Hummingbird Cake

By cookism

We gotta admit. We're not really cake people. Sure, they are great for stuffing your friends and are golden tickets to almost any celebratory event. But sweet tooth or not, their marginal utility plunges with each slice, and we find ourselves half-heartedly chewing crumbly morsels or twirling our reluctant forks.

Which is why the hummingbird cake leaves us perplexed. There's something about this banana-pineapple spiced cake from the carrot cake family that makes us go for seconds, thirds. With an appearance like an ice skating rink for fairies and a taste like tropical sunshine, the hummingbird cake is an unapologetic crowd-pleaser, luring you in with its luscious cream cheese frosting before making you surrender to its moist, crumbly goodness. So aprons on! Time to bake the mother of all cakes.

(Adapted from Annie Bell's Baking Bible)

Ingredients

• For the cake:
• 200 ml of Vegetable Oil
• 250 g of Golden Caster Sugar
• 3 Eggs (yolks and whites separated)
• 3 tbsp of Whole Milk
• 100 g of Pineapple + 3 thin slices for dried pineapple flowers or more as preferred
• 2 Ripe Bananas (peeled)
• 300 g of Plain Flour
• 1 tbsp of Baking Powder
• 1 tsp of Ground Cinnamon
• 75 g of Chopped Pecans
• Unsalted Butter (for greasing)
• For the frosting:
• 180 g of Unsalted Butter (softened)
• 150 g of Icing Sugar (sifted)
• 450 g Full-fat Cream Cheese
• 1 tsp of Vanilla Bean Paste

Preparation

Step 1

1. Preheat oven to 170C for fan oven or 190C for electric oven. To prepare the cake tin, trace the outline of the 20 cm non-stick springform cake tin base twice on greaseproof paper and cut the circles out. Next, measure the circumference of the tin with a string. Using the length of the string as a guide, cut two long strips of greaseproof paper and fold into half. Lastly, grease the base and the inside edges of two 20 cm cake tins with butter. Line paper circles onto the base of the cake tins, then the inside edges with the long paper strips and grease the base and the edges once more.
2. Blend pineapple into a coarse paste, then add in the banana and whizz again till smooth and combined.
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together oil and golden caster sugar. Add in egg yolks as well as milk and whisk again till combined, then fold in pineapple-banana mixture. Sift flour and baking powder together and fold it into the mixture in a few batches. Add in cinnamon and pecans, stir again till incorporated.
4. In a dry and clean mixing bowl, beat egg whites till stiff using an electric whisk. Gently fold it into the cake mixture in two batches. Divide batter between the tins by weighing to provide greater accuracy and hence achieve even cakes. Give the tins a few taps on the table to get rid of any large air bubbles in the batter. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Set them aside to cool.
5. To make the frosting, roughly whisk butter with an electric mixer to loosen it, then add in icing sugar and cream them together. Next, add cream cheese in a few batches and beat till mixture is smooth, then whisk in vanilla bean paste to incorporate. When cake is cooled, remove the greaseproof paper and secure one cake on a cake board. Place on a turntable and spread a quarter of frosting over the top using an angled spatula. Carefully lay the second cake over the first and cover the top and sides with a rough layer of frosting. Refrigerate the cake for at least 30 minutes to set the crumb coat and return it back to the turntable to spread another layer of frosting. Smooth the frosting, wiping off any excess on the spatula when necessary. Place in the refrigerator for about an hour to set.
6. To make dried pineapple flowers, preheat oven to 120C. Place pineapple slices on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 1 to 2 hours or until the flowers are dried. Turn the pineapple slices over 3 to 4 times during the baking process and keep a close eye when the flowers are nearly done to prevent them from charring. Lay dried pineapple flowers onto the pointed tips of an egg carton and push the sides down to create a flower shape. Allow flowers to cool and dry completely. Decorate the cake with dried pineapple flowers and you can now enjoy this scrumptious cake with your friends and family!