Hummingbird Cake
A delicious, soft banana and pineapple cake, spiced with cinnamon and with pecans for a little crunch. This is definitely one of my favourite cakes!

Ingredients
Cake
- 250g plain flour
- 300g caster sugar
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 175ml vegetable oil
- 3 large eggs
- 250g drained, crushed pineapple
- 3 small bananas, mashed
- 75g toasted and chopped pecans
Cream Cheese Icing
- 60g butter (room temperature)
- 120g full fat cream cheese
- 400g icing sugar
Pineapple Flowers
- 1 pineapple
- Mint leaves
Method
Cake:
- Preheat the oven to 180 C (fan).
- In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
- Pour in the oil, then add the eggs and mix thoroughly.
- Add the mushed banana and crushed pineapple, along with the chopped, toasted pecans and mix again.
- Divide the mixture evenly between 3 6-inch cake tins.
- Bake for around 20-25 minutes until risen.
- Leave to cool in the tins for around 10 minutes, then remove from the tins and leave to cool fully on a wire rack.
Cream Cheese Icing:
- Beat the butter and cream cheese together until smooth, then add the icing sugar, mixing in slowly until smooth.
Pineapple Flowers:
- Preheat the oven to 100 C (fan)
- Cut the top and all the skin away from the pineapple, and then cut it into very fine slices.
- Place the slices on a lined baking tray and bake the slices for around 3 hours - the thicker your slices the long they will take. Make sure to flip the slices every hour.
- If you want to create more of a flower shape, transfer the pineapple to a cupcake case for the last hour, which helps create the shape.
To Assemble:
- With a serrated knife, level the cakes by cutting off the tops if they have domed in the oven.
- Layer up the sponges with a few dollops of icing in between, and then using a palette knife, smooth the icing around the edges of the cake, taking off any excess so you end up with a 'semi-naked' cake effect.
- If the sponges are sliding around too much, pop the cake in the fridge for 15 minutes to firm up the icing.
- Add another few dollops on the top of the cake, and then use the pineapple flowers and mint leaves to decorate!
Head to my Instagram Highlights @alice.fevronia for a video on how to make this cake and tag me if you give it a go, I'd love to see!