Hummingbird Birthday Cake

As mentioned it was a birthday celebration weekend and here's the massive birthday cake for a really good friend of mine. She requested a hummingbird cake with dried pineapple flowers so here it is. I've not made this cake in a long time and it was nice to be reminded of the delicious flavours. It's a banana, pineapple and pecan cake covered in cream cheese frosting. We had a really big celebration lunch but everyone managed a hefty slice of cake (or two!)

We enjoyed the cake so much, I didn't take a picture of a slice or a cross section of the cake. You'll have to take my word for it that it was delicious. The layers rose beautifully and it was so soft and moist. The waitress commented on the texture of the cake as she was slicing into it as she expected it to be heavy and stodgy but was actually really light.

 

 making dried pineapple flowers. Slice pineapple thinly and dry in a low heat oven 

 I made a 3 layer cake 

 cake assembly 

 Slightly uneven frosting but it gets covered in roasted, chopped pecans

 delicious pineapple flower

For the cake
300g caster sugar
3 eggs
300ml sunflower oil
270g peeled bananas, mashed (approximately 3 large bananas)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, plus extra to decorate
300g plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
100g pineapple, chopped into small pieces
100g roasted, chopped pecan nuts

For the frosting

500g icing sugar, sifted
100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
250g cold cream cheese

To decorate

100g roasted, finely chopped pecan nuts

dried pineapple flowers

• Preheat the oven to 170C
• Put the sugar, eggs, oil, banana and cinnamon in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment and beat until all the ingredients are well incorporated.
• Slowly add the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and vanilla extract and continue to beat until everything is well mixed.
• Stir in the chopped pineapple and pecan nuts by hand until evenly dispersed.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tins and smooth over with a palette knife.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown and the sponge bounces back when touched.
• Leave the cakes to cool slightly in the tins before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
• To make the frosting, beat the icing sugar and butter together until it's well mixed.
• Add the cream cheese in one go and beat until it is completely incorporated.
• Continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy, at least 5 minutes.

Click here to see a step by step guide on how to make dried pineapple flowers

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.

Rocky Road

This month's we should cocoa challenge is surplus stock or leftovers.  Two things immediately sprung to mind - rocky road or compost cookies/bars.  I then saw this post on ultimate rocky road and decided that it had to be rocky road hummingbird style with a little me flavour :)
I had a lot of leftovers from the festive baking as I bought way more than I needed as usual.  I also didn't quite bake everything I had planned to for the festive season. I still have dates that I bought for last month's we should cocoa challenge but decided against using it this time. Look out for a future date recipe though.
A picture speaks a thousand words so it's probably best to illustrate the ingredients that way. The 2 large slabs of dairy milk chocolate were initially for a chocolate fountain at my friend's new year's eve party but everyone was too full and drunk for it to even materialise.  I had marshmallows, nuts, dried cranberries and chocolate chips leftover from baking various things during the festive period. I seem to have a bit of everything leftover so this recipe was perfect! The rich tea biscuits I had in the cupboard and the maltesers were for a malteser cupcake which is still on my to bake list.  I have to admit I did buy the chocolate bars after reading the recipe.

Ok now here's a secret.... I'm not a huge fan of rocky road but I'm a total convert now.  I usually use Nigella's recipe when I make them but I have to say that these are seriously amazing!! You really, truly have to try them. I brought them to work and they disappeared by lunch time!! I have to echo Steven of Adventures of a foodie and proclaim these the ultimate rocky road. The plus side is it's a no bake recipe. It's so simple and quick to make, I'm actually making these again tomorrow as I still have a lot of leftovers to use up!

 melt chocolate 

 bowlful of goodies! 

 I thought it looked a bit plain so... 

 .. I added some rainbow sprinkles 

 large, chunky rocky road 

 the crunchie bar is my favourite bit 

This is the actual recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook

1.4kg milk chocolate, roughly chopped
8 regular sized chewy, filled chocolate bars of your choice, roughly chopped (eg snickers, mars, crunchie, etc)
100g marshmallows
180g chocolate-coated malt honeycomb balls (Maltesers)
100g dried apricots, roughly chopped
100g raisins
100g cornflakes
100g chocolate vermicelli

a 33 x 23 x 5 cm baking tray, lined with greaseproof paper

• Put the milk chocolate in a large saucepan over medium heat and heat until melted and smooth, stirring occasionally. 
• Put the chocolate bars, marshmallows, honeycomb balls, apricots, raisins and cornflakes in a large bowl and pour in the melted chocolate. 
• Mix with a wooden spoon until everything is well mixed and the dry ingredients are evenly dispersed. 
• Press this mixture into the prepared baking tray, using a  tablespoon to flatten and compress it.
• Sprinkle the chocolate vermicelli all over the top.
• Leave to cool completely then cover and refrigerate overnight. 

