Hummingbird cake
I made a Hummingbird cake for both my daughters' first birthday parties. To be fair, I don't think it's a great choice for children, as it's a bit rich. But adding the fruit means there is less sugar added than another cake choice. For Freyja, I made the recipe from Ella's Kitchen, and for Saga I made the one from Jamie Oliver (both recipes are referenced below). However, I have combined the two to make this recipe.
Ingredients
- 180g plain flour
- 100g wholemeal flour
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 300g caster sugar
- 200ml rapeseed oil
- 25g unsweetened desiccated coconut
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 very ripe bananas, mashed
- 300g pineapple, cut into bite-sized chunks
- 50g pecans, roughly chopped
Icing
- 400g icing sugar
- 150g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
- 200g cream cheese
- zest of 1 lime
- 2 tsp lime juice
Method
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Preheat oven to 160°C fan forced and prepare two 23cm cake tins by greasing with butter and lining with paper.
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In a large bowl, combine both flours, cinnamon, mixed spice, baking powder, and sugar.
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In another bowl, whisk together the oil, eggs, and vanilla extract.
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Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined.
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Gently fold in the mashed bananas, pineapple chunks, coconut, and pecans.
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Divide between prepared tins and bake for 30 minutes.
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Let them cool in the tins for about 10 minutes before turning out onto wire racks to cool completely before icing.
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To make the icing, combine the icing sugar, butter, cream cheese, lime zest, and lime juice in a bowl. Beat until smooth.
References
Oliver, J. (2014). Jamie's comfort food. Michael Joseph.
Ella's Kitchen. (2017). Ella's Kitchen: The easy family cookbook. Hamlyn.