50]: because
[07:51]: it's been sitting long enough that some
[07:53]: of it has sort of congealed that's
[07:55]: interesting
[07:57]: it is a very
[07:58]: sugary
[07:60]: um
[08:02]: fruit bananas are actually bananas and
[08:04]: pineapples both are very sweet
[08:08]: so this is gonna be a really sweet cake
[08:11]: okay so i've got it all in here and
[08:12]: we're going to
[08:15]: i'm going to puree it
[08:17]: i think just we want we just want it to
[08:19]: be smooth
[08:21]: make sure
[08:22]: [Music]
[08:25]: yes process until smooth so i'm just
[08:28]: going to hit puree
[08:30]: i think we're smooth
[08:32]: now we supposedly may not need all of
[08:35]: this
[08:37]: honestly i'm not sure that we will have
[08:40]: quite as much as she should said we
[08:42]: should have this has convenient um
[08:45]: measurements on the side too i don't
[08:46]: know how accurate they are but
[08:49]: in this case it'll probably be fine so
[08:51]: but we're going to put this aside and
[08:52]: move this away because
[08:55]: we don't need this right this minute
[08:57]: there's other things we need to do first
[08:59]: so the very first thing i'm going to do
[09:01]: here
[09:02]: is mix my dry ingredients together
[09:07]: after that i'm gonna have to prepare my
[09:09]: pans that's why they're here to remind
[09:11]: me that i want them prepared before i
[09:13]: get everything else done
[09:15]: but um
[09:17]: the dry ingredients
[09:20]: in a very large bowl
[09:22]: i've already measured out the
[09:24]: all-purpose flour here
[09:26]: and oddly enough in this recipe
[09:30]: she adds the sugar to the
[09:33]: dry ingredients instead of the wet which
[09:35]: usually you dissolve it in the wet
[09:37]: ingredients in most cake recipes but
[09:39]: whatever
[09:40]: um follow the recipe
[09:42]: and in this bowl i have some cinnamon
[09:45]: some baking
[09:48]: soda
[09:49]: and some sea salt so we're just gonna
[09:51]: put all that in there
[09:54]: try to get it all out there we go
[09:57]: my hands that i have washed so many
[09:59]: times
[10:01]: and we're just gonna i'm gonna whisk
[10:02]: these together just to get it all
[10:06]: incorporated
[10:07]: so we don't have little pockets of
[10:09]: cinnamon or salt or whatever
[10:15]: there we go it's a lot of flour this is
[10:18]: making this is gonna make three
[10:20]: layers three nine inch layers for our
[10:23]: cake
[10:28]: all right
[10:29]: there we go i'm gonna set this aside and
[10:31]: then we're going to prepare our pans
[10:33]: um
[10:34]: first i'm going to prepare the parchment
[10:37]: okay one of these right now we need
[10:39]: three parchment rounds to go in the
[10:42]: bottom of these
[10:46]: pans so what i'm gonna do usually i
[10:48]: don't do it this way
[10:51]: i do this sort of snowflake method where
[10:53]: i create a square approximately the
[10:55]: right size and then fold it into a
[10:58]: triangle and
[10:59]: make it a circle but i'm going to try it
[11:01]: this way
[11:04]: you probably can
[11:06]: buy
[11:07]: circles of parchment paper
[11:10]: if you do this a lot but i don't so i
[11:12]: buy
[11:13]: these which i use a lot and then i cut
[11:16]: them down if i need to
[11:18]: for other uses for smaller pans or
[11:20]: whatever so
[11:21]: now i'm just going to try to keep these
[11:23]: together
[11:24]: and
[11:25]: cut
[11:26]: on the inside of that line because it'll
[11:28]: be
[11:30]: the inside will be slightly smaller and
[11:32]: if it's not exactly
[11:36]: perfect it is fine
[11:43]: all right
[11:47]: pretty perfect
[11:49]: so those are ready
[11:52]: now she says
[11:55]: to spray these with
[11:58]: um
[12:00]: you know cooking spray but
[12:03]: i've said this a million times i don't
[12:04]: keep cooking spray in my house i don't
[12:06]: really use it i'm sure
[12:08]: it would make my life a little bit
[12:09]: easier but i'm going to put like
[12:12]: probably slightly less than a teaspoon
[12:14]: whoops in each of these and use my hands
[12:17]: to get the sides really well
[12:21]: and then the bottom that will help the
[12:23]: um
[12:24]: the parchment stick to it
[12:27]: and
[12:28]: in case any batter gets underneath it it
[12:29]: won't stick hopefully that's that's the
[12:31]: plan here
