Friday 18 May 2012

Hummingbird Cupcakes



This is a special cake made for 3 special people - a dear friend who is back to work after maternity leave, an excellent student who has finished her placement with us and a blogger friend Karen who celebrated her birthday in May.  Karen, I've eaten your cakes on your behalf as a good friend of course ;-)

These are hummingbird cupcakes which have pineapple, bananas and pecans in them. I think the original recipe has coconut but as I don't like coconut I chose not to use it. It's the same recipe I used previously for a 3 layer cake but adjusted to cupcake proportions (I've just realised I seem to make hummingbird cakes for people named Karen!!) It's topped with a cream cheese frosting and finished with a dried pineapple flower. They tasted absolutely AMAZING!!! The cakes were really moist and flavourful. The nuts gave it a good crunch and texture to contrast with the bananas and pineapple. 

It was Mother's Day recently in USA and I've seen an explosion of these hummingbird cupcakes with dried pineapple flowers on the blogosphere.  The Pink Whisk (Great British Bake Off Finalist) also recently posted a very helpful tutorial on how to make these (highly recommend reading). They are also in my Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book. The stars have aligned, it was meant to be :) 

Quick digression here... next month I am hosting The Martha Stewart's Cupcakes Club. I have chosen roasted banana cupcakes page 141.  If you would like to join in, please click on the link to read how. We will be posting on the 15th of June.  

So I am entering these gorgeous cakes to Tea Time Treats hosted by the fabulous birthday girl Karen from Lavender and Lovage and co-hosted by Kate from What Kate Baked.  The theme is floral flavours and flowers. I think these dried pineapple flowers count! 


I am also entering them to my own AlphaBakes hosted this month by Caroline from Caroline Makes as the letter is 'H' for Hummingbird Cupcakes! If you haven't made your AlphaBakes entry yet, get baking as the deadline is 25th May! 



And finally to Cupcake Tuesday hosted by Liz from Hoosier Homemade 



 I found using a melon baller was a great way to remove the pineapple eyes

 Slice as thinly as possible... I was not very good at this so had quite thick flowers! 

 Arrange on a baking tray and bake on a low heat until they are dry

 shaping the pineapple flowers in a cupcake tray

 My recipe only made 10 (large) cupcakes

 ready to frost and decorate 

 no need for piping, just a spoon will do (or a spatula)

 top with your pretty and edible pineapple flower


 how pretty is that? 

 The perfect gift :) Both recipients of this box were very, very pleased. 

Makes 10 cupcakes

For the cupcakes

150g caster sugar
2 eggs
125mls sunflower oil 
2 ripe bananas, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
150g flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
60g fresh pineapple, chopped (you will have some left from making the pineapple flowers)
50g pecans, roughly chopped

For the cream cheese frosting

200g icing sugar, sifted
50g butter, softened
125g cream cheese

For the dried pineapple flower

1 large fresh pineapple

  • Preheat oven to 170C. 
  • Mix the sugar, eggs, sunflower oil, banana and cinnamon. 
  • Add the flour and bicarbonate of soda and mix well. 
  • Stir in the pineapple and pecans.
  • Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases and bake for approximately 15 - 20 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
  • Allow to cool completely on a wire rack. 
  • Make the frosting by beating all the ingredients until smooth.
  • Spoon the frosting on top of the cooled cupcake and decorate with a dried pineapple flower (or other decorations of your choice)


To make the dried pineapple flowers
  • Preheat the oven to 120C
  • Cut the top and skin off the pineapple.
  • Use a melon baller to remove the eyes.
  • Use a very sharp knife to cut VERY thin slices crosswise as shown. 
  • Arrange the slices in a single layer on a baking tray and bake until the tops look dry.
  • I recommend starting with 30 minutes on each side - remember to turn the slices over! 
  • As my slices were quite thick, they took about 50 - 60 minutes on each side to dry!! 
  • Pinch the centre of each pineapple slice to shape into a cone and allow to cool in a cupcake tray to form the flower shape.




46 comments:

  1. These look so sweet all wrapped up! Loving the pineapple flowers too, how cute!

    Nom! x

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    1. Thanks Nom. I really like the flowers but they did take hours to make!

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  2. "Karen, I've eaten your cakes on your behalf as a good friend of course"

    Bwahaha, you're a true friend indeed :D Those look awesome BA, I must have missed this pineapple flower craze... great idea, it's so pretty!

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    1. LOL only a true friend would help you eat cake :D The flowers are worth the hours it takes... they have a major wow factor and it's edible and tasty!

