Hummingbird cake

Some of my best baking creations start with a realisation that I have some over ripe fruit that I need to use - bananas, apples, pears... after all, fruit in a cake is a much more attractive option than fruit on its own! Usually it's banana and to be honest, I am so sick of churning out endless loaves of banana bread, multiple moist cakes, or trays of muffins. This time was no different, I had excess over ripe bananas and was wondering what to do with them. My eyes then alighted upon a block of cream cheese in my fridge, as well as a tin of pineapple and that was it - hummingbird cake as it was meant to be!

Like my icing : cake ratio?

Ingredients

1 x 440g tin of crushed pineapple
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup self raising flour - I used wholemeal and it still turned out beautifully
1/2 teaspoon bicarb
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 cup dessicated coconut
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup vegetable oil

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and grease and line a 22cm round cake tin.
2. Drain the pineapple, reserving 1/4 cup of the syrup.
3. In a large bowl, sift together the flours, bicarb and cinnamon.
4. Add the brown sugar and coconut, and stir to combine with a wooden spoon.
5. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the bananas, eggs, vegetable oil, crushed pineapple and the 1/4 cup of the pineapple syrup. Mix with a wooden spoon until all combined.
6. Pour into the cake tin, smooth the top with a spatula and pop into the oven.
7. Bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out dry. Remove from the oven, leave to cool for 15 minutes in the tin before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
8. Make the icing (recipe below), ice and enjoy!

Cream cheese frosting

250g reduced fat cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted

Beat all the ingredients together for a few minutes until smooth and silky.

I iced the cake with lots and lots of icing (as that's how I roll) and then sprinkled ground cinnamon on top. The cake itself was beautiful - the little nuggets of pineapple were fabulous, and the cake was as light as air.

I loved that this was a super easy recipe and it came out delicious. Plus I had all the ingredients readily available in my kitchen... must have been meant to be!

thesuzchef x