[12:33]: but the point is to get the sides really
[12:36]: well since you have parchment on the
[12:37]: bottom but not on the sides
[12:39]: so i'm just gonna lay these in the
[12:42]: bottom and the butter will help it stick
[12:55]: and there we go
[12:56]: pans are prepared i'm going to move
[12:58]: these to the side
[12:59]: um
[13:01]: ready to mix together the wet
[13:03]: ingredients here i have some eggs lots
[13:06]: of eggs
[13:11]: before i add anything else i'm just
[13:13]: going to whisk these eggs up she doesn't
[13:14]: say to do that but i just want to mix
[13:15]: them up a little bit before i add things
[13:17]: to it
[13:18]: i just hate chasing around an egg yolk
[13:20]: and all the other stuff um so now we're
[13:23]: gonna add our banana puree this is as
[13:26]: far as i can tell
[13:27]: less than the amount she says we need um
[13:33]: but we're gonna use it because it's all
[13:34]: of what she told us to make so
[13:37]: yeah
[13:39]: try and get as much as i can out of here
[13:42]: but
[13:54]: to this we're also going to add quite a
[13:56]: lot of just neutral vegetable oil i'm
[13:59]: using grape
[14:01]: um seed
[14:01]: use whatever you like that's a neutral
[14:04]: flavor so not like olive oil
[14:06]: and we're going to whisk this together
[14:09]: so we're going to fold in our
[14:11]: green
[14:12]: raw peanuts
[14:16]: these are some dried black currants i
[14:20]: luckily had these on hand already from
[14:22]: another recipe that we have
[14:24]: recently made
[14:27]: and
[14:29]: the diced pineapple
[14:35]: which mine is fresh i'm sure
[14:38]: canned would be fine
[14:41]: and
[14:43]: then we also need
[14:46]: some
[14:47]: vanilla quite a lot of vanilla
[14:55]: all right
[14:57]: so we're just going to fold all this in
[14:59]: right now
[15:05]: and that looks pretty good and i have to
[15:08]: turn the page because this recipe is so
[15:11]: long it has such a nice big picture that
[15:14]: it takes up two pages of text
[15:17]: um
[15:19]: okay now we have to grate our sweet
[15:21]: potatoes
[15:22]: so that will be our next step okay so
[15:24]: now i need to peel and grate my sweet
[15:27]: potatoes i'm gonna just peel them onto
[15:29]: this napkin so it'll be a little bit
[15:30]: easier to gather it up
[15:32]: um i'm gonna put them on here before i
[15:35]: grate them so
[15:36]: yeah
[15:38]: that you'll probably won't see all this
[15:39]: because it'll just take a while so
[15:43]: okay so i'm gonna grate my sweet
[15:45]: potatoes i just rinsed them off after i
[15:47]: peeled them and i have a cut proof glove
[15:50]: here
[15:50]: i just got it online um
[15:53]: i'm gonna grate them on the
[15:55]: large holes of a box grater
[15:58]: i'm just gonna grate it in there and if
[15:59]: i need to dump it out and i'll dump it
[16:02]: into my wet ingredients because that's
[16:05]: what i'm supposed to fold this into
[16:07]: but my box creator is really sharp and i
[16:10]: have cut myself and i'm pretty sure my
[16:12]: husband has cut himself on this before
[16:14]: so this is why
[16:16]: we have this so
[16:18]: i'm just going to be grading until this
[16:19]: is all done
[16:24]: so at the end i have a little piece i'm
[16:26]: not gonna bother with that but i'm going
[16:28]: to clean this off and put it all into my
[16:30]: bowl because my box grater is pretty
[16:32]: full so it looks like in between each
[16:34]: potato i'm gonna have to do that but
[16:36]: luckily we clean off our counter
[16:39]: uh
[16:40]: about a million times when we're filming
[16:42]: over here so
[16:43]: um
[16:44]: i'm gonna put all this in my bowl and
[16:46]: then get to my other potatoes
[16:49]: this is a lot of sweet potatoes and a
[16:51]: lot of other stuff and oh my goodness
[16:55]: we haven't even added it to the flour
[16:58]: yet
[16:59]: doesn't even seem like it's
[17:02]: wet enough to
[17:05]: get in the flour to like
[17:07]: soak up all of that
[17:10]: but okay
[17:13]: now we're supposed to combine this with
[17:15]: our dry ingredients
[17:17]: i do have a giant bowl that's bigger
[17:20]: than this but we're going to try it in
[17:21]: this because i think it's going to work
[17:23]: i could be lying
[17:29]: [Music]
[17:32]: now we're supposed to stir this until
