I previously wrote about Price’s birthday and how great a day it was. Well, the one thing that was missing was a birthday cake. I had originally planned on leaving early that day so I could make the cake before dinner, but that did not work out. Then, I intending to make it after dinner since I’m used to baking pretty late, but we drank quite a bit so that was scraped and we just went down the road for a little piece of cake. No worries, it all worked out but I still owed Pricer a cake. So the birthday cake became a First-Day-Of-Work cupakes. (I realized I left my can pans in CT in August for my dad’s Bday)
Back to Price… I told him to pick out a cake for me to make. So he picked out a few of my cookbooks and went to work. He picked a Hummingbird Cake from The Baking Bible: From the Oven to the Table. We had never heard of this cake before. I wanted to know why it is called a Hummingbird Cake, so I did a little research. My research yielded that the reason behind the name is unknown. It is suggested that is has to do with how sweet the cake is, being that hummingbirds eat nectar. The cake has Southern origins, but word spread about this cake when it was featured in Southern Living in the late 70’s.
The cupcakes were easy to make and produced a great result. The cupcakes were rich a moist- from the oil in the cake. While I like {cup}cakes with butter in them I appreciate baking with oil since I don’t have to wait for the butter to come to room temperature. And without having to cream butter and sugar together I didn’t need to use a mixer for the cake portion. The pineapple also made for a moist cake. However, the banana flavor was much more dominate than the pineapple flavor. I admit that just mashed up bananas and figured ‘close enough’… this just goes to show that measuring is really important! The frosting is a basic cream cheese frosting and it tied the whole thing together.
Hummingbird Cupcakes
makes 24 cupcakes Cake 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 1/4 cups superfine sugar 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 cup sunflower oil 3 eggs, beaten 1 cup pecans, finely chopped, plus extra for decorating 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2-3 bananas) 3 oz/85 grams canned crushed pineapple (drained weight) 4 tablesppons pineapple juice from can Frosting 6 tablespoons cream cheese, softened 4 tablesppons unsalted butter, softened 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 3 1/2 cups confectioners sugar, siftedPreheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray or line 2 12 cup cupcake pans.
Sift together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, and baking soda in a large bowl, set aside.
In a medium sized bowl, combine the wet ingredients together. Incorportate the wet ingredients and chopped pecans into the dry ingredients. Mix throughly with a wooden spoon.
Divide the batter into the cupcake pans. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick is inserted and comes out clean
While the cupcakes are baking, make the frosting by combining the soft cream cheese and butter. Add the sifted sugar and vanilla extract, and mix until smooth.
Once the cupcakes have cooled, frost with the cream cheese frosting. Top all with chopped pecans.