Hummingbird Cake

My absolute favourite bakery in the world is the Hummingbird Bakery. If you're a London resident and have never had the pleasure, then get your tushy to the nearest one! I would highly recommend you start with their 'black bottom cupcakes'!

I've been dying to make this cake for a wee while now and it did not disappoint! I did made a few adjustments - purely because of what I already had in my cupboards/forgot to pick up from the supermarket...!  

I used dark brown sugar instead of caster which gave it a glorious caramel flavour and added in a few extra wintery spices because I loooooooooooove spice (and wanted my house to smell like Christmas - let's face it, this was the main reason....).

This recipe makes a magnificent 3 tier cake, smothered in cream cheese frosting with a cinnamon spiced sponge packed full of pecans and fruit.

(Don't be deceived by the pictures, I made one 2 tier cake and a separate 1 tier cake - one for a friend's birthday and one for me and Will to eat in the meantime!)

Enjoy baking buddies!

What you'll need//

3 medium eggs

300g soft dark brown sugar

300ml sunflower oil

250g ripe bananas (mashed)

pinch of salt

couple drops of vanilla extract

100g tinned pineapple

100g roughly chopped pecans

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

half tsp nutmeg

300g plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

125g unsalted butter (room temp)

125g cream cheese (cold)

250g icing sugar

x3 6 inch baking tins greased and lined (I use these)

What to do//

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees C (fan) and grease and line your baking tins. 

Roughly chop your pineapple into small pieces. Chop your pecans, leaving about 12 for decoration.

Mash your bananas with the back of a fork.

In a large mixing bowl whisk your eggs and mix in the sugar, sunflower oil, mashed bananas, salt, vanilla, chopped pineapple and pecans. Mix well.

In a separate bowl, mix together your cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, flour and bicarbonate of soda before sifting into your main mixture. Stir until the flour has just disappeared. Do not over mix!

Pour equally into your lined baking tins and bake for 25-30 mins. 

Leave to cool in the tins for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

To make the frosting - beat the butter for a couple of minutes using an electric hand mixer or cake mixer if you have one. Sift in the icing sugar 125g at a time and mix for a couple of minutes. Add the cream cheese and mix for a further 3-4 minutes. Refrigerate until your cakes are cool enough to frost.

Use half of the frosting for between the tiers and half for the outside of the cake. Decorate with pecans :)

Enjoy with a steamy mug of tea and your buddies!

What are your favourite Hummingbird cakes/cupcakes?

Betty x

PS. Are we friends on Instagram? Pop over and say hello!

If you missed my White Chocolate and Cranberry Flapjack then take a peak here