[17:34]: just incorporated
[17:38]: with a rubber spatula so i have the
[17:40]: right tool
[17:45]: now a lot of these ingredients will put
[17:47]: off more liquid as they cook
[17:50]: like the sweet potatoes
[17:52]: but um
[17:55]: okay
[17:59]: i'm gonna take this off because i don't
[17:60]: need it anymore
[18:01]: good thing about this is you can just
[18:03]: throw it in your wash and
[18:06]: be all clean next time you need it
[18:10]: now we're gonna divide
[18:12]: this
[18:14]: equally into these pans and
[18:16]: [Music]
[18:19]: hope that
[18:20]: it all fits
[18:22]: since this is a very
[18:26]: what do you want to call that um
[18:28]: addition heavy
[18:29]: uh dough or
[18:32]: cake batter i'm just gonna weigh it to
[18:34]: kind of make sure that
[18:36]: i've got it relatively close
[18:39]: i am going to clean up any
[18:45]: any bits that i may have gotten on the
[18:49]: rim just so it doesn't burn
[18:52]: and put these in the oven we have
[18:54]: reduced the temperature to
[18:58]: 325 convection
[19:00]: 359 convection
[19:02]: and these are going to bake for 45
[19:05]: to 50 minutes until they are firm and
[19:08]: golden brown
[19:10]: i assume like other other cakes you can
[19:12]: kind of see them start to pull away from
[19:14]: the edge when they're done
[19:16]: but we'll let you know what they look
[19:17]: like
[19:18]: when they are all
[19:20]: completely baked
[19:22]: and let you know how long it take how
[19:24]: long it took for us to do that
[19:26]: okay i just took these out of the oven
[19:28]: it's been exactly 50 minutes i think
[19:31]: they look pretty good um we're supposed
[19:34]: to
[19:35]: let them cool for 10 minutes in the pan
[19:38]: on these and then we are going to turn
[19:40]: them out
[19:41]: take off the parchment paper and let
[19:43]: them cool to room temperature before we
[19:46]: frost it
[19:47]: we'll be back to make frosting and put
[19:49]: the cake together
[19:51]: our cake has been cooling for quite a
[19:53]: while now and just fyi i did have to put
[19:56]: one of the layers back in because when i
[19:58]: i did test it with a
[20:00]: toothpick just to see and one of them
[20:02]: was damper than the other two the other
[20:04]: two had been on the top top um
[20:08]: shelf top rack of my oven for mo for the
[20:11]: last part of the time the other one was
[20:14]: on the top for the first part of the
[20:15]: time anyway i had to put it back in for
[20:17]: about 10 more minutes just until they
[20:20]: looked pretty much the same so
[20:22]: now i'm sure it's done
[20:24]: but now we're going to make the frosting
[20:26]: which is a cream cheese frosting and
[20:29]: it's going to make a lot of frosting i
[20:31]: think
[20:32]: because we need cream cheese
[20:36]: so i have to put these in here first by
[20:39]: themselves
[20:42]: they are at room temperature so they've
[20:44]: been sitting out
[20:45]: basically since the cakes came out maybe
[20:48]: before actually the butter has been
[20:49]: sitting out for a really long time
[20:50]: because it was in the freezer
[20:54]: so
[20:54]: this all has to be at room temperature
[20:56]: for it to come together correctly
[21:01]: so now i just have to get it out of its
[21:03]: wrapping
[21:10]: so we have to mix this until it's smooth
[21:13]: just by itself
[21:14]: [Music]
[21:16]: looks good good enough to me
[21:18]: and now we're going to
[21:20]: add the butter
[21:22]: it's an awful lot of butter i'm going to
[21:24]: make sure yeah this is definitely the
[21:25]: amount of butter i need
[21:28]: [Music]
[21:37]: okay so we have to mix this on low speed
[21:41]: and um stopping occasionally scrape it
[21:43]: down until it is entirely mixed together
[21:47]: [Music]
[21:48]: okay
[21:49]: i feel like this is pretty well mixed
[21:52]: together so now we're going to
[21:54]: turn it back on low speed and start
[21:57]: adding the um
[22:00]: start adding the confectioners sugar
[22:02]: sort of a little bit at a time so i have
[22:04]: to keep track of exactly how much i'm
[22:06]: adding
[22:08]: [Music]
[22:20]: all right
[22:21]: so it's pretty much fully incorporated
[22:23]: here and now i just have two more
[22:25]: ingredients to add
[22:27]: with some salt i'm using the same sea
[22:30]: salt that she
