A hummingbird cake is an upgraded Banana Cake, to be honest, but upgraded to a level of “perfect” that is impossible to ignore. A hummingbird needs almost regular ingredients, if you can forgive the cream cheese, tinned pineapple and walnuts (all very easy to get your hands on) and dishes out a comforting, all delicious, easy to frost cake that feels like a promise of good things to follow.
While this cake is completely delicious on its own, I would be lying if I said the frosting doesn’t matter, because it does. It brings to the table the cake’s whole potential. With an easy to make cream cheese frosting that you can slather on rather rustically, it is minimal extra effort for complete glory, so don’t skip it.
Ingredients for a Hummingbird Cake
Apart from the usual flour, sugar, eggs, vanilla and baking soda, this cake does require a few special ingredients. Some fruit, which will be banana and tinned pineapple, some extra flavouring that will come from the cinnamon powder, and some crunch from walnuts. What makes this cake a fast cake is that it needs no butter but oil in the batter. So whisk whisk and you’re ready to go in 10 minutes of mixing.
My top tips for a perfect Hummingbird Cake
I’ve made a Hummingbird cake often enough to know and wisely inform you of the little care that goes into making a good hummingbird cake. While the recipe will never fail you, following these tips will ensure you get a perfect cake every single time.
- A lot of it depends on the pineapple; please use tinned pineapple and not fresh. Apart from the guaranteed saving on time, tinned pineapple is also always sweet.
- Once you’ve got the tinned pineapple, spend a little time chopping it as finely as you can without turning it into mush. If you leave it to big chunky pieces, not only does the flavour not come through, but you’ll also struggle to cut the cake into neat slices once ready.
- Don’t worry about the cream cheese frosting. If you had to deal with runny cream cheese frosting that refuses to stay stable unless refrigerated, I have the best recipe for you. The trick lies in using very little butter, and the frosting relies mostly on the cream cheese and sugar for quantity.
Other cakes that use fruit
If you, like me, love having fruit in your cake, you’ll love the following recipes as much.
- Banana Rum Cake, again an upgraded banana cake, that you’ll adore on rainy evenings over a cup of tea.
- Coconut Pineapple Cake; I can’t really decide between the two, because they’re both so good. The addition of coconut and nuts in the cake and condensed milk in the frosting makes this cake a slice of heaven. And if you like piña coladas and getting caught in the rain, this is the cake you want for company.
- Strawberry Almond Cake: made with almond flour and dessicated coconut, this one is delicious and healthy and doesn’t need more convincing
- Orange & Coconut Cake, because unless you put them together, you won’t fully understand the power of this match made in heaven combination of flavours.
An easy Hummingbird cake, made with banana, pineapple and walnuts with an equally easy to make cream cheese frosting.
Ingredients
250 gms ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
1 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup oil
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon powder
a pinch of salt
1 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup finely chopped tinned pineapple
1/3 cup walnuts plus some for decorating
- For the Frosting
1 cup cream cheese frosting, get the recipe here
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 170 C. Grease and line two 8-inch round tins. Set aside
- In a large bowl, add all the ingredients for the cake, in order, one after the other, whisking well after each addition
- Divide the batter equally between the two prepared tins and bake in a preheated oven at 170 °C for about 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean
- Once the cakes have baked, leave them to cool for ten minutes, then take them out of the tins and allow to cool completely
- Once the cakes have completely cooled, sandwich the frosting between the two layers and add the remaining frosting on the top of the cake with an offset spatula. Decorate with some chopped walnuts
