Hummingbird Cake
Hummingbird Cake, or Bumblebee Cake, is like a tropical version of the yummy Carrot Cake using banana instead of carrot. It is also a very easy cake to make as you don’t need to cream or beat the cake batter, it is just like making American muffins by folding wet ingredients into dry ingredients and it is done!
As I have never made the cake before, I did my usual thing and checked up on a few other recipes on the net before I started making it. And a good thing it was as I found out that most of the recipes required three 23cm (9-inch) cake tins for a double quantity of the recipe I posted below. The reason probably being the cake is very moist and it needs to be baked in thin layers, or else the cake will end up being too ‘wet’ if baked in a thicker layer. As I was planning to use a 20cm cake tin for mine which will make a thicker cake, I decided to reduce the liquid content to be safe. Lucky it was too as the cake was quite moist even after my reduction of the liquid proportion!
Another thing I changed was to dice the bananas instead of mashing them which the recipe I was using suggested. This was after comparing the recipes from the US (I think this cake originated from the tropical southern states of USA) on the net which a number of recipes suggested using diced bananas. One reason being if you mashed the bananas, it will result in a texture similar to an ordinary banana cake. But if you diced them, you can actually taste the chunks of banana in the cake which is very yummy!
Adapted from the recipe 'Hummingbird Cake' in The Australian Women’s Weekly mini cookbook series 'Café Cakes', published by ACP Publishing, 2001.
Makes one 20cm cake.
[Ingredients]
Cake:
150g plain flour, sifted
75g self-raising flour, sifted
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon bicarb. of soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
220g (1 cup) caster sugar, sifted
2 eggs, lightly beaten
125ml (1/2 cup) canola or corn oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 (about 225g after peeling) firm ripe bananas, diced
200g drained, crushed pineapple + 60ml pineapple juice, from 440g-can crushed pineapple in natural juice
50g (scant 1/2 cup) chopped pecans or walnuts
Cream Cheese Frosting:
60g cream cheese, softened
30g butter, softened
80g (1/2 cup) pure icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
http://cafeoftheeast.blogspot.com/
[Preparation]
Cake:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 20cm round or square cake tin.
2. Drain the crushed pineapple, reserve 60ml drained juice for the cake. Weigh out 200g of the drained crushed pineapple, do not squeeze the pineapple to remove excess juice. Slice each banana lengthway into 4 quarters, then cut into approximately 5mm thick chunks.
3. Combine all dry ingredients. Add lightly beaten eggs, pineapple juice, oil and vanilla, fold in lightly to combine. Fold in chopped banana, crushed pineapple and nuts.
4. Pour batter into the prepared tin and bake for 60 to 70 minutes. Stand 20 to 30 minutes before turning out. Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting before serving.
Cream Cheese Frosting:
Cream softened cream cheese, butter, sugar and vanilla together.
[Note]
1. Please note this recipe uses 1 standard cup of 250ml, 1 tablespoon of 20ml and 1 teaspoon of 5ml.
2. The size of egg used is about 60g (includes shell) unless otherwise stated.
As I have never made the cake before, I did my usual thing and checked up on a few other recipes on the net before I started making it. And a good thing it was as I found out that most of the recipes required three 23cm (9-inch) cake tins for a double quantity of the recipe I posted below. The reason probably being the cake is very moist and it needs to be baked in thin layers, or else the cake will end up being too ‘wet’ if baked in a thicker layer. As I was planning to use a 20cm cake tin for mine which will make a thicker cake, I decided to reduce the liquid content to be safe. Lucky it was too as the cake was quite moist even after my reduction of the liquid proportion!
Another thing I changed was to dice the bananas instead of mashing them which the recipe I was using suggested. This was after comparing the recipes from the US (I think this cake originated from the tropical southern states of USA) on the net which a number of recipes suggested using diced bananas. One reason being if you mashed the bananas, it will result in a texture similar to an ordinary banana cake. But if you diced them, you can actually taste the chunks of banana in the cake which is very yummy!
Adapted from the recipe 'Hummingbird Cake' in The Australian Women’s Weekly mini cookbook series 'Café Cakes', published by ACP Publishing, 2001.
Makes one 20cm cake.
[Ingredients]
Cake:
150g plain flour, sifted
75g self-raising flour, sifted
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon bicarb. of soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
220g (1 cup) caster sugar, sifted
2 eggs, lightly beaten
125ml (1/2 cup) canola or corn oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 (about 225g after peeling) firm ripe bananas, diced
200g drained, crushed pineapple + 60ml pineapple juice, from 440g-can crushed pineapple in natural juice
50g (scant 1/2 cup) chopped pecans or walnuts
Cream Cheese Frosting:
60g cream cheese, softened
30g butter, softened
80g (1/2 cup) pure icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
http://cafeoftheeast.blogspot.com/
[Preparation]
Cake:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 20cm round or square cake tin.
2. Drain the crushed pineapple, reserve 60ml drained juice for the cake. Weigh out 200g of the drained crushed pineapple, do not squeeze the pineapple to remove excess juice. Slice each banana lengthway into 4 quarters, then cut into approximately 5mm thick chunks.
3. Combine all dry ingredients. Add lightly beaten eggs, pineapple juice, oil and vanilla, fold in lightly to combine. Fold in chopped banana, crushed pineapple and nuts.
4. Pour batter into the prepared tin and bake for 60 to 70 minutes. Stand 20 to 30 minutes before turning out. Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting before serving.
Cream Cheese Frosting:
Cream softened cream cheese, butter, sugar and vanilla together.
[Note]
1. Please note this recipe uses 1 standard cup of 250ml, 1 tablespoon of 20ml and 1 teaspoon of 5ml.
2. The size of egg used is about 60g (includes shell) unless otherwise stated.
Labels: Cakes and Cupcakes, Coffee Desserts
posted by SeaDragon @ 6.11.05
7 Comments:
I've only had hummingbird cake once (not a lot of places have it, ergh) and it was awesome because of that SUPER MOIST-NESS! Your cake came out great!
Thanks, Robyn :)
Farid,
Thank you very much for the invitation.
hi,
i wish to make this as birthday cake next wednesday and have couple of questions.
1) can i substitute self-raising flour with plain flour?
2) for pineapple, i can use canned ones. crushed = smashed? (pardon me, i'm new in baking)
many thanks!
oh, one more thing, can I substitute corn oil with sunflower oil?
thanks again :)
Kris,
1. If you substitute self raising with plain flour, add 1 teaspoon baking powder to the flour and sift together.
2. Yes, the crushed/smashed pineapple is from can (it is usually labelled as 'crushed pineapple' on the can). Make sure it is in NATURAL juice. If it is in SYRUP, reduce the amount of sugar slightly as it may becomes too sweet. If you can only get canned pinepple in pieces, chop it up roughly before using.
3. Yes, you can substitute corn oil with sunflower oil.
Enjoy baking :)
thanks again for your answers. I'm looking forward to try it soon :)
Post a Comment
<< Home