[22:32]: almost always calls for i don't always
[22:34]: use sea salt but that's what we're using
[22:37]: and then
[22:38]: some vanilla
[22:40]: and then we're just going to mix it up
[22:41]: to combine and our frosting will be done
[22:44]: and we will be ready to put the cake
[22:45]: together
[22:54]: i can't do anything without making a
[22:55]: mess i just can't
[22:58]: okay
[23:04]: i'm calling this done
[23:05]: um it's really loose right now but i
[23:07]: know in the refrigerator it would um
[23:10]: harden up pretty quickly and that's why
[23:12]: i want to do it right when i was ready
[23:14]: so i didn't feel like i needed to put it
[23:15]: in the refrigerator and then it doesn't
[23:17]: spread very well so this will be perfect
[23:20]: so i'm going gonna take the mixer away
[23:24]: and uh get ready to frost the cake
[23:27]: so
[23:28]: um i'm supposed to
[23:31]: take these cakes and cut off
[23:34]: a part to make them flatter
[23:39]: i don't usually do that with the bottom
[23:41]: layer because
[23:42]: these plates are not super flat
[23:45]: and so i put it upside down
[23:48]: to sort of
[23:49]: fill up that space so this one i won't
[23:52]: be cutting off but i probably will with
[23:55]: the other layers
[23:57]: and now i'm supposed to put some frost
[23:59]: some of our frosting on here and i'm
[24:01]: going to measure it
[24:03]: because
[24:04]: i assume
[24:05]: [Music]
[24:07]: it will be exactly right
[24:09]: it's a lot of icing
[24:14]: per layer
[24:16]: i feel like it's gonna be too much
[24:25]: but
[24:26]: i'm measuring it like she says
[24:28]: and then i'm using my offset spatula to
[24:30]: just
[24:34]: level it out
[24:38]: spread it across level it out
[24:40]: okay
[24:45]: okay i've got this one
[24:50]: pretty good
[24:58]: and she says to level it off with a
[25:00]: serrated knife i feel like there's not a
[25:02]: lot to
[25:04]: to cut off
[25:06]: but i will
[25:08]: cut off a bit and it's very
[25:11]: it's a very moist cake
[25:13]: so i
[25:15]: i don't like that at all
[25:18]: i hope i baked this well enough i did
[25:20]: test it with a um
[25:24]: toothpick
[25:25]: i'm gonna call that good for this layer
[25:31]: whatever it's fine it's fine
[25:34]: so now i put the same amount of frosting
[25:37]: on this layer
[25:48]: so
[25:58]: there we go
[25:59]: and do the same thing
[26:04]: good enough there
[26:06]: now the last layer goes on
[26:20]: i'm just going to
[26:26]: leave this be
[26:32]: and then um
[26:33]: let's see
[26:35]: the rest of the icing goes on top
[26:43]: oh my gosh it's a lot of icing
[27:03]: let's see
[27:05]: yep
[27:07]: and we just
[27:09]: spread this along the top and the sides
[27:11]: so i'm just going to sort of spread it
[27:16]: and let some fall to the sides
[27:21]: all right
[27:22]: so
[27:24]: it's not real pretty right now but you
[27:25]: know what it's going to be okay i'm
[27:27]: going to find room for this in my
[27:29]: refrigerator lord
[27:31]: that's that's that's a task um just
[27:35]: so it sets up a little bit so it's not
[27:37]: super super um soft
[27:40]: because we have a garnish we're gonna
[27:42]: add to this
[27:43]: give me one minute
[27:44]: okay
[27:45]: all i have to do i could have done this
[27:47]: ahead of time but i did not
[27:49]: was is to
[27:51]: uh roughly chop
[27:54]: some peanuts i measured them already i
[27:57]: bought these roasted um and
[27:59]: lightly salted because i thought with
[28:02]: all of the sweet things that are in this
[28:05]: cake um
[28:08]: a little salt on the outside would
[28:10]: probably be a good touch but i didn't
[28:13]: want a lot
[28:14]: um
[28:16]: and she does not say she says roasted
[28:18]: peanuts she doesn't say salted or not
[28:21]: so i just bought dry roasted lightly
[28:23]: salted peanuts so
[28:26]: now i'm trying to roughly chop them
[28:30]: we have our roughly chopped peanuts some
[28:33]: of them still look the same some of them
[28:35]: are chopped whatever we're going to
[28:38]: press these into the side of the cake
[28:42]: sorry
[28:43]: so we're gonna press these up on the
[28:45]: sides of the cake normally i would hold
[28:48]: the cake
[28:49]: in one hand
[28:51]: and over sort of a
[28:54]: cutting board or a sheet pan to catch
