CAKES CAKES CAKES CAKES...........

Hummingbird cake

Hummingbird cake...............I was in love with this cake when I first saw Kak Yani of The Kitchen Guardian posted the pic in her FB page.  So, it was decided that this is going to be my hubby's birthday cake.  Whew, was it difficult to get the banana (I was looking for "berangan") as my usual supplier is close for the CNY holidays.

The recipe was adapted from the book "Lovely Butter Cakes" which was a present from my son's girlfriend.

The dried pineapple flowers were super easy to make. Mine were burnt as I was too impatient and dried them with temperature of 160 degree C!!

I baked mine in a 8" round pan and I found it too short, so I made another and after stacking them up, I got a 8" tall cake.

Hummingbird Cake
Adapted from Lovely Butter Cakes by Amy Wong & K.S.Lee

Ingredients
200 g Self Raising Flour
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
(combine & sieve the above ingredients)

80 g sugar (I added)
120 ml corn oil
2 eggs (lightly beaten)
250 g ripe banana (mashed) - I used "pisang berangan"
200g canned pineapple (discard juice and cut into small cubes, then squeezze)
1 tsp vanilla essence (I added)

100 g walnuts (chopped & roasted) - original recipe used pecans
(toss the nuts with 1 tbs of flour)

Method
Grease and line the bottom of 2 x 8" square pans.  (I would recommend 7" or 6").
Preheat oven to 170 degree C.
Combine the sugar and eggs and whisk together.
Add the oil and whisk till combine.
Then add the mashed bananas and pineapples, followed by vanilla essence.
Add the dry ingredients into the egg mixture and fold together.
Finally fold in the nuts.
Divide the batter equally into the pans and bake for 25 - 30 mins or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Let the cakes cool on wire rack then frost.

Cream Cheese Frosting
Adapted from Jamie Oliver

Ingredients
400 g icing sugar (sifted)
150 g butter
250 g cream cheese (cold) - original 200 g
some rind of lemon/ lime

Method
Cream the butter and icing sugar till creamy. Add the cream cheese and lemon rind.  Beat until smooth.  Keep in the fridge until ready to use.

To assemble the cake, place a cake on a serving plate. Spread some cream cheese frosting evenly. Top with another cake and cover the cake with the rest of the frosting. Decorate as desire.