HUMMINGBIRD CAKE

I have always wondered what ingredients go into a ‘hummingbird’ cake. The name of the cake gives nothing away as to what these mysterious ingredients may be. I found a recipe for such a cake in a ‘Super Food Ideas’ cooking magazine a few weekends ago and decided to try it out. After a few illegible scribbles on my part containing slight changes to the recipe, I was ready to bake. Initially I thought that using pineapple in cake batter would make the end result soggy and taste somewhat like  pineapple topping on a pizza. How wrong I was. The pineapple makes this cake! As a huge plus, the recipe below is for REDUCED-FAT hummingbird cake. So no need to stop at one small slice. 

INGREDIENTS

CAKE 

• 2 cups self-raising flour
• a pinch of nutmeg 
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup brown sugar, tightly packed 
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarb of soda
• 1 ripe mashed banana
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten 
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence 
• 440g can pineapple pieces in natural juice (undrained)
• 1/2 cup roughly chopped walnuts
• cooking oil spray

ICING 

• 40g reduced-fat dairy spread
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 1/2 cups pure icing sugar mixture 

COOKING 

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees *C fan-forced (180 *C regular oven). Lightly grease a round cake tin. (The tin I used was 4.5cm deep and had a 23 cm base). 

2. Pour flour, bicarb of soda, brown sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon in a large bowl. Stir well to combine, using a metal spoon. Stir in eggs, oil, pineapple, banana, vanilla and two-thirds of the 1/2 cup of walnuts until the mixture forms a batter. 

3. Pour batter into the prepared cake tin. Bake for around 45-50 minutes or until a skewer/knife you have inserted in the cake comes out clean. Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then turn onto a plate or wire rack and leave cake to cool completely. 

4. Use an electric mixer to combine vanilla, spread and icing sugar until smooth. Spread icing over top of cake. Dust cake with remaining walnut pieces. 

(*C - degrees celsius)

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