Hummingbird cake must be so named as an allusion to the nectar hummingbirds eat as this cake is sweetened partially by pineapple and banana. I can see no other reason other than to give a pretty name for a delicious cake!
This recipe is adapted from one I found in the Te Puke Kindergarten Cookbook which is undated unfortunately. I do thoroughly enjoy these community cookbooks, they are filled to the brim with tried and true recipes from clever home cooks. Many of the recipes are passed down from family members or friends. As such, the recipes can be a little bit short on detail and it takes a confident cook to take them on. But the persistent will be rewarded with some absolute gems, such as this simple Hummingbird Cake recipe. This recipe seems to differ from others I’ve seen in that it doesn’t contain pecan nuts or coconut, it doesn’t suffer from the lack of them.
This Hummingbird Cake is a very large cake, it filled my largest springform tin (25 cm) and was still a nice height. This will therefore make the perfect dessert cake to comfortably feed up to 12 guests. Just serve it warmed with some cream or yoghurt. This is just as nice as a tea cake served by the slice, it is moist and tasty. I added some lemon curd on top of my cream cheese icing just to carry on the fruit theme, it was delicious, but optional.
Hummingbird Cake
Will serve 12 as dessert.
Ingredients:
- 3 cups plain flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cinammon
- 3 beaten eggs
- 2 mashed bananas
- 1 1/4 cups oil
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 tin (425g) crushed pineapple and juice
Icing:
- Cream Cheese
- Icing sugar
- Few drops fresh lemon juice
- Lemon curd (optional)
Method:
Put all the dry ingredients into a bowl, add eggs, oil and stir well. Then fold in crushed pineapple and juice, bananas and vanilla essence. Place in greased and floured tin. Bake at 180ºC (350ºF, Gas Mark 4) for 45-60 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in tin for 10 minutes.
Ice when cool.
