Recall the memories of those tropical nights, the fresh air at the seaside, sunkissed skin, delicious fruits from the market and lots of sunshine with this Hummingbird Cake.

Ingredients


Crust

  • 350 g flour
  • 350 g sugar
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 3 ripe bananas
  • 300 g pineapple chunks from tin, drained
  • 250 ml olive oil from Reinos de Taifas
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 50 g chopped pecans


Caramel sauce

  • 150 ml water
  • 250 g sugar
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract
  • 250 ml double cream
  • 1 tbsp Anánusz sauce - pineapple-chili favoured BBQ sauce from Sárréti Chilifarm (optional)


Caramel-cream cheese filling

  • 400 g icing sugar
  • 150 g butter, room temperature
  • 180 g cream cheese
  • 4 tbsp caramel sauce, room temperature (add more for more intense flavour)


Caramelised pecans

  • 50 g pecans
  • 150 g sugar
  • 50 ml water

Instructions


Crust

  1. Add the dry ingredients: flour, sugar and cinnamon and baking powder into a mixing bowl.
  2. Pace the bananas and pineapple chunks into a separate bowl and mash them with a fork. Add them to the dry ingredients, together with the chopped pecans.
  3. Add the olive oil, eggs, vanilla extract and salt, mix the ingredients well.
  4. Divide the batter between 2 lined cake tins.
  5. Bake each layer in the preheated oven, at 180 °C, for about 45 minutes or till it's passing the toothpick test.


Caramel sauce

  1. Combine the water, sugar and salt in a saucer over medium heat. Stir until the sugar syrup starts boiling, then simmer without stirring it until it becomes golden brown. Shaking the saucer and swirling can help even caramelization.
  2. When it starts to become medium brown in colour, immediately add the cream and reduce the heat to medium-low.
  3. Stir it constantly with a heat-resistant spatula, simmer for about 3-5 minutes.
  4. Stir in the vanilla extract.
  5. Set the sauce aside to cool for 15 minutes then pour it into a jar to cool completely.
  6. Caramel will be runny while warm, but thicken as it cools, turning just a little chewy when cold.
  7. Refrigerate up to 2-4 weeks in an airtight container.


Caramel-cream cheese filling

  1. Soften the butter, add the cream cheese and mix them with a hand mixer.
  2. Gradually add the icing sugar.
  3. Finally, incorporate the caramel sauce (at room temperature).


Caramelised pecans

  1. Spread the pecans on parchment paper.
  2. Combine the sugar and water in a saucer, bring it to a boil without stirring. When it's golden brown, remove the caramel from the heat and drizzle over the nuts. Wait till the caramel sets completely in a few minutes.
  3. Place the caramel-coated pecans into a food processor and chop them roughly or place them in a freezer bag and crush them with a rolling pin.


Assembly

  1. Place one crust layer on your cake stand.
  2. Add a generous amount of the cream filling and cover the surface of the bottom crust layer, a palette knife gives a nice result.
  3. Place the second crust layer on top.
  4. Heap the remaining cream filling on top, use your palette knife to cover your cake evenly. At the edges, a straight scraper could help a lot.
  5. Pour the caramel sauce on the top, you can let it run down on the side as I did.
  6. Sprinkle the crushed, caramelized pecans on top and decorate with any other elements you wish. I used the top part of fresh pineapple, caramel and fresh lime.
Hummingbird Cake - Photo by © Reka Csulak

Hummingbird Cake - Photo by © Reka Csulak

Hummingbird Cake - Photo by © Reka Csulak

Hummingbird Cake - Photo by © Reka Csulak

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