Hummingbird Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

When there is a birthday at the hubby’s work, one of the women in his office is the dedicated birthday cake maker.

For one of the recent birthdays, she was unavailable so I was asked to make the birthday cake for D.  The cake chosen was one I haven’t made before, being a Hummingbird Cake with Cream Cheese Icing, but it was super simple and went down a treat with everyone, most importantly the birthday girl.

The recipe is from Taste.com.au and consists of flour, oil, brown sugar, banana, pineapple, coconut, walnuts, eggs, cinnamon and ground coriander.

It couldn’t be easier.  Preheat the oven and line your cake pan.  I used a larger cake pan than recommended so that enough slices could be cut to share around, however a standard square or round cake pan is more than sufficient and will give you a little more height than mine ended up having.

This is a one bowl mix which is started by sifting your flour and spices into a large bowl.

Next, add everything else and stir until thoroughly combined.

You want to make sure you see no more traces of flour and everything is evenly distributed.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for approximately 40 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.  Set the cake aside on a rack to cool completely.

For the icing, it is a cream cheese icing.  Now, I must be abnormal because I don’t like cream cheese icing as it has thing tang that I find really off-putting.  It is the most popular choice for red velvet cupcakes but I much prefer the creamy vanilla frosting I use.  Each to their own!

I slightly altered the quantities for the icing as the smallest amount of cream cheese I could buy was 160g (the Philadelphia cream cheese mini tubs) and I didn’t want to waste any.  You will also need some icing sugar, butter, vanilla and some more walnuts to garnish.

Allow the butter to soften and then place in the bowl of an electric mixer with the cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla then beat until it is nice and smooth.  Simple.

Spread the mixture on top of the cake and then sprinkle with the additional walnuts and you’re done!

The cake went down a treat with everyone, and was really quite moist.

Next time I make this I will use a smaller cake pan, or increase the amount of batter for the larger pan so it resembles more of a cake rather than a slice.

Print Recipe

Hummingbird Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

Adapted from Taste.com.au

Course

Cake

Servings

Ingredients

For the cake

• 250 g self-raising flour
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp coriander
• 270 g brown sugar
• 440 g crushed pineapple drained
• 50 g desiccated coconut
• 2 bananas ripe, mashed
• 1/2 cup walnuts chopped
• 2 egg(s) lightly beaten
• 250 ml sunflower oil (1 cup)

For the cream cheese icing

• 160 g cream cheese
• 80 g unsalted butter softened
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 360 g icing sugar
• 3/4 cup walnuts finely chopped

Course Cake Servings Ingredients For the cake 250 g self-raising flour 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp coriander 270 g brown sugar 440 g crushed pineapple drained 50 g desiccated coconut 2 bananas ripe, mashed 1/2 cup walnuts chopped 2 egg(s) lightly beaten 250 ml sunflower oil (1 cup) For the cream cheese icing 160 g cream cheese 80 g unsalted butter softened 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 360 g icing sugar 3/4 cup walnuts finely chopped

Instructions

For the cake

1. Preheat oven to 170°C and line a square cake pan.
2. Sift the self-raising flour, cinnamon and ground coriander into a large bowl.
3. Add the remaining ingredients (sugar, pineapple, coconut, banana, walnuts, eggs and oil) and stir thoroughly to combine.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and spread so the top is smooth. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

For the cream cheese icing

1. Place the softened butter, cream cheese, vanilla extract and icing sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer. Start the mixer on a low speed to start to combine the mixture.
2. Once the icing sugar is mostly combined, increased the speed and beat until smooth.

Assembly

1. Spread the cream cheese icing over the top of the cooled cake and the sprinkle with the finely chopped walnuts.