Nici Wickes: Hummingbird Cake

Saturday Morning with Jack Tame

I make a few versions of the mighty hummingbird cake but this is an easy, light, manageable version. I like to describe this cake as a banana cake that goes on a Jamaican holiday.

Serves 8-10

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups plain flour
• ¾ cups brown sugar
• ½ cup desiccated coconut
• 1 heaped tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp each baking powder and baking soda
• 2 medium eggs
• ¾ cups oil – I used grapeseed oil
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed – about 2 bananas
• 1 cup crushed pineapple + ¼ cup juice

Brown butter cream cheese icing

• 100g butter
• 250g full fat cream cheese
• 1 – 1 ½ cup icing sugar

Method

1. Heat oven 180 C. Grease and line a 23cm cake tin.
2. Take two bowls. In one put all the dry ingredients – flour, sugar, coconut, spices and raising agents. Whisk together.
3. In the second bowl, beat together eggs, oil and bananas. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients, add the crushed pineapple and the juice and stir to combine.
4. Scrape batter into the tin and bake for 45-55 mins or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Rest for 10 mins then turn out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

Make the icing

1. Melt butter in a small pot until it splutters. Keep cooking until the spluttering subsides – 4-6 minutes – then it will begin to foam and brown. Cook, watching carefully, until it is browned and gives off a wonderful nutty aroma. Cool completely.
2. Beat cream cheese and browned butter and add the icing sugar gradually. Beat until smooth.

Split the cake through the middle and fill with half the frosting, using the remaining for the top of the cake. Serve and eat!

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