[28:57]: what falls off
[28:58]: this cake is heavy i could not do that
[29:02]: it's not gonna work so we're just gonna
[29:04]: be messing with it because you know i'm
[29:05]: always messy so just sort of and see
[29:08]: look
[29:11]: great
[29:17]: [Applause]
[29:18]: i'm just gonna have to turn it
[30:05]: all right
[30:07]: now i'm not quite done it's not great
[30:10]: yet but
[30:14]: i can make this work
[30:16]: i'm going to clean my hands just a
[30:17]: little bit get frosting off my hands
[30:23]: and now
[30:24]: i did clean my
[30:26]: um
[30:28]: work surface
[30:29]: again and again and again
[30:32]: um
[30:33]: i'm going to try to
[30:35]: uh
[30:37]: get the extras off here so i can
[30:40]: put them somewhere they will go to good
[30:42]: use and it's so heavy
[30:49]: it's so heavy guys it is so so heavy
[30:51]: there's
[30:54]: two pounds of sweet potatoes alone in
[30:57]: this cake
[30:60]: and that was
[31:02]: a pound of butter
[31:06]: pound of
[31:13]: pound of
[31:15]: cream cheese it's a lot it's really
[31:18]: heavy you guys oh my goodness
[31:27]: if it were a little cooler i think it
[31:29]: would not be quite as bad with the um
[31:34]: frosting coming off onto my hands but
[31:37]: we're gonna call this good we're gonna
[31:39]: call this good for now
[31:40]: and i'm gonna put it in the refrigerator
[31:43]: to set up a bit before we even try to
[31:45]: slice it
[31:47]: and we'll show you what it looks like
[31:49]: and let you know what we think
[31:51]: in just a minute
[32:00]: on this episode of cooking the books
[32:02]: with heather you watched me make the
[32:04]: sweet potato hummingbird cake from
[32:06]: ashley christensen's pools diner
[32:08]: cookbook
[32:10]: i have to say this was a very
[32:12]: involved cake and it was a very heavy
[32:17]: cake i think i waited it at one point
[32:20]: and it was after we'd already eaten some
[32:21]: and it was more than 10 pounds worth of
[32:24]: cake
[32:26]: so
[32:26]: it was it was very dense it was very
[32:29]: moist i think it could have
[32:31]: been baked a little bit longer but no
[32:33]: matter what with these ingredients it's
[32:35]: going to be a pretty
[32:36]: moist cake um
[32:38]: it was a little bit like a fruit cake
[32:40]: because there was a lot of stuff in it
[32:43]: the sweet potatoes and the peanuts and
[32:46]: the currants and the pineapple and all
[32:49]: of that it was just really dense and
[32:51]: really really
[32:53]: full of things it wasn't just a light
[32:55]: sweet cake it was sweet but it was very
[32:58]: dense
[33:01]: i would
[33:03]: definitely put salted peanuts on the
[33:06]: outside lightly salted was i think the
[33:08]: perfect choice
[33:11]: because it's a very sweet cake and that
[33:13]: adds just a little bit of a contrast and
[33:15]: flavor and makes it a lot better
[33:19]: so you know have a really thin slice of
[33:22]: this with a cup of coffee and it's
[33:24]: really it it's really good it goes a
[33:26]: long way
[33:27]: in fact i think we still have some of
[33:29]: this in our freezer we
[33:32]: we shared it around and still could not
[33:35]: eat a lot of it so we were trying it out
[33:38]: in the freezer and we'll see how that
[33:39]: how that goes um
[33:42]: but most cakes
[33:44]: can be frozen and defrosted okay so
[33:46]: we'll see we'll see um
[33:49]: it's not
[33:51]: really a hard cake
[33:54]: but there are a lot of steps um
[33:57]: i do think that you could substitute any
[34:01]: nut that you like instead of the raw
[34:03]: peanuts that was the one thing that we
[34:05]: had to wait
[34:08]: for the season to come around to have
[34:10]: fresh
[34:11]: green raw peanuts but you could use
[34:16]: [Music]
[34:18]: regular peanuts
[34:20]: or any other nut you like in it and it
[34:23]: would be fine but the raw peanuts are a
[34:25]: just a different flavor
[34:27]: so
[34:28]: um
[34:29]: yeah i think
[34:31]: uh the adults liked it the kids not so
[34:34]: much
[34:35]: but uh
[34:37]: definitely make this when you have a lot
[34:39]: of people to help you eat it so
[34:43]: if you enjoyed watching me make this
[34:44]: please give me a thumbs up hit the
[34:46]: subscribe button and come back and watch
[34:48]: me make something else next week
[34:50]: [Music]