Hummingbird Cake for Father's Day

I presented my dad will our small library of baking books and said ‘pick one’ for me to make for Father’s Day. He chose this recipe from a beautiful book ‘The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook’ full of delicious recipes from the popular Hummingbird Bakery down Portobello road. This cake is really moist from the fruit and just all around lovely. Dad certainly liked it anyway.

Ingredients

300g caster sugar

3 eggs

300ml sunflower oil

270g bananas, mashed

1 tsp ground cinnamon

300g plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp vanilla extract

100g tinned pineapple, finely chopped

100g pecan nuts (although I used walnuts because I like them better)

Cream Cheese Frosting

600g icing sugar

100g unsalted butter, at room temp

250g cream cheese, cold

Preheat the oven to 170⁰C/gas mark 3. Line 3 20-cm cake tins with baking parchment. In a large mixing bowl combine the sugar, eggs, oil, banana and cinnamon using an electric whisk.

Add the bicarbonate of soda, salt and vanilla extract and combine. Add the flour in small batches, beating until all the ingredients are well incorporated.

Finely chop the walnuts and pineapple. Add them to the mixture and stir in using a spatula.

Split the mixture between the three tins, using the spatula to even out the surface. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and springy in the middle. Cool cakes on a wire rack.

While the cakes are cooling make the cream cheese frosting. In a large bowl beat the icing sugar and butter together until mixed. Add all the cream cheese and beat for at least 5 minutes until fluffy.

When the cakes are cooled place the bottom layer on a cake stand and spread a quarter of the icing on top. Repeat this with the second layer. Place the final layer on top and cover the cake completely with the remaining icing. Decorate the top with some walnuts halves and a sprinkling of cinnamon.

Warning: Consuming one slice of Hummingbird Cake may lead to a second slice…

P.S. I’m off on a jolly around Eastern Europe tomorrow for 3 weeks so this will be the last recipe for a while! I’m hoping I’ll get to eat lots of goodies though, especially in Vienna, so look forward to some travelling inspired recipes : )