Red Velvet Cake

This is yet another birthday cake for my mum.  She had a birthday lunch with her friends so I agreed to make the cake for them. She had a store bought red velvet cake for one of her birthday dinners (there have been many birthday celebrations!) and really enjoyed it so I thought I'd make her one myself.  My family thought it was much better than the store bought one... well I suppose they would say that as they are family! I have to admit it tasted really good. The cake was nice and moist and I really love the colour of the cake. I wanted to try some different frosting methods but they didn't quite turn out as expected. I tried using my mum's piping syringe with attachments which was difficult to control compared to a piping bag.  Oh well practice makes perfect, right? Plus the icing got quite runny as I had to re-do the piping a few times and didn't have time to firm it up in the fridge as I was running late! The final result is quite plain and simple but at least the taste spoke for itself.
Incidentally this is also my 100th post so it's fitting that it's a birthday red velvet cake :)
PS apologies for the quality of photos, most were taken from my phone.

 fresh from the oven, I was a little worried it was not red enough but it looks better in reality.  

 

 First attempt at frosting borders. Didn't quite turn out so I scraped it all off ...

 ...and ended up with this! 

 tried to make lines on the side of the cake with a new cake tool I have but I obviously need more practice! I do like the borders on the edges.

 

 the photo doesn't do it justice but it was a beautiful red colour 

For the cake 

120g unsalted butter, room temperature

300g caster sugar

2 eggs

20g cocoa powder

40mls red food colouring (I used 30mls and it turned out beautifully red)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

240ml buttermilk (You can make your own by adding 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice to 1 cup of milk)

300g plain flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

3 teaspoons white wine vinegar

Cream Cheese Frosting

600g icing sugar, sifted

100g unsalted butter, at room temperature

250g cream cheese cold

• Preheat the oven to 170C
• Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
• Slowly add the eggs and beat well.
• In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla extract to make a thick, dark paste.
• Add to the butter mixture and mix well.
• Slowly pour in half the buttermilk, then add half the flour and beat until everything is well incorporated.
• Repeat until all the flour and buttermilk have been added.
• Add salt, bicarbonate of soda and vinegar.
• Beat until well mixed.
• Pour mixture into prepared cake tins and bake in a preheated oven for 30-35 minutes.
• Leave to cool slightly before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
• To make the frosting, beat together the icing sugar and butter and then add the cream cheese in one go and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy. Be careful not to overbeat as it can become runny.

Tropical Hummingbird Cake

This is a special birthday cake for my mum's birthday. She loves fruits so I decided to make a tropical hummingbird cake having seen the recipe on bbc.co.uk.  The hummingbird cake I made earlier in the year which was also for a birthday contained bananas and pineapple. This cake has the addition of mangoes and passionfruit and it was really refreshing and delicious. The fruit flavours really came through and the sponge was very light.  The cream cheese frosting paired well with the cake.  However, I didn't like the texture of the passionfruit seeds which were crunchy but also a little 'sandy'.  Thankfully my mum loved it and she wants to make the same cake for Christmas this year.
I also wanted to try out some new molds that I bought recently - butterfly and daisy mold. They didn't quite turn out as some of the cake stuck to the mold and I didn't have time to do much creative decorating but it still looks quite cute.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM!!

 new cake moulds

 cake batter 

 layering with cream cheese frosting

 double layer cake

 mini cakes - slightly burnt!

mini cakes decorated with M&Ms :)

 pre-decoration 

 final cake 

 you can see the bits of fruit and nuts. Delicious! 

For the cake
250g/8¾oz plain flour
250g/8¾oz caster sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3 free-range eggs, beaten
200ml/7fl oz sunflower oil, plus extra for greasing
50g/1¾oz pecan nuts, roughly chopped
50g/1¾oz walnuts, roughly chopped
2 bananas, mashed
1 large mango, peeled, stoned removed, flesh mashed
2 passion fruit, pulp only
85g/3oz tinned pineapple, mashed
1 orange, zest only

For the cream cheese frosting
200g/7oz full-fat soft cheese
50g/1¾oz unsalted butter, softened
1 orange, zest only
400g/14oz icing sugar

• Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Grease and line three 20cm/8in cake tins.
• Sift the flour, caster sugar, ground cinnamon and bicarbonate of soda together in a bowl.
• Stir in the eggs, sunflower oil, nuts, fruit and orange zest until well combined.
• Divide the cake batter among the three cake tins and bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes, or until risen and golden-brown.
• Remove from the oven and set aside to cool for 10 minutes. Run a round-bladed knife around the inside edge of the tins to loosen the cakes. Remove the cakes from their tins and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
• Meanwhile, for the cream cheese icing, blend the cheese and butter together with an electric whisk until thick and creamy. Add the orange zest and sift in the icing sugar. Stir gently until well combined, then chill in the fridge until needed.
• Once the cakes are cool, spread cream cheese icing on top of each cake. Stack the cakes to make one three-tiered cake.