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  3. Edible pineapple flowers!! How stinkin' cute are those!!! What a brilliant idea. Must try :) It looks like they'd be worth the effort.

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    1. Thanks they were definitely worth the effort - great wow factor and tastes good too! :)

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  4. Ah you know hummingbird is one of my all time fave cupcake flavours, you just can't beat it - it's a classic! and I absolutely love your pineapple flowers, I'd always seen them in my Martha book and wanted to try them but never got round to it but yours look so great I may have to reconsider!

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    1. I love hummingbird cakes (without the coconut of course). I've seen these a lot in my book and on blogs so I'm glad I finally got round to trying them as they are great! Will definitely make them again for special occasions.

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  5. How cute are those pineapple flowers?

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  6. The flowers are adorable. Thanx for the tips on how to make them :D.
    Lovely entry for the alphabakes.
    Have a nice weekend!

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    1. Thanks! They're really simple to make, you just need time and patience :)

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  7. These pineapple flowers go so well with hummingbird cake - I saw some similar on Brown Eyed Baker from the US recently too. Great choice for letter H!

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    1. I chose the hummingbird cake as it has pineapple in it and it's a great H too so double bonus! :)

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  8. I have just shown these cakes to my Mum and we are BOTH absolutely blown away by these cakes and he pineapple flowers! These have to be the PRETTIEST cakes I have seen in a long time Ros.....they are WONDERFUL and I LOVE the pineapple flowers....I NOW have to try that in the future! FABULOUS! THANKS so much for the this STUNNING Tea Time Treats entry......amazing.......Karen XXXXX

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    1. I'm so pleased that you like these Karen! I wanted to make something special for your birthday and tea time treats which is why I asked if I could enter twice! I highly recommend making these for a special occasion! xx

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    2. You made my day when I read your post and saw these.....just fabulous! :-)

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  9. Those cakes look beautiful. I made some pineapple flowers recently but I think my oven was a bit too hot and they got a bit burnt so I just had to eat them instead of decorating cakes with them. Think I might give these a go and be more careful with my pineapple next time!

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    1. Thanks! My pineapple flowers are on the thicker side and slightly burnt too as you can see - I've seen pictures online of lovely yellow (not brownish) pineapple flowers! They still taste good! Good luck next time :)

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  10. How lovely, I've seen these pineapple flowers about but what a great idea to put them on a hummingbird cake...I might have to follow your lead! :-)

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    1. Thanks.. it's not an original idea but I love that the pineapple is in the cake as well as the decoration. No wastage :)

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  11. I've never seen pineapple flowers before, they're cool! Nice entry for alphabakes :-)

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    1. They are really cool, aren't they? I'm so pleased I finally got round to trying them and could fit it into an "H" for AlphaBakes!

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  12. They're beautiful. I'd seen them before in one of my books but hadn't looked how they made them. A really gorgeous idea for a natural decoration, and what a lovely complement to the flavours in the cake too.

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    1. Thanks - they're not too difficult to make. You can also dye them to make pretty colours!

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  13. Love those pineapple flowers, fab looking cakes.

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  14. Great tip for the pineapples. Make one or me next time too :)

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    1. You'll have to change your name to Karen ;-) I'm not sure how well these will travel so I might have to make another sacrifice and eat yours too ;)

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  15. What a delicious TTT entry- thank you! And what beautiful flowers, I hadn't known about them before!

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    1. Thanks! I love the flowers and will definitely make them again :)

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  16. look absolutely nice, love it!

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  17. Really like the pineapple flowers - what a cute and simple idea, so effective!

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  18. so beautiful... I too saw this tutorial by the brilliant Ruth and have contemplated making them but I keep forgetting to pop a pineapple in my shopping basket!... well done for the beautiful cakes and such a lovely birthday gift for Karen, even though you ate them yourself!

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    1. Thanks! I had to make the ultimate sacrifice and eat it on her behalf.. tough but someone has to do it :D

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  19. Wow they sound delicious, but those pineapple flowers are wonderful. Great idea to make cakes for a friend's birthday and then eat them yourself I'm sure Karen will be well chuffed ;-)

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    1. LOL I'm sure she was :D The cakes were really moist and delicious and the pineapple flowers looked good and tasted good too!

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  20. those pineapple flowers are a revelation - so pretty!

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  21. I saw those pineapple flowers on the pink whisk blog too - definitely have to make them now, they look fab!

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  22. Great cakes! This has been on my list for a while so great see it actually made:)

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    1. Thanks! My pineapple flowers are a little clumsy but they still look (and tasted) good :)

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  23. Thanks for linking this in to Food on Friday. Cheers

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