Hummingbird cake with cream cheese frosting

Butter and flour two cake pans.

Peel about three medium very ripe bananas, halve, cut lengthwise in quarters, then across into roughly quarter-inch pieces, about two cups.

Whisk white sugar, all-purpose flour, ground cinnamon, baking soda and salt.

Add a lot of vegetable oil and three beaten eggs and mix with a spatula until it looks like oily mud.

Add vanilla extract, 1 cup finely crushed canned pineapple, the bananas and plenty of chopped pecans, ideally lightly toasted first in a dry pan.

Mix until combined; it is stiff at first and loosens after about a minute into a pourable batter.

Divide equally between two buttered and floured 9-inch cake pans (traditionally three layers). Shake and tap to settle the batter and bring up air bubbles.

Bake in the centre of a 350F oven about 35 minutes, until browned and a tester comes out clean.

Cool about 10 minutes in the pans, invert onto a cooling rack, and cool at least an hour, until completely cool.

Frosting: cream 1 lb cream cheese, a stick of room-temperature unsalted butter and a splash of vanilla with the whisk attachment until light and fluffy, scraping down with the machine off.

Add the one-pound box of powdered sugar all at once, start the mixer slowly on and off, then go faster; whip on high a few minutes until very light and creamy.

Set one layer on an inverted cake pan, pile about half the frosting in the centre and spread outward, leaving a quarter to half inch unfrosted at the edge. Add the second layer and press firmly but gently.

Pile more frosting on top and spread outward, leaving about a quarter inch unfrosted all round; the sides stay bare.

Chill thoroughly, then move to a cake stand.

For the decoration, cook white sugar until molten and amber, then drip and drizzle it over a drawn hummingbird template under a silpat; it took four tries. Top the cake with it and edible flowers.