Hummingbird Slices

I tasted Hummingbird Cake for the first time on my recent motorhome trip to Scotland. It was served up in the delightful Cocoa Skye cafe in Brora (you can check out my post on it here). I decided I would come up with my own take on this when I reached home.

Incidentally, many of the beautiful places featured in my recent posts from Scotland have been battered this week by Storm Babet. Flooding has affected Angus, Aberdeenshire and Caithness, leaving us feeling how fortunate we were to experience brilliant sunny weather there, just a few weeks ago. Friends in Scotland – our thoughts are with you.

A little research tells me that Hummingbird Cake originated in Jamaica, and is now popular across the US. I’ll be interested to hear from any of my lovely American followers whether that is so?

I consulted several recipes before coming up with my own. One of those I read was by Jamie Oliver, who gave his version this convincing endorsement: “bake it, and get it in your gob”. Say what you mean, Jamie lad, say what you mean.

All the recipes I looked at made this a double decker cake. I wanted to make it single tier – I find a tray bake easier to serve and store, while having only one layer of cream cheese frosting makes it just a little less calorie-tastic.

I have stuck with the core ingredients of banana, chopped pineapple and pecan nuts in a spiced sponge, with cream cheese frosting and zesty sprinkles. The finished product is shown in my photo above, and has gone down very well with the family. So here we go, the ADK take on Hummingbird Cake.

Servings

Depending on how you cut it, at least 12 – 14 slices.

Timings

20 mins to prepare the cake, 30 mins to bake in the oven at 180C (the frosting is made while the cake is baking).

You Will Need

• 280g self-raising flour
• sprinkle of salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 120g caster sugar
• 50g pecan nuts, chopped
• 2 bananas, mashed
• 150g chopped pineapple, fresh or tinned
• 2 eggs
• 120ml sunflower oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 100g soft cheese
• 100g icing sugar
• 70g baking spread
• 1 lime

Method

1. Turn on the oven to 180C. Prepare a traybake tin (mine is 22cm square) by greasing and lining with kitchen paper.
2. Sieve the dry ingredients – flour, salt, baking powder and sugar, into a bowl. Add the chopped pecans and mix.
3. In separate bowl, mix the mashed bananas, pineapple, beaten eggs, oil and vanilla.
4. When the oven is up to temperature, pour the contents of the wet ingredients into the dry. Stir until fully mixed, then pour into the prepared baking dish, evening it out with a spatula. Place in the oven for 30 mins.
5. Meanwhile, make the cream cheese frosting. Sieve the icing sugar into a bowl with the soft cheese and spread. Mix with an electric mixer until smooth. Place in the fridge.
6. Take the cake from the oven. Check it is baked by inserting a skewer in the centre – if it comes out dry it is done. Set aside to cool.
7. Once cooled, lift the cake on to a board and carefully spread the cream cheese frosting all over. Grate the zest from the lime and sprinkle over. Place back in the fridge to chill.
8. Take from the fridge and cut into slices. Keep these in a box in the fridge.

Customise It!

I liked this as it is, but you could decorate the topping with some small pieces of chopped pineapple or pecan if you wish.

I’m still enjoying listening to Scottish bands in the ADK Kitchen, so here is another great track to share with you: Del Amitri with Always The Last To Know.