Southern Church Cookbooks and Hummingbird Cake Inspiration

I spent Sunday relaxing and baking with my mom. She brought out her old dusty church cookbooks from the 1970's and we sifted through the stained and torn pages to find the best recipes for some mini pecan pies I was making (three varieties, which I will be posting about very soon). My mom warned me that you had to take the recipes "with a grain of salt" because they're written like the person is talking to a friend. So you have to know when something sounds a little funny, or how hot to preheat the oven since the author assumes you know, or when you should probably cut the sugar in half because you're using that much sorghum molasses. 

I went through a lot of the really gooey recipes, asking my mom, "Have you ever baked a banana cake?", "Have you ever baked sweet potato pie for the holidays?" and so on. She said yes to everything, until I got to, "Have you ever made a Hummingbird Cake?" 

Her response? "No, those are so sweet you can't taste anything but the sugar!" 

So, naturally, my next mission, probably for my mom's birthday, is to make a hummingbird cake that doesn't wipe you out from sugar overdose. So, sorry Paula Deen (1 3/4 cup sugar!), I won't be using your recipe. I'll be modifying one of the ones from my mom's old cookbooks. Maybe we'll even bake it together. Wouldn't that just be so sweet? You wouldn't even need a quarter of the sugar. 

Photo and recipe inspiration by Two Tiny Kitchens