Hummingbird Cake

        Being broke and more or less unemployed (I took a job waiting tables at 6:30 in the morning for $40 a day so according to my bank account I'm still unemployed) I've found myself with plenty of time and unable to leave the house. Basically I'm bored of out my tree and just about ready to hang myself from one! I've done the whole binge watching Netflix thing (check out Broadchurch, so good!), yoga videos, reading, working on acting stuff, I even knit a tea cosy and of course, I've baked. It's tricky being right after the holidays because no one in my family wants much sweet stuff around, well we want it we just know we ought not to have it, so I've been aiming for lighter, less rich items like this fruity Hummingbird Cake.

   Two summers ago I bought a Taste of Home cookbook at a silent auction and I've tried quite a few recipes from it. So far, I've been very impressed and some of the recipes have even managed to become favourites. There are quite a few items in it that call for pre made or packaged ingredients such as cake mix, store bought dough or pudding mix. These are a huge pet peeve of mine and I don't consider them recipes. I'm sorry but store bought mixes taste awful and any "recipe" or "baker" using them loses all credibility in my opinion, if you couldn't sell it in a bakery you didn't bake it. Enough of my rant, onto the cake!

 I halved the recipe for my family of three and we are post holiday so huge slices of cake aren't the best way to fit back into one's jeans. The recipe posted is for the full cake, so if you want to cut it in half just use smaller pans. I used two 3inch rounds so I could still stack with the yummy icing in the middle which worked perfectly, but you could also stick it all in one 9x13 if you wanted to do it as a sheet cake.

For the cake:

2 cups mashed ripe banana

1 1/2 cups canola oil

3 eggs

8 oz crushed pineapple, undrained (or pineapple chunks in a food processor!)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 cup chopped walnuts

1. Beat the bananas with the oil, eggs, pineapple and vanilla until well blended.

  2. In a separate bowl combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and cinnamon.
    Add the flour mixture to the banana and beat until well blended. Add the walnuts.

3. Pour into three 9 inch round baking tins. Bake at 350ºF (180ºC) for 25-30 minutes. Cool completely before icing.

The original recipe (found here) called for a pineapple icing with shortening, but I was feeling the carrot cake style cream cheese goodness. I used the recipe from the classic carrot cake but added a bit of extra butter and less cream cheese to make it more of a cream cheese/buttercream hybrid.

For MY icing (or what I can remember, I was winging it):

1 package cream cheese

1/2 - 2/3 cup butter

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 -2 cups icing sugar

1. Beat the cream cheese and the butter until smooth. Beat in the vanilla and then gradually add in the confectioners sugar. Adjust the amount of sugar according to the consistency of your icing. Ice your cake as you desire to do.

Ta Da!

I have absolutely no idea why it's called a hummingbird cake but regardless of the name it's delicious and moist and perfect for an afternoon cup of tea